PeterNatt
Well-Known Member
The parents among you will know the old saying There comes a time when youve got to let them go. Thankfully, for our offspring, this merely means cutting the apron strings and letting them make their own way in the world. However, the same saying has a completely different meaning for horse-owners and a great many owners find it too unbearable to contemplate so they put their animals on loan instead.
If you have such a strong emotional attachment and morale sense of duty to your old horse or pony that you feel they deserve a new home you should be prepared to commit to dedicating as much time to selecting and monitoring an appropriate loan home as you would to their last day on earth. Get references, verify them, get to know the loanee, if needs be do your own research on them, sometimes the internet can be quite revealing, draw up a contract, you can write your own or get a solicitor to draw one up for you, have the contract witnessed, visit your horse regularly and keep in touch. If you cant find the time or inclination to do this for your old faithful friend you have to ask yourself if loaning is really for you?
Safe loaning is not a quick-fix, short-term solution to be used as a substitute for making the final decision over your horses future. Even with the best will in the world you could still fall foul of unscrupulous characters. One such unfortunate family have set up a website to log all the horses missing on loan in Britain in tribute to their two old horses. You can read their sad story and log your own missing horse here http://missinghorsesonloan.webs.com/
If you have such a strong emotional attachment and morale sense of duty to your old horse or pony that you feel they deserve a new home you should be prepared to commit to dedicating as much time to selecting and monitoring an appropriate loan home as you would to their last day on earth. Get references, verify them, get to know the loanee, if needs be do your own research on them, sometimes the internet can be quite revealing, draw up a contract, you can write your own or get a solicitor to draw one up for you, have the contract witnessed, visit your horse regularly and keep in touch. If you cant find the time or inclination to do this for your old faithful friend you have to ask yourself if loaning is really for you?
Safe loaning is not a quick-fix, short-term solution to be used as a substitute for making the final decision over your horses future. Even with the best will in the world you could still fall foul of unscrupulous characters. One such unfortunate family have set up a website to log all the horses missing on loan in Britain in tribute to their two old horses. You can read their sad story and log your own missing horse here http://missinghorsesonloan.webs.com/