I found a horse....what now?!

J

J&C

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As I was driving to the yard yesterday I came across a loose horse in the road. Managed to catch her and put her in one of my fields. She wasn't wearing any tack so I just assumed she had got loose from a nearby yard/grazing so after she was safe in the field, I hacked round to all the local yards looking for the owner but nobody recognised her.
At the time I thought I could just put her in my field and go find the owner, expecting that they would be out looking for her but now it has turned out to be a bit of a different situation.
At the moment she is quite happy just grazing in one of our spare fields, but obviously I need to track down the owner asap!
Today I have been to the local vet and tack shop to let them know and have printed out some posters with her photo on to stick up around the village.

Has anyone been in a situation like this before or any ideas on what is the best thing to do next?
I'm also wondering what my options are in the worst case scenario of no owner coming forward?
 
Well done for doing something about it!
Check if he/she is microchipped. If not continue putting up posters and travelling to maybe a few more local yards and asking around.
 
Ditto to the rest of the replies and how nice of you to take responsiblity for this horse some may have ignored her.

Perhaps try NED and see if they can help though not too sure what they can do and maybe try local equine charities if anyone has lost a horse they may contact them

iD just be warey about a random person thinking they could claim her and get a free horse but I asume you check for a pass port first though I am sure these can be faked or they could use another horses that matched the descripton
 
sheep said:
Lucky horse to have been caught by you- I can't imagine what might've happened if she had remained loose.

Good luck with tracking down owners!
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Thank you, it was a bit of a shock to find her in the road! It is a 60mph country road, with lots of blind bends. Most of the drivers are very good around here but it was an accident waiting to happen. I did have some horrible thoughts of what might have happened if she was still there when it got dark! :(

I hadn't heard of horsewatch so thank you very much for the link, I'll contact them. I did call the Police but they didn't seem very interested but at least they have the details if owner does phone them.
I will be getting the vet to check if she's microchipped is the owner doesn't come forward by the weekend.

She is a lovely mare, very sweet and obviously has an owner, was very easy to catch and very friendly in field. I imagine the owner must be absolutely distraught so I hope we can find each other soon.
 
Police won't be interested they'll deem the horse as your problem now unfortunately. Yes get a vet to pop by and scan for chip or if they'll let you ask to pop in and pick up the scanner to scan yourself as it might save you a few pennies! Even if she is it doesn't garuntee an owner as details don't get changed (note to self to change mine!). When i've been searching for lost horses I have called:

1.Police (if you are on the border for stations/areas then contact both as they don't always share information!)

2. Local yards

3. Horsewatch

4. RSPCA or WHW

you could even try the local dog warden as stupid as it sounds!
 
I agree - try the dog warden as they will have a scanner for the chip and are able to access chip companies.

I often get called on to scan found animals - last time was a deceased cat.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys, unfortunately still not found her owner! :(

Vet is coming out on saturday to scan for a microchip, fingers crossed she has one! Not sure what I will do if she doesn't.

I'm really surprised nobody has been in touch. She must be fairly local as I can't imagine she would escape and run really far away? Its a bit of a mystery really.
 
Yes I've had this happen to me! When I found it I called the police - they came out & asked if I could keep it until the owner was found which I agreed to. They also contacted rspca. 4 days layer after the said pony had smashed through all my fencing I got a call from a traveller who had got in touch with the police & they had given him my number. The pony had broke off its teather 4miles away & managed to wonder to here. He asked if I could fetch it to him as he had no transport - I said yes for a £10. 2 hours later he turned up on foot, said he'd walk it home cos he weren't paying that, put a belt round its neck & strolled off!!! No thanks or owt!!!
 
Bloody hell I wouldnt have taken it in i don't think... I would have caught it, and as we've done previously, rung the police from the side of the road-they're very good about sorting it out then. Although we live in Glos so a v horsey police force...

Erm, sounds like you've tried all the places a manic owner might look! Perhaps put a photo up on here with a description and someone from the same yard etc might recognise it..? And yes I would want passport as proof of ownership v
 
check with CAB but I "think" that if you have had the horse, unclaimed for 14 days and have posted/tried to find the owners, that ownership would pass to the landowner where the horse is kept. Worth checking pretty quickly just in case you end up having legal responsibility.

Could possibly also contact local paper? run a story but have contact via the police so you don't get random people trying to claim the mare?
 
Just to update you all...Owner has been found!

This older lady lives on her own in the village with stables in her garden. She had just bought this little mare and as she had opened the stable door, the mare spooked and barged past her. The lady fell to the ground and was in a great deal of pain, had her phone in her pocket so called for an ambulance who came and got her. Turned out she broke her hip! :(
She told the paramedics that her horse had run off, but assumed the mare had stayed in her fields so wasn't too worried. The paramedics assured her they had shut the gates (but hadn't actually bothered to check if horse was there!) Obviously the mare had managed to get out and as she didn't know the area as had only been there a few days and not yet been for a hack she had gotten lost!
I think the lady had asked a friend to go and check on horse and also feed her dogs etc whilst she was in hospital and this is when they realised horse was gone!

By this time I'd had the vet out and checked for microchip, which gave me the old owners details! They were nice and gave me the phone number for the new owner but obviously she was in the hospital so no answer on her phone! At this point I was thinking that maybe horse had been abandoned as I had left a answer phone message and got no reply!

Luckily the lady had sent her friend out to ask the local yards if they had seen her horse and they pointed her in my direction. Her friend was completely non-horsey and had no idea if this was actually her friends horse or not! She came back with the passport and admitted she was completely terrified as she thought she would just be topping up her water not looking for a lost horse!

Anyway the lovely mare is back safely at home and I've had a lovely phone call from her owner who couldn't thank me enough, said she had expected the worst when she found out she was gone. She also sent me a gorgeous gift basket as a thank you! ;)

So glad it all got resolved and feeling like a very good samaritan :D

Incidentally, a few days after I found the horse, a tiny lost kitten turned up in my garden! OH couldn't stop laughing and said I will end up with various lost animals following me around all day!
 
Glad you managed to find her owner. Poor woman, I hope her hip gets better slowly and she can cope with looking after the horse while she's recovering. Good on you for taking the mare in and finding her owners :)
 
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