Im So Upset... My Poor Pony :(

[Holzdweaver]

I went to collect my pony from her loan home today as they had lost the grazing and was moving her pony to a yard where she wouldnt need a companion. She was there from November as a companion to an older pony. Iv kept in regular contact about how she has been doing over the winter etc and everything was fine (i had no reason not to trust this person! iv known her for years!) Then i went to pick her up...

and found her like this... (well this picture actually makes her look good, shes worse 'in the flesh' so to speak)

You can easily see every rib, her hips stick out, her haunches go in rather than out, shes tucked up and listless and dull. She also still has her winter coat over the top.

Just as a comparison, this is a picture a few months before she was sent out on loan, she was in the same condition when she left me:

My poor little pony

Thankfully she is in better shape than when i first rescued her at the beginning of last year! But shes bad enough!

Thats it now, she is never ever going out of my sight ever again!

 

[Purple Duck]

Was the Loaner there when you picked Pony up?
Did you say anything about Ponies condition?

 

[Parker79]

oh - how awful. Good job you are having her back

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

I would have to say something. Is she back with you to stay???
I would NOT let her go back to that loan home again.

 

[mulledwhine]

So sad to hear this, it is exactly what happened to my boy, plus you could not get near him he never got right ( that is not to say the same hear ) he got better but never near what he was

The sad thing is, is that we trusted them to treat him better than their own bought and paid for horse.. That said we loaned Levi at first, and treated h like a prince, so much soo that we eventually bought him.

I guess I am trying to say, that we have both had bad experiences, but not all loan homes are bad.

I hope he perks up soon xx

 

[Holzdweaver]

Shes never going back to that home again! dont worry i would never do that. in fact shes not going to any home ever again, shes staying with me forever now.

The loaner wasnt there when i went to collect her, i dont trust myself not to do bodily harm so i havent said anything just yet. But she will be shown the error of her ways...

 

[katie_southwest]

Thank goodness shes back with you.
Iv recently actually taken on a little pony for a companion for my mare, who I used to know and ride a very long time ago. He came to me last week in a right state, and I thank god he is with me now as I dont think he would of lasted much longer where he was
Im sure youl have her back to her old self in no time

 

[Stopper]

poor u
is the person like a friend of yours?
the same thing happened to my pony and the person bought and my instructor found him really ill and very bad lami

 

[ladyt25]

Firstly, I have to say the picture you have posted is not great as you can't really tell the condition at all. Also, you say you rescued the horse last year - why did you then loan it out so soon? Have you ever kept this horse over a winter (it would seem not fron what you have said). If you have no clue about how this horse winters I actually think you're being a hit OTT as from the picture you have postted it does not look that bad and why did you not check on the the horse more regularly?

I assume the horse is relatively aged? Some horse do not winter well AND if they are no longer ridden then lack of muscle can make them appear to look worse.

Sorry, I just don't think the picture you have posted demonstates a 'welfare' issue. Maybe I am wrong.

 

[biggingerpony]

This happened to my mare when out on loan, she came back skeletal, coupled with serious mud fever, a sore/open wound on her flank, and rubbing on her withers which had opened up into a 6 inch long sore where the rug hadn't been taken off for a long time o and she was lame. This was a family friend and in the space of 4 months. I was livid and haven't spoken to them since. I think when people think its not theirs then they take them for granted!

 

[Dolcé]

Firstly, I have to say the picture you have posted is not great as you can't really tell the condition at all. Also, you say you rescued the horse last year - why did you then loan it out so soon? Have you ever kept this horse over a winter (it would seem not fron what you have said). If you have no clue about how this horse winters I actually think you're being a hit OTT as from the picture you have postted it does not look that bad and why did you not check on the the horse more regularly?

I assume the horse is relatively aged? Some horse do not winter well AND if they are no longer ridden then lack of muscle can make them appear to look worse.

Sorry, I just don't think the picture you have posted demonstates a 'welfare' issue. Maybe I am wrong.

IME, having purchased and rehabilitated several severely emaciated horses, photos never show the true picture. It is incredibly difficult to show the exact condition unless you are very careful with the angles, light and have a sufficient number of photos. I would say the pony is lean and possibly thin, is showing several ribs and has no topline whatsoever. As we are just coming out of winter it probably isn't much leaner that I had some of mine up to a few weeks ago but it must have come as a shock to the OP if they haven't seen it since it went. Yet another lesson about why loaners should visit their horse regularly!

OP, get her on some good grass and she will soon put weight back on and get back to being herself.

 

[Holzdweaver]

sorry the picture isnt great, i was holding her at the time so couldnt get one of her whole body and head from the side. I only took one too as i just wanted to get her home. To me, she looks awful! Im still in shock now, i never expected her to look like that again.

I got her officially in feb 2011, its a very complicated and long story which i wont bore you with but to cut it short i firstly took her in for 'training' in september 2010 as she had been running pretty much wild for two years due to the fact nobody could catch her, she was incredibly headshy and had lost all trust in people. i did a little work in my spare time with so called 'difficult' horses when i worked part time and had days spare and (through a friend of a friend) agreed to take her on (as a loan, i am never paid for the work i do, i do it for the horses), when i had worked with her for four months, and had her working well in all aspects, they wanted her back. She went back as they wanted to sell her, i couldnt afford to buy her so she had to go back to them. After roughly four weeks the owner contacted me direct, said she was crazy, a total loony, and she had reared over backwards causing damage to her mouth, back and hips and was running round the field as they now couldnt get anywhere near her (she had escaped into the field my running through the tape from the yard), and if i didnt want her for nothing, she would be shot when they could catch her. So i bought her for £1 to save her from being shot. When i went to pick her up, they had kept her stabled for the whole time to keep her clean and had obviously not fed her anywhere near the amount she needed as she was skin and bone, she had dropped so much weight. Never thought id be able to get near her in a field with grass in with her in that condition! But that little star trotted straight up to me.

She never had any trouble when i have her in keeping weight on. She in my eyes is a fairly good doer.

She went out on loan in november as my friend was looking for a companion and i was struggling with spending enough time with them both as i work full time and my other one is my competition horse who takes up a lot of my free time after work. didnt think it was fair to just have her as an ornament, when shes such a cracking little pony. the loaner works one day a week, kept her horse two mins away from her house and i was assured she would be well looked after, and as i said it was someone i trusted. Which just to clarify i will never trust again!

She is also not old. She is 13 years old. and also has no health issues.

She has also not had her feet done since she has been there, thats pretty obvious.

and yes, i should have checked her but i dont drive. So getting there in winter wasnt exactly easy. Why do you thing im so upset? firstly over the condition of her yes, but dont you think im feeling so guilty about the whole thing?? its alright me saying, 'oh you should have done...' but hindsight is a wonderful thing is it not. Only thing i can no do is make sure it never happens again. I really thought i was doing the best for her, but obviously now i know differently, as i said before, she is now not going anywhere ever again,even if it means her being an ornament forever!

 

[Dolcé]

Don't waste your energy feeling guilty, just learn from the experience, it is done and it is not as bad as it could have been. She is poor but will soon pick up with some care and lots of Dr Green. You didn't do this to her so don't beat yourself up.

 

[Holzdweaver]

I can get plenty more pics tomorrow if anybody wanted to see any more, now i have her home. I was too busy settling her back in, giving her a nice groom to help her relax, cutting half her mane off to the roots as it was so matted it would never brush out, ringing the farrier to beg him to come out in the morning and giving her some food, to take any more pics, i only took that one as my friend, who's husband was driving the horsebox for me asked if she loaded ok before i had even got there and i said il let her know how she was, but if you wanted to see a few more, my proper camera (that one was taken on my phone) holds roughly 500 pics so im sure there would be one in there at the right angle for you! hehe

I know some people may not think she looks too bad, especially compared to some cases i have seen, but to me she looks terrible...

 

[Holzdweaver]

Thankfully my paddocks are growing nicely, which will help her put the weight back on. Im sure she will be healthy again in no time with the spring grass coming through, il just have to be careful not to over do her

 

[Parker79]

OP - Dont beat yourself up, this was a friend you gave her to...not some random posting an advert.

You are right to feel upset but guilt will get you nowhere. Its very sad that we live in a world where 'so called' friends will let us down like that.

Your pony has obviously had a really tough time with humans so far and so she is lucky to have you.

When you go to bed tonight, instead of beating yourself up you should be remembering that you have her home now, you can get her right again and IMO you should have been able to trust you friend who you also kept in contact with....its very sad that they let you down.

Bet your pony is feeling much happier already and she will forgive you!

 

[imafluffybunny]

I had an extreemly good doer come back from a loan home (from a good friend who was an BHSI) looking terrible, she was a native who would get fat in the depth of winter with virtually no feed, I picked her up in the summer and could count every rib!!
I also bought back another horse who was a good doer, he lived in a diet paddock every summer with me, he was so thin when I got him back, he lived out for a year with the rest of my horses but was really aggressive, I have no idea what happened to him while he was away but you couldnt even approach him in the field without him double barralling you and nearly taking your head off. We tried everything with him but when winter came and you couldnt even put a rug on him without him lashing out we decided to pts. He was 19 and he had a nice final year living out but it doesnt make me any less guilty for selling him to start with.

 

[zaminda]

Its a shamewhen people you think are going to do the right thing don't and abuse the situation. I had a friends pony when it came back froma loan home a few years ago, when they had been trying to sell it unsuccesfully for some time. Thankfully they picked it up, and when they pulled into my yard they looked pretty cross. Pony came off the lorry with one of the worst clips I have ever seen, and thin! We are talking Welsh A who is on a permenent diet here. Clip got sorted pronto, my then partner couldn't leave it looking like that, and she got put in a pen next to mine to acclamatise,and we fed it, which we weren't expecting. She picked up quickly. At least its spring,so hopefully it won't take you long to get her back to normal.
Maybe a sharer next time, I had a great PC child who used to come and ride one of mine.

 

[OFG]

At least you have her home.

As someone else has said, she could have faired badly over the winter and dropped condition (I know you say the photos don't truely represent her actual condition).

My horse dropped off loads of condition over the winter, despite me feeding him and changing his diet in an attempt to keep the weight on. He looked blooming awful (much worse than the photo of your pony) to the extent that I daren't put him out in the field next to the road in case someone called the RSPCA on me - he really did look that bad.

It doesn't help that he's 37 and has no top line muscle at all but Joe public wouldn't know that. Now the spring grass has started coming through his condition has picked up and he's looking good again.

Put it down to a bad experience, give her some TLC and move forward.

Also, not everyone who takes on loan ponies neglects them. I have had several over the years and look after them like they are my own and wouldn't dream of letting a horse get into poor condition on purpose.

For all the horror stories you hear there are far more good ones - it's just no one likes to talk about those

 

[AmyMay]

What a shame you didn't visit the horse to monitor its condition.

Take photo's and send them to the WHW so that they can pay your 'friend' a little visit....

 

[Luci07]

Not defending your friend but to try to make you feel better...she looks welsh ( ish) and we have a section A on the yard. Now he is on a permanent diet, lami risk etc and monitored closely, come winter though and he is hard to keep weight on. He does live out and they are given hay in the winter but he ends up having to have a hard feed each day to keep weight on. And he has a riug collection to rival mine. He has to be really monitored very very closely and now, despite living out, has to have a stable as back up if it snows etc....same age as yours, another much loved pet but not easy! and now they are in reverse...watching his weight gain carefully as he and another pony will then need to go on strip grazing...so much for easy ponies!!! ( but he is the cutest, chekiest ever, outgrown so now drives and other children ride him!)