Opinions required on a Free to a good home neddy please?

louised1henry

louised1henry

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Hi all,

Just after some peoples opinions to help me decide if its a good idea or not. Been Offered from a friend of a friend a

17'1 WB 15 years old...............the catch is he is 2/10 mechanically lame in his hind due to soft tissue damage. apparently its only when turning him on a circle and when trotted up he is fine and he is in full work. He Has previously done cross country but his current owner does dressage with him. He isnt on any bute so im told. Im yet to have a look at him my self cant quite make my mind up if its a good idea or not.

the reason im told hes free is because he wouldnt pass a vetting and his owner is moving abroad and cant take him with her. if she doesnt re home him it appears he will be going to the nasty men.

Im always dubious about the free to good home adverts and am a bit concerned about getting massive vets bills as we have enough mounting up at the moment with our TB.

If we did have him it would only be for Hacking and schooling and a easy life nothing exotic.

not sure weather to take a chance or not. as i would need to get everything for him from scratch as hes bigger than my others so i cant even use/share there rugs and stuff like they do now.

we have been thinking about getting something else so my sister can get out while her TB is recovering but dont have the extra funds to buy something else yet.

so opinions needed please before i do my usual trick and jump in head first like a lemming.

thanks all
X
 
Surely any dressage judge would pick up on any lameness and ask the rider to stop..... so she cant do competitive dressage on him.

I personally couldnt ride a lame horse- lameness assumes pain somewhere IMO

Who the friggin hell are "the nasty men"?

Sounds like a vets bill waiting to happen to me.......
 
Seems like a bad idea to me, people are giving away sound horses at the moment and I would try and find one of those, especially if you'd happily have a veteran. I certainly wouldn't consider it without getting a vets opinion on the cause of the lameness.
 
If it was me and i was genuinly interested then i would get the horse vetted and make a decisision based on what the vet says about the "soft tissue damage"
 
I have a horse with mechanical lameness, it looks a bit like stringhalt but isn't. It does affect his gait, more in walk than anything else and it's from an old hamstring injury - you can feel the hard calcified bit on his back leg.

It causes him no pain and I've had him 6 years now, he's turning 20 and looks fab.

I would say with dressage, unless the judge will mark his 3 good legs your marks will suffer, but mine can jump, gallop (his favourite) and school all with no problems.

People always presume it's a normal lameness that causes pain but it really isn't, I would say go and see the horse and decide what you want to do with it before making your mind up.
 
Worth a look.

I offered my horse free to a good home for similar reasons (not up to hard work), but actually in the end made other arrangements for him - because I got cold feet.

So if you're looking for something to poodle around on, this may be the horse to do it on.
 
Im assuming by the nasty man you mean MEAT MAN? Not nice place to send your ned.
I would go look and poss ride the horse and see how you feel afterwards.
 
the meat men. i never know what to call them.

thats what i thought about the dressage. i would of thought a judge would pick it up. if it was serious and obvious.

ive got to ring our vet this week about our other horse so im going to run it past him and see what he thinks aswell. but getting a vetting seems a good idea even if he does fail at least i would know more about it other than just what the owner has told me.

i need to take some one with me to see him as i cant ride at the moment anyway,as ive just had a baby

we only want to hack and school our selves for now.until we know what's happening with our other one.

i may sound really harsh but im being cautious as i dont want to be landed with something useless thats going to cost me loads of money and i end up getting in a mess financially. but then on the other hand i would hate for a useable decent nice horse to go for meat or to the markets or something when i could of given it a decent home.

big case of head vs heart
 
the reason im told hes free is because he wouldnt pass a vetting and his owner is moving abroad and cant take him with her. if she doesnt re home him it appears he will be going to the nasty men.
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And that would not be a bad option - there are worse things than having the horse put down. So don't let that sway your decision.
 
Have him vetted anyway. The person wanting to get rid could be covering an underlying issue up. After the vet has a poke at least you'll know what you are getting yourself into.
 
Wouldnt touch it personally, plenty of horses of a similar age going for free without any past injury or lameness!

As for the 'nasty men', id much rather he was sent to the meat man than be sold to a dealer who sells him on keeping quiet about his history!
 
The "if he doesn't get rehomed he'll go to the meat man" bit rings slight alarm bells for me - could it be that the owner is using that to tug people's heart strings?

If you ring up about the horse, you could ask for their vet's details so you can speak to the vet who treated the horse and maybe for a small fee get a written report from him/her? If there's nothing more sinister to hide the owner should agree to that.
 
Totally agree with the have him vetted anyway option. When I was given a horse, the previous owner lied about a few physical issues that had serious repercussions. Good idea about the vet report!
 
I admire your ability to stand back and consider all the options here, me I'd have jumped straight in and got the horse :eek: I have a friend who was 'given' a horse she had been exercising for free, it turned out to have severley collapsed heels and pulled up vvvvv lame just after she got him. He was on box rest for months, with remedial farriery and vets bills and she has not been able to ride him. So like everyone else I would suggest a vetting.

I'm too soft all my animals are here because they 'needed' a home, and now I have 4 border collies (two were because there were going to be shot :mad:), a 16.3h hanoverian mare and a 10.3h pony! I love them all and would never get rid of them but at times I wish I had to courage to stand back and think things through.

Good luck and I hope you make the right decision for you :o
 
There are so many straightforward, sound horses available to loan/share at the moment - I would have a look around and see what else is available in your area first.

A mechanical lameness does not mean the horse is in pain BUT - as it's gait is affected this will have implications on it's back and other limbs long term if it remains in work. His size unfortunately will not help. This could well mean that it ends up with a true lameness elsewhere.

On a more positive note - I have just taken on a pony that was free to a good home - but this little chap is sound, sane and vice free.
 
personally I wouldnt but i have had a bad experience with a lame horse but thats a different story.....


If you have a place to keep this horse if he becomes unusable, and you consider it a 'rescue' (keeping in mind that his condition may deteriorate and you may lose him)also, if you can afford to pay the vets bills etc then i would say yes- it would be lovely to give him a home...


On the contrary, if you are looking to take this horse with the intention of it being a riding horse. If he will be your only horse and you will be putting all your eggs in one basket then i would say no.

I bought a horse relativly cheap, no vetting (would have failed) and it ended up costing me a fortune. Abosolutely tore me apart having to have her PTS as her condition deteriorated RAPIDLY and i had bought her as my only horse and for riding- it was a terrible decision, the loss of oney was bad enough but the heartbreak was a million times worse ....
 
JVB said:
I have a horse with mechanical lameness, it looks a bit like stringhalt but isn't. It does affect his gait, more in walk than anything else and it's from an old hamstring injury - you can feel the hard calcified bit on his back leg.

It causes him no pain and I've had him 6 years now, he's turning 20 and looks fab.

I would say with dressage, unless the judge will mark his 3 good legs your marks will suffer, but mine can jump, gallop (his favourite) and school all with no problems.

People always presume it's a normal lameness that causes pain but it really isn't, I would say go and see the horse and decide what you want to do with it before making your mind up.
Click to expand...

I agree. My horse has mechanical lameness due to a broken shoulder and torn biceps tendon a year ago. She is in no pain whatsoever and gallops, bucks, rears and generally makes a spectical of herself in the field. She does not need bute and is as happy as larry. Unfortunately she can't be ridden though as her shoulder is too unstable. Maybe in years to come she will get some arthritis and then will require bute. But at the moment she is very comfortable.
 
why don't you ask your friend if your vet can speak to hers? if after that conversation your vet thinks its worth pursuing, then go and see and then have a basic vetting.
 
Been thinking about this one a lot. I think you should give him a chance but only under the following conditions:

That you see him ridden,
That you ride him yourself and really like him
That he's a nice horse to be around and you feel that you could bond with him,
And that you are given permission to contact his vet for his veterinary history. I would then discuss this history with your own vet.

Good luck. I hope it works out.
 
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