Is this the latest scam?

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MHOL

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Is this the latest horse scam?
Loan out your horse and buy it back if you want access!



Courtney (has allowed her name to be used) replied to an advert requiring a horse for a companion, her beloved Jake had been recently diagnosed with arthritis and therefore his riding career had sadly ended, Courtney thought there may be a use for him for the rest of his life as a companion. She site visited and later it was agreed for Jake to go as a companion, never for ownership to be lost and with access visits when convenient. She did ask for a loan contract but was overpowered at this suggestion. Jake went to Wexham in Slough in Nov 2010, communications and visits were fine for a short while and then there were difficulties with access for 6 months. Courtney, 23 years old, feeling overpowered asked her father to ring to arrange just a visit. Communications were not good and Courtney's father was informed that if they wanted to see him they would have to buy him back. Missing Horses On Loan were contacted and a poster was distributed, we were contacted by the loaner.The loaner informed us "Why would anyone want to take on a horse of that size to sit in the field and do nothing but eat a big round bale of hay in 4 days". "If they wanted to see him they can buy him back by paying for the livery costs" and a figure of £2000 was demanded.

Courtney in her desperation to reclaim her horse and make up for the huge mistake she made in entrusting her Jake to someone else agreed to attend to fetch the horse with the potential of having to possibly pay the £2000. The visit to reclaim Jake was not peaceful, the police were called, claimed it as a civil matter and the only way forward was to pay the money to later that day reclaim her horse. Jake was not near the premises and walked some distance which was the reason so say for an arthritic horse who had been retired from riding work to have shoes on (make of that what you will??) Court proceedings are now commencing for the return of Courtney's money

Companion/Loan adverts

Beware in this case the horse was still alive unlike some cases that we have dealt with and the owner could afford the money at the time she could reclaim her horse before it could of potentially disappeared.

Check them out!!! Contact us, find your local Horse Watch, associate yourself with your horse on http://www.nedonline.co.uk, flag the passport with the passport office that the horse is on loan and the passport must not be changed, keep in contact, if something feels wrong check it out asap.

Beware you might have to buy your own property back!
 
That is a sad tale.
In our local yellow Adtrader paper - East Anglia one there is a weekly advert running looking for a companion/light hack mother/daughter share - that captures just about every sick or sorry type and size!!!

People get shot down on this site in threads where pts is suggested as the kindest option. Sorry but pts is the only guaranteed safe future for an unrideable oldie. Owners need to start taking responsibility by pts or paying for retiement homes for their unrideable cast offs.
 
:eek::eek: That is utterly shocking. Iv never heard of anything like this happening. IMO if you are full loaning a horse from some one it is usualy the loanees responsibility to take on some if not all of the financial responsibilty of the horse. Hope your freind gets her money back. Did she get her horse back.

Bl00dy hell, some people are just damn *&*&$$£ :mad::mad:
 
Its good to have the whole story on this case, It was obviously premeditated and there may be more to it regarding him having shoes on, does the loaner have others in similar circumstances I wonder.

The fact that there was no loan contract did not help but the police do not seem to consider horse theft as anything other than a civil matter. If passports are not proof of ownership and a loan contract can not be upheld, your work in MHOL is going to be more important as it does seem to be a developing trend, if the recent cases are anything to go by.

A happy ending for Jake but very expensive for his owners.
 
Glad she got the horse back, and glad that she is taking them to court.
People that do this really annoy me as they give other honest people a bad name, how many people on here would now not loan their horse out because of what other people do, there needs to be a change in the law so these people can be prosecuted.
 
highlandponygirl said:
:eek::eek: That is utterly shocking. Iv never heard of anything like this happening. IMO if you are full loaning a horse from some one it is usualy the loanees responsibility to take on some if not all of the financial responsibilty of the horse. Hope your freind gets her money back. Did she get her horse back.

Bl00dy hell, some people are just damn *&*&$$£ :mad::mad:
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Exactly.
 
YasandCrystal said:
People get shot down on this site in threads where pts is suggested as the kindest option. Sorry but pts is the only guaranteed safe future for an unrideable oldie. Owners need to start taking responsibility by pts or paying for retiement homes for their unrideable cast offs.
Click to expand...

**Like, like, like, like**
 
YasandCrystal said:
People get shot down on this site in threads where pts is suggested as the kindest option. Sorry but pts is the only guaranteed safe future for an unrideable oldie. Owners need to start taking responsibility by pts or paying for retiement homes for their unrideable cast offs.
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Where oh where is the Like Button when you need it!

I already know that when Vardi gets to the stage that he needs to become a pasture puff I will have to pay for a good retirement livery option, if I can not afford it then I will have to deal with taking the responsibility for having him pts. I think I owe him that.
 
I am glad some agree with me. MHOL says that the scammer said ' who would want to loan a horse that big as a companion;' and referred to the hay it eats - how very true!!!

If my little pony were not around I would think nothing of taking on a pony ie. something 13.2hh or under as a loan or lifetime companion but never a horse, it eats too much grass and too much hay.
 
Thing is though, that there was no written contract, so I wonder if going to court will get the owners anywhere, as really it is her word against theirs.
Obviously I really hope Courtney does get her money back and the 'loaners' are punished in some way, but it could backfire and end up costing even more :mad:
 
Whether there is a case to answer in court and the outcome may depend on the loaners defence, does she claim she was given, gifted or bought the horse or does she say it was at retirement or any other form of livery.
In both cases there is no contract, I would imagine no invoices were sent to back up her claim of "who would take on a horse of this size as a companion", so it may be possible that if the owners have the resources to go all the way with it they could win, not that they are likely to see any money.

The options with a horse no longer able to work are, as said, take responsibility for your own animals, keep in retirement or pts. However if in that situation you saw an advert wanting a companion would most people not be tempted to make a call and see if it was the answer to a difficult decision.
 
Taking the owners to court? - huh, if it was me I would take out a lifelong vendetta against them!!! I think that I would be so angry that I wouldn't be responsible for my actions.

Also, thank you MHOL for flagging this up, you are a great organisation and definately end up details with the darker side of human nature.

I guess that in addition to a loan agreement it would be sensible to take up severel references - including vet/employer, etc - before loaning a horse. Oh, and make sure that you ask for a description of the loanee, I have heard its not unknown for them to 'borrow' someone else name for the references!
 
Poor horse and poor owners, must admit I'd never trust anyone with my horse and certainly wouldn't be bullied or over powered by anyone not wanting a contract, I'd tell them to shove it.I also would be inclined, if anyone had my horse and refused me access, to get a few of my very large friends would be paying them a visit to take the horse back, police or no police present.
If the passport is in the owners name surely it is theft and the police should get off their backsides and enforce the law.
 
WHY oh WHY was the horse allowed to go without a properly done, signed and witnessed loan agreement in place? The article states that "Courtney" was "overpowered"????? Sounds like she may have been a young person and that she was prevailed upon, reading between the lines, not to do up a loan agreement.

But if it was her horse then FFS WHY NOT??? Someone somewhere should have made sure this was done before handing over the horse.

And ditto what others have said here about taking responsible ownership decisions if/when horses become unrideable either because of "issues" or age/condition.

I've just put my boy out on loan, simply because I couldn't give him the work he needs; and he's gone to a reputable yard plus I did a loan agreement with the borrower. But I think people have to consider what can happen. Yes OK things still go wrong even if there's a loan agreement in place, but without wishing to be overly critical it does sound that the owner in this instance needed to have a little more, shall we say, backbone???

Having said that, there needs to be a lot more done about this by the police/relevant authorities. Let us not forget that this is THEFT, nothing more nothing less - and yet it doesn't seem to be taken remotely seriously by the Powers That Be.
 
Glad she got her horse back, a real shame that she had to buy him back. The key to loaning is absolutely the loan contract.

My boy was stolen whilst on loan, I had a solid loan contract, witnessed by two people, it poroved invaluable when it came to proving that I not only owned him but that he had been unlawfully sold on.
The police took the case very seriously and it did go to court. I was lucky that although my boy had been sold on twice very quickly, I was able to get him back, I also have to say that the dealer who had bought him in good faith (with a faslified passport) was instrumental in helping me.h
 
Courtney thought she was doing the right thing for Jake at the time. If the loaner had allowed her access he would still be there, she wanted a safe home for him, at least she was in a position to get him back, we will help her all the way
 
Why cant people be bothered to look after their old horses. Sick of seeing these stories about old or retired horses. why should you put them in retirement homes look after them yourselves. You bought the horse in the first place. At the end of their working life does not mean pts or sold or loaned on.

Shows how much these animals are loved. OK when they work, could not careless when they dont. Arent they pets?

They arent just disposable lives. You take it on you look after it and take responsbility for the life of the horse.

A HORSE IS FOR LIFE NOT JUST FOR RIDING!
 
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I hope she has a copy of the advert she originally responded to as evidence as that will support the word of mouth contract.
I hope all the bunny huggers red this who think PTs is such a bad option, courtneys horse is one of the lucky ones!
 
be positive said:
However if in that situation you saw an advert wanting a companion would most people not be tempted to make a call and see if it was the answer to a difficult decision.
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Absolutely not! It's the owners responsibility and if you can't make that decision when the time is right then you shouldn't have a horse or any pet come to that. Everyone who owns animals, whatever they are, should face up to the fact they get old, they get decrepit and will need that decision made for their benefit so they should grow a pair of balls and do the right thing for them however upsetting that might be. Animals aren't fluffy little things you can ignore when they have reached the end of their days and if you can't face up to that fact then don't have them or try to palm them off onto someone else whether free or not. It is criminal where we are seeing adverts for 25 year olds upwards.

As to the scammers, I hope they rot in hell for all the grief they've caused.
 
A HORSE IS FOR LIFE NOT JUST FOR RIDING!

Kaylum, fab slogan! I need this as a car sticker and it's so so true, i know horses are expensive and are working animals and not just pets, but still I hate the attitude of I can't ride it anymore so get rid of it. If people didn't have that attitude we wouldn't keep having this situation occur.

My mare is now retired due to her arthritis, she costs me an arm and a leg in danilon and supplements not to mention hay, rent and all the rest of it but the way I see it she always did what I asked of her to the best of her ability and always tried her very best for me therefore I owe it to her to do the same for her. And when the day comes when she is no longer happy then it's my job to ensure she doesn't suffer because I owe her that too.

Oh and I have another slogan! :-)
ASK NOT WHAT YOUR HORSE CAN DO FOR YOU BUT WHAT YOU CAN FOR YOUR HORSE
 
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