Overprotective owners?

[tasel]

Have you ever had to deal with overprotective owners? At what point did you think someone was overprotective?

To me, I am protective up to certain point. I will call the vet out for certain issues, etc. but I will also let my horse be a horse which often means that they will have to cope dealing with other horses. Because of this, she did suffer a few kicks by other horses in the past... mainly to put her into her place (the horses were just telling her what was acceptable and what wasn't... and to be honest, I am grateful for those horse who taught her a bit of manners!).

I have met some overprotective owners in the past who just expect their horses to be standing around all day, never being kicked by other horses despite of the horse's behaviour. I am not talking about big kicks here... just slight kicks that didn't cause the horse to shriek and didn't even leave a wound. I have seen horses literally backing into other horses from behind and when the horse (who got backed into) kicks out, the owner of the horse who backed into the horse in the first place will tell others that the "kicking" horse was bad and that their horse was just minding their own business. I am sorry, but if somebody in the human world did that to me (like grabbed my bum), you can expect a slap, if not a kick!!!

Trying to prevent your horse from beng kicked is like trying to prevent a 5-year-old kid from ever coming home with bruises. I wonder whether I was the only one thinking this way... and being overprotective of horses is now the norm???

 

[popsicle]

I consider myself protective, but not overly. i like my horses to live the most natural lifestyle they can. They are turned out 24/7, unless the weather is horrendous and they do occasionally have disagreements.

 

[Cliqmo]

I refer to the molly-coddling types as "Addicted to Nurturing Animal Lovers" or ANAL for short

Seriously though I understand we have a duty of care to all animals we domesticate but I genuinely believe we sometimes work so hard at physically protecting them that it can be deterimental to their emotional well being.

 

[the watcher]

I am protective. I will not turn out with a known kicker, although I accept that a certain amount of pecking order activity will go on I will not tolerate it to the extent where any horse can be injured - so i am especially wary of shod horses.

I have ways of doing things, I never leave unattended horses tied up, I won't leave them loose in the stable yard, or talking to each other over doors - their environment is tightly controlled to avoid harm to the horses and handlers.

For anything more than an obvious and easily treatable injury - I call the vet. i don't have Xray eyes, i have common sense and decades of experience but I know what I can and cannot treat.

This caution has stood me in good stead, horses in my care have rarely suffered injuries, and never avoidable injuries.

I'm not sure if that makes me fussy or just responsible.

 

[Tnavas]

I've found over the years that the more protective you are the more things seem to go wrong! I'm now really casual with mine - luckily I lease five acres so don't have to share with others anymore.

I've looked after some really nasty injuries to other peoples horses but been really lucky with mine - though I now recall a punctured hock joint, yearling PTS with septic arthritis in the hock. My beautiful show horse breaking her leg while being loaded, she reared and sat down, nothing violent. Then a nother horse that pulled back and broke a leg. That is all that has happened in over 40 years - so I guess I can say I've been lucky.

 

[elliegirl12]

i suppose we are protective over ours we wouldnt want them turned out with others that are known to kick, we wont let them go into a huge heard and the reason for this is that my mare that we had was a xracer got introduced properly into the herd and basically got chased through the barbed wire and legs were cut open and so was her chest!! i would be happy with another 2 horses with them but laid back horses never would i put them out with more than 2other horses because of what happend! .... we also are very careful as to fencing, we dont like them being out when it is raining, where we are atm it is really hilly! we boot them up when they are out!! and plus they dont like it! jst standing out there with there heads down i suppose everyone has a different opinion on how protective you can be over your horses!

 

[Donkeymad]

I am protective in that I do not place them in situations where they may suffer unecessarily. They live out, but with shelter, a newbie is allowed to work out it's pecking order, but done in a cautious way. I certainly do not molly coddle them, but don't take unecessary risks either.

 

[AmyMay]

I'm not particularly 'over' protective. However, if my horse was suffering a 'few' kicks - he'd be taken out of the field immediately.

I'm also a bit of a health and safety fanatic - so like Mother_Hen above, never leave a horse tied up and unatended. I rarely tie up outside the stable, and never feed my horse last thing before leaving the yard. I like to see them eat, remove the bucket and see them settled for the night.

 

[kinglouis]

I'm probably one of the cursed overprotective owners but it comes from a long line of field related injuries in a 9 month period, all ending with a strained high suspensory. I didn't know he had never been in a herd but we suspect this is the case as he has no idea of herd politics and is always in the wrong place at the worng time. He is now out on his own but really isn't settling (apart from being injured his mental state was fine in a herd) he's started nipping, dragging you back to the stable when you catch him, and when ridden near but not next to other horses he has become nappy which was never an issue before...it breaks my heart...next step is to try him with an older horse who has no shoes (he has shoes on but isn't a kicker just gets kicked!) to try teach him some herd lessons. I don't suppose anyone else has suffered anything similar?

 

[Skhosu]

I wouldn't accept kicking as being normal, think you need to re'adjust your expectations tbh, as a kick, wrongly placed can break a leg... It's simple enough to avoid by ensuring turnout groups are well organised.

 

[Erehwemos]

[ QUOTE ]
I am protective. I will not turn out with a known kicker, although I accept that a certain amount of pecking order activity will go on I will not tolerate it to the extent where any horse can be injured - so i am especially wary of shod horses.

I have ways of doing things, I never leave unattended horses tied up, I won't leave them loose in the stable yard, or talking to each other over doors - their environment is tightly controlled to avoid harm to the horses and handlers.

For anything more than an obvious and easily treatable injury - I call the vet. i don't have Xray eyes, i have common sense and decades of experience but I know what I can and cannot treat.

This caution has stood me in good stead, horses in my care have rarely suffered injuries, and never avoidable injuries.

I'm not sure if that makes me fussy or just responsible.

[/ QUOTE ]

I totally agree with everything said here. I am protective, and before moving to my current yard would have said overprotective, but having seen the way some horses are wrapped up in cotton wool (I know someone who will not turn out 24/7, as they cant bear the thought of their horse being outside the 'safety' of its stable)....perhaps I'm as protective as I thought I was!
I wouldnt turn Ellie out with a known kicker/biter...but I do allow her to 'be a horse'. She goes out in boots the first day she's out with new horses, and after that I let them just get on with it. I never leave her alone tied up in the yard, and as MotherHen says, if she ever has an ailment/injury that in any way seems too serious for me to deal with, the vet is called immediately.
I am growing over protective in the sense that I dont now like other people (other than me, Mum and OH) handling her - she hurt a lady at the yard a couple of weeks ago when being turned out, and so now she is considered 'dangerous', the only one I want her endangering is me