"Rescuing" horses from auctions

Their GFM pitch is such obvious BS, I can't believe people are being taken in by it:

We'd gone to look at two Suffolk Punch fillies to potentially join our Breeding programme, however the bidding was high - good news for the vendor and breed - and they went to good homes, leaving Jonny and I time to look around.

So we wandered, browsing, for draft horses and found a sad looking chunky brown mare with thick black feathers, a kind eye, not eating, standing, head down, shut down, frozen. Slim for a Belgium Draft. Couldn't see her feet for feather. No obvious reason for her to be there really,

Then, closeby, another big and beautiful horse. A big solid grey, a Clydesdale we thought, easy going, surprisingly unperturbed, munching away happily. His tail had been shaved months ago in showring manner, he had class, style, had obviously been in the showring/show circuit previously as he wasnt bothered by the din. Why, then, was he here?

Why is it perfectly acceptable for the Suffolk fillies they originally set out to buy to be sold at auction, but there must be something underhand (with the suggestion of cruelty and or neglect) going on regarding the ones they actually bought?
 
'No obvious reason for her to be there really.'

Well, the obvious reason is that it's a horse sale/auction and the horse is for sale. It's not that unusual for people to sell horses.

I'd have more respect for these people if they'd said 'we bought two horses at auction but they'll need some vet treatment and a bit of sorting out before we can use them for trekking. This is likely to be really expensive so if anyone can spare a few pounds we'd be grateful.'
But obviously, they're unlikely to raise £15k by being totally honest, so they have to throw in a liberal helping of words like rescue, abused, unwanted, saved...

Another extract from the GFM page:
'A friend who was there stopped me to tell me the mare came via a notorious dealer and to check her carefully ... 'he's hard on them'. Poor girlie.'

One reason I feel strongly about this sort of thing - ie, banding around veiled accusations - is that any of us could fall victim. The sellers are listed in the catalogue. There is no evidence that anyone has been 'hard' on the horse. It's just dishonesty with the aim of extracting cash from people.
 
There’s a video of them turning the horses out and the gelding dragging the guy leading it along

The guy that isn’t wearing gloves, or a hat 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ and yet when people comment to say it’s advisable to wear them they are told what what an amazing horseman he is

Surely if these horses are as traumatised and difficult to handle you’d be wearing protective gear
 
Supertrooper said:
There’s a video of them turning the horses out and the gelding dragging the guy leading it along

The guy that isn’t wearing gloves, or a hat 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ and yet when people comment to say it’s advisable to wear them they are told what what an amazing horseman he is

Surely if these horses are as traumatised and difficult to handle you’d be wearing protective gear
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No hat and no gloves, plus any competent horse handler would know not to clip the lead rope to the headcollars on such unsettled and unruly horses. If either horse had got away before their lead rope was unclipped they’d have beggared off into the field with the still attached lead rope trailing.

Instead you loop a length of rope through the headcollar when leading which will harmlessly release if the horse tanks off.

ETA I’ve handled unsettled young RSPCA rescue foster ponies who were way smaller than this, and I would never had such a cavalier attitude to safety. The ponies came good very quickly with calm consistent handling.

If there is a serious injury to a staff member health and safety would throw the book at them for allowing such poor practices in a work environment.
 
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cauda equina said:
Their GFM pitch is such obvious BS, I can't believe people are being taken in by it:

We'd gone to look at two Suffolk Punch fillies to potentially join our Breeding programme, however the bidding was high - good news for the vendor and breed - and they went to good homes, leaving Jonny and I time to look around.

So we wandered, browsing, for draft horses and found a sad looking chunky brown mare with thick black feathers, a kind eye, not eating, standing, head down, shut down, frozen. Slim for a Belgium Draft. Couldn't see her feet for feather. No obvious reason for her to be there really,

Then, closeby, another big and beautiful horse. A big solid grey, a Clydesdale we thought, easy going, surprisingly unperturbed, munching away happily. His tail had been shaved months ago in showring manner, he had class, style, had obviously been in the showring/show circuit previously as he wasnt bothered by the din. Why, then, was he here?

Why is it perfectly acceptable for the Suffolk fillies they originally set out to buy to be sold at auction, but there must be something underhand (with the suggestion of cruelty and or neglect) going on regarding the ones they actually bought?
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Sounds like the mare was sleeping. What nonsense.
 
In a video yesterday they are referred to as 'auction rescues'. Sigh.

Anyway, the GFM has just under £1000 to reach before they hit the £15K target. The strategy has worked well. One comment on FB was 'Glad you saved them. I can chip in a small donation.'

It's just amazing how everyone seems to know for a fact that the mare has been abused...
 
rabatsa said:
Any comments to the contrary have been removed.
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Have there been any negative comments on the FB posts? The only thing I saw was someone recommending wearing a hat as protection as 'no matter how much you think you know them they can always surprise you, and at that size of horse the surprise can hurt.' (Incredible that it needing saying really!)

ETA - just had a look at some of the comments but they are all so gushy and congratulatory that I honestly couldn't get through a lot. 'So sad that someone has done this to her' - what, exactly? How do people know?

We got our Staffy from a rescue centre 11 years ago when she was under a year old. She is deaf and was almost certainly born deaf.
The vet said that her injuries were consistent with being thrown out of a car. It was suggested that she had been abandoned because the owners realised she was deaf.
However, no-one saw this happen so we can't say for sure. All we know is that she was found wandering in a town centre with injuries.
Obviously this isn't good but we don't know and will never know the true story. So I don't like to speculate about what might and might not have happened to her.

It annoys me when people make assumptions about any animal having been 'abused', based on pretty flimsy evidence.
I knew someone who had a much-loved horse but hooves were awful - crumbly, poor shape, needing very regular trims. That horse received the very best care and feeding from that owner, including expensive hoof supplements and frequent trims. It would be easy, but completely wrong, to jump to conclusions about the horse's care based on the hooves!
 
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I am really shocked at the lack of biosecurity. Different people going in to attend to them no overalls at all. Until they have had the all clear from the vets they should have had minimal contact with people and kept strictly quarantined. Everything needs to be kept clean as possible. And then they have been turned out into a field with a water trough.
 
Kaylum said:
I am really shocked at the lack of biosecurity. Different people going in to attend to them no overalls at all. Until they have had the all clear from the vets they should have had minimal contact with people and kept strictly quarantined. Everything needs to be kept clean as possible. And then they have been turned out into a field with a water trough.
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Funnily enough they say in the GFM

For those of you who are unaware of the risks, horses in cramped quarters such as auctions or trailers to/from can spread contagious diseases so we have a quarantine period of 14 days minimum. The horses were tired, hungry, and thirsty. We introduced a small feed, hay and water and went into full isolation procedure.

Not a very good isolation procedure.
 
I'd not seen their post, I'm disappointed. I've had them on my bucket list but I dont agree with a business buying an asset and then pretending they've rescued it and asking their customers tp pay for it. Coupled with their prices I definitely won't be booking a ride with them. ☹️

Its just deceitful.
 
What really boils my p*ss about this, is that a gfm to cover the basic costs of keeping a horse is reaching the tens of thousands of pounds and there is a gfm for an RDA to (literally) keep a roof over their heads struggling to get over a thousand!

This is a business who knowingly bought two horses and is now asking the general public to cover their running costs in the hope (presumably) they will go on to earn the business an income vs. a charity providing a service for vulnerable children and adults needing to raise money for a new roof so to be able to keep offering this free service in all weathers.

You've got to hand it to CHH's marketing and PR efforts, but I know which I'll be sending my money to! (I am not affiliated to the Drum RDA fundraiser in any way, it just popped up on my feed this morning and it made me think of this thread).

If the world had spun differently and they'd have come home with the two Suffolk fillies they were intending to buy, I wonder if there would have been a gfm started in support of them?
 
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I notice that in one of the recent posts they are now referring to one of the horses as 'the auction/rescued Shire.' Admittedly it's not as bad as all the references to neglect, abuse, being unwanted, etc, but I am remain cross about the use of the word 'rescue'. It's just completely wrong.
A friend who read the GFM spiel said that it came over as 'We bought two horses we couldn't afford, can you bail us out.'

thistledonicely said:
What really boils my p*ss about this, is that a gfm to cover the basic costs of keeping a horse is reaching the tens of thousands of pounds and there is a gfm for an RDA to (literally) keep a roof over their heads struggling to get over a thousand!
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Absolutely. We've all seen cases of genuine 'rescue' horses and genuine charities who do incredible work and struggle like crazy for funds.
CHH is a business. It's not a charity.
They haven't hit the target of £15k yet and things seemed to have slowed down, but I'm sure they'll be fine with the money they have raised. I don't think it will be too long before the 'rescue' horses are contributing towards their keep.
 
I just had a look back at the story of a Shire that was rescued (genuinely) by a local vet back in 2011. The emaciated mare was literally lying in a ditch and had got her leg caught in barbed wire. The 'owner' of the horse was notorious and was reported the RSPCA on numerous occasions - they did nothing.
And so the vet had to actually buy the horse from this man in order to give her a chance of life.
She became a stunningly beautiful mare - sadly she died in 2020.
Re-reading the story has made me cry. That horse suffered appalling cruelty - and yes, there is secure evidence of this - but was brought back from the brink by a compassionate new owner.

When I hear 'rescue' I think of cases like this. Admittedly, this particular one was extreme, but most of us have seen starving horses in awful condition, seemingly abandoned in ragwort-filled fields.
It makes me angry that the CHH pair are still being described as 'rescue'. Even if CHH have worked with genuine rescue cases in the past, they should admit that these two can in no way be accurately described as such.
 
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