On loan for a week - sent back with advice to PTS or retire ?

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shmoo

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So, most of you know I have a little TB ex racer. We had a rocky start, she took a long time to settle and I was scared to death of her at first. Little by little we've become firm friends. She trusts me and I am now as good as a horse. She can't bear to be alone but if I am there when other leave she honestly doesn't bat an eyelid or say a word. I love her.

Riding is a different matter. She is isn't what I had in mind when I decided to pick up after a 9/10 year gap. Really she's too fast, too forward for me. So I thought I'd put her on loan. Advertised Feb to May with not a sniff of interest. Took her off the market and decided to persevere then out of the blue a friend of a friend of my yard owner called me up and wanted to come and see her. She called me Saturday at 10, was there at the yard by 11, riding out by 11.30, back in the school at 12.15, said yes by 1pm. It was so fast I was spinning. Invited me straight back over to see her yard which is lovely. She's a lovely person, imacculate yard. She collected her Sunday morning at 9am.

I have had 5-6 texts a day telling me how great she is, loan agreement returned back Friday morning then yesterday I get a message telling me she isn't suitable, never going to work, she's bringing her back what time can I be there to meet and greet and ps. You should retire her.

She's only just 15. Never had a lame day with me, has numerous old wound scars and has had a really hard life. I thought this would be a wonderful home for her to get back to work gentley. I was really specific in my loan agreement and the letter that she really hasn't done much past 18 months. I have now heard this morning she was given bute last night, again this morning so I'm expecting a cripple back tonight.

I've booked our physio to come out tomorrow afternoon and give her a massage to try and alieviate some of the pain but I am in tears again in worry. I cried everywhere for 3 days when she went, a happy healthy if unfit horse. Now i'm plain terrified.

Don't know what I want really, reassurance, support, or just need to tell. My yard owner is furious and i'm also worried there'll be a storm tonight when the loaner lady arrives.

Sorry for such a long post, left over Black forest Gateaux for anyone who got here - it was my birthday... :(
 
I'm sorry your loan hasn't worked out. Tbh, I would make sure that you concentrate on unloading the mare and settling her back at home and let your YO deal with the 'loaner', ask her to find out what has happened and if a vet has seen the horse.
Then if you are concerned, I'd get your own vet to check her and take it from there.
 
That's awful to hear :(

I honestly don't think I can give you any advice on retiring as no one knows the horse like you do! The only thing I can say is make sure you have someone (or a couple of people around) whenever the horse comes back! Make sure she explains exactly what went wrong even for your own sanity!

But just get your horse back to good health and take it slowly from there!

We put a horse out on loan once, two weeks later she came back because she had an "underlying injury"! We took her back to find that she had all her muscles in one of her hind legs tore, when we went back to talk to the owner of the yard where she was kept, she'd been put out into a field with the other horses and they had all gone nuts. She fell and tore the muscles then and came back in completely lame, and they then had the cheek to tell us she had an underlying injury?

Don't be too worried though, you arn't in the wrong!
 
What a horrible thing to happen. I suspect that the loaner did not take it gently at all. How she could conclude she needs to be retired in a week is pretty incredible. If the mare has done little in 18 months then a few minutes a day build up would suffice. If she has lunged her etc it was probably too much.
My advice would be to get your mare home, maybe build up her fitness via long reining yourself and then find a sharer /part loaner or someone to loan her from your yard so you can see how she progresses. You may need to stick her on a oint supplement - most 15 yr old's can benefit from that.
Good luck - don't stress - some folk are very odd.
 
What a strange situation! I have no real advice apart from not being emotional when the horse returns, try to get ax many facts out of the loaner about how the horse was kept, company, turn out and riding - make it clear you aren't blaming them (even if youare you can't change their minds by the sound of it no no point getting angry) ask if they did this and did that and listen hard for any clues - make it clear that this will be important for the horse's future and hopefully they will be helpful and honest.

The last thing you want is to re-advertised the horse for loan only to have them badmouth it locally so be objective and if you disagree with them be polite but firm in your intentions
 
I think the first thing you have to do is get the horse home, settled & happy.

Have an open/honest conversation with the loaner - try not to get judgemental, upset or confrontational - try and find out exactly what they did with the horse and why they feel the horse isn't suitable for work.

By the sounds of it they haven't gone about things in the best way - even if just by communication methods. However don't completely dismiss things out of hand as them just being bad loaners - the amount of horses I see that are owned by relatively inexperienced people who cannot see that thier horse is completely crock is unbelieveable.

I hope you get to the bottom of things.
 
So sorry for you OP, I hope you find a better loanee soon. I hope you find out what the problems were and what's happened.

All my previous horses have been on full loan, and I had my last one untill he died, I said to the owner.. No matter what, ill keep him till day 'x', and I stuck by that! Fingers crossed for you OP :)

Philippa
 
Thanks to you all. She said she was hacking yesterday and had to get off and walk home as her back end didnt feel right. I did call her but she goes a mile a minute and talks and talks but says little, or I was too upset to catch it?

Unless I really know where I am I will usually back down regarding horses and people who know more than me. I've had horses for over 30 years but never presume to know more than the next..and i'm gullible.

I'll ask YO to talk to loaner and look after my girlie. To top it all I've just been told I'm needed in Germany either later this week or early next for work. Very very stressed...
 
Just to say you have my sympathies.. in a perplexing loan situation of my own so feel for you.

Cry it all out now and when pony arrives be calm and let her settle back in.

Find out all the details and if the vet has been, talk to the vet its your right as its your horse to have all the details. I would also look upon this as a god send that it has only been a week. We don't know the full details but if loaner is prepared to judge her in only a week I dont get the impression she is the right person for your mare - let a lone any pony without a set of rockers...

You keep you're black forest gateaux and add a big dollop of ice cream and cream on top .. sounds like you are in need of comfort food.
 
What a horrible situation for you :(

Try to make sure you have a sensible, calm friend with you, who isn't emotionally involved with the horse - not saying you can't cope, because you can, but having someone there who can remember what was said and done without being the one concentrating on the horse, will really help you.

Good luck
 
Faracat said:
Something has happened. Try to get to the bottom of it and find out exactly what occurred.
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I agree OP you met this girl liked her I would be finding out why she thinks this in a calm fashion , it's not a big drama, find out what she thinks and on the basis of that decide what to do next whether ,it's seek someone experianced to get the horse going or call in a vet to assess.
 
shmoo said:
Thanks to you all. She said she was hacking yesterday and had to get off and walk home as her back end didnt feel right.
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That alone isn't enough to condemn the mare to PTS or retire.

You have booked the Physio - excellent. I would also get the Vet to look at her to work out what's actually wrong. Only then can you move forwards and hopefully after some treatment/rest/whatever she can come back into work and stay sound.
 
Goldenstar said:
I agree OP you met this girl liked her I would be finding out why she thinks this in a calm fashion , it's not a big drama, find out what she thinks and on the basis of that decide what to do next whether ,it's seek someone experianced to get the horse going or call in a vet to assess.
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I think that's the key op. It's not a big drama, and the important thing is not to make it in to one.

For whatever reason the loan has not worked. Find out why and move forward with your plans on what to do next.
 
OP I'd try not to panic until you see your mare and have a good check of her yourself. It may be as simple as the loaner took on more than she could handle but just doesn't want to admit that so has 'decided' the horse is lame.

I know a couple of riders who believe their riding is top notch and hence buy horses to match - but they are actually quite nervous so these lovely horses always end up with some career ending injury that vets etc can't fully diagnose or treat (and the rest of us just can't see because we're not close enough to the horse) and end up as well cared for field ornaments - I;ve no problem with that if that's what the owners want and can afford.
 
Faracat said:
That alone isn't enough to condemn the mare to PTS or retire.

You have booked the Physio - excellent. I would also get the Vet to look at her to work out what's actually wrong. Only then can you move forwards and hopefully after some treatment/rest/whatever she can come back into work and stay sound.
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I agree, and definitely get vet... As you will at least need to confirm physio has vets permission to treat the horse.

amymay said:
I think that's the key op. It's not a big drama, and the important thing is not to make it in to one.

For whatever reason the loan has not worked. Find out why and move forward with your plans on what to do next.
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It could be and probably is something very simple that needs sorting, the best thing is that your horse is coming home were you can get to the bottom of things, as being with the loaner is clearly not suitable for the horse.

Good luck op
 
It never fails to amaze me how even very experienced people think it is perfectly ok to get on a new horse and run it into to the ground while they "road test" it. If it is unfit, its back will be soft, so should only be ridden at walk for half an hour, tops. A friend of mine put her difficult (spoilt!), sensitive and basically semi retired TB out on loan to someone her YO assured her was very experienced. They were warned he wasn't brilliant on the road at the best of times and hadn't seen any traffic for a year or more anyway. 48 hours later they strapped his head down with a martingale which he'd never worn in his life and the loaner hacked him to another yard. She stupidly chose to come back in the rush hour which involved riding down a 40mph road to an industrial estate, so lots of lorries, and forget the speed limit, especially as its down hill. Something happened, the horse reared, threw the rider, fell himself and galloped off home. Luckily he got there safely although his injuries left my friend with a considerable vet bill and he was on box rest for weeks, plus the loaner threatened to sue because of her spinal fractures (she was lucky that's all it was). It turned out that while she had loaned several horses before, she was always falling off, and had only had cobby types before.
 
Just wanted to say how sorry I am it did not work out. Try not to worry she is coming home and you sound as if you have a good YO to support you. Once you actually know what you are dealing with it will help decide the best way forward.
 
shmoo said:
Thanks to you all. She said she was hacking yesterday and had to get off and walk home as her back end didnt feel right.
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Which is perfectly plausible.


I'll ask YO to talk to loaner and look after my girlie.
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Why can't you talk to loaner yourself? You need to know exactly what the issues where so that you need to know how to proceed. There may genuinly be a problem and getting it second hand won't help you in putting it right. And why can't you look after the horse yourself?

You're sounding a little overwrought over the whole thing to be honest.
 
The loan person can't sat retire or pts are this one incident.

Yes get horse checked.
listen to the loaner experiences.

But things moved so fast the horse was probably unsettled and confused.

Really I think you have had a lucky escape with this loan.
Find someone more suitable or get some professional help in schooling her.
 
I can look after her myself - not sure what you mean Amymay?

I am overwrought, and very worried and everything else that goes with it. I'm just full to the brim with what if's at the moment.

I'll wait and see what comes home, and call the vet. Theres nothing else I can do anyway...
 
amymay said:
You said in your previous post that you would get YO to talk to loaner and look after the horse - I questioned both.
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Did you not read that OP has been called to go away for work and obviously will need someone to look after the horse while she is away.
 
Jenna1406 said:
Did you not read that OP has been called to go away for work and obviously will need someone to look after the horse while she is away.
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I did Jenna. But that's not today, or tomorrow but toward the end of the week or possibly next week:p
 
Thanks to you all. She said she was hacking yesterday and had to get off and walk home as her back end didnt feel right.


Well to me reading the above I would strongly suspect that the mare had tied up with Azortoria.
 
Sorry mis-read - a previous poster suggested I deal with my horse when she comes off the trailer and let someone else talk to loaner. I thought that was good advice as I do get bamboozled and will generally back down with more experienced people. My YO is much more experienced than me and also has no emotional standpoint.

I'm very emotional where my horses are concerned and very soft. I thought you said I couldnt look after my horse - sorry.

I will obviously be there and do as much as I can myself but I am a carpet - and I know it. She's no superhorse, nothing special at all but I'm very worried for her. I also know - or think I do - walking out up and down hills if possible for the first few weeks of coming back into work. I think she's been being ridden every morning and lunged every afternoon in a pessoa - which may be the problem and all muscular.

I'm just worried, not snappy - honest.
 
shmoo said:
Sorry mis-read - a previous poster suggested I deal with my horse when she comes off the trailer and let someone else talk to loaner. I thought that was good advice as I do get bamboozled and will generally back down with more experienced people. My YO is much more experienced than me and also has no emotional standpoint.

I'm very emotional where my horses are concerned and very soft. I thought you said I couldnt look after my horse - sorry.

I will obviously be there and do as much as I can myself but I am a carpet - and I know it. She's no superhorse, nothing special at all but I'm very worried for her. I also know - or think I do - walking out up and down hills if possible for the first few weeks of coming back into work. I think she's been being ridden every morning and lunged every afternoon in a pessoa - which may be the problem and all muscular.

I'm just worried, not snappy - honest.
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No I know you're not snappy, and I can tell you are worried - but really try not to be.

I'm assuming you know what time the horse will be delivered back - so kettle on.

Get the horse off the box, offer a nice cup of tea - and then the three of you can sit down for a chat.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.
 
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