Rescuing horses

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Donkeymad

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Does it annoy anyone that so many people rescue a horse/s then have to beg for money to simply feed them, let alone worm, farrier vet etc?
If you are going to rescue, surely you should be confident (as far as possible) that you can actually afford to keep said animal/s?

What actually is a 'rescue'? Do people use the term too loosely, maybe because it sounds good, when in reality they have simply rehomed? What do you class as rescue and rehome?

Points to discuss members, please
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We 'rescued' our current companion horse Des, who is now in a home for life.

His last owner loaned him out, and he was half starved with horrible rainscald. Through a friend of a friend he came to us for grass livery and generally fattening up. After a few months he went back to her.

A year later, after we lost my old pony, and our blue cross donkey (both companions) we needed a companion for our remaining companion horse, who came from the blue cross. We heard that she was going to have Des put down as she couldn't find a home for him, so we rehomed him a couple of days before the vet was booked.

Month after we got Des, blue cross horse was found dead in the field. Five years later Des is still with us and is now 24.

(Blue cross horse we rehomed when he was 22, BOGOF and came with a donkey, had him for fourteen years)

So basically, my family are saints
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if posts on here are to be believed, any Equine that has been bought from a sale/market/pikey/some internet sites, is generally thought of as being "Rescued"....

i personally DON'T rescue anything...i buy regularly from low end markets/pikeys/horsemart 1k and under/breed sales

they are all assessed for viability...and hopefully found good private homes.


as the "meat market" value for ponies/horses isn't good ATM, i no longer take many to the Abbatoir on a regular basis....although things may change during this current financial climate.
 
I rescued my TBx. I honestly believe if someone hadn't bought her in the next few day she would have died. Luckily my vet was understanding and let me pay her in installments, my parents gave me money for my birthday instead of a present (she was my birthday present to myself) and my dad's boss let me keep her in their stable free of charge
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I had no idea how expensive it would be to rehome a horse in her condition
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In the first six months she cost me approx £800 in vets and therapy fees. I was in love with her after about 10 seconds though so I would have spent everything for her
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It depends on how you define 'rescue'

I could say I rescued one of my mares.
But in the true animal-cruelty sense of the word, I probably didn't. She wasn't a total case of neglect, she wasn't abandoned and neither was she on death's door. She was just in a truly horrible place and I went soft & just couldn't leave her there.

I bought her for next to nothing because I knew I could give her a home. Also because I could see her quality underneath the muck.

Did I save her from a miserable life? Most certainly.
But 'rescue'? I don't know.
 
Exactly Mayflower, just what is a 'rescue'?
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There was a listing on ebay a few days ago, for horsefeed. It had a lovely photo of fresh carrots, and the heading was 'horsefeed, carrots, linseed oil, chaff'
Oooo...I thought, and looked. It was actually someone asking for donations to pay for an animal he/she had supposedly rescued. Be it a true rescue or a rehoming, should someone take on an animal when they can't afford to?
 
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Be it a true rescue or a rehoming, should someone take on an animal when they can't afford to?

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Absolutely not.
IMO - this is just irresponsible. If you agree to care for an animal you should do so in the knowledge that you have the ability to provide for it, one way or the other.
 
We set up Bank End as a Not For Profit last year, we currently have 22 horses on the yard on another 8 in loan homes. Initially and still up to a large degree this is funded privately through own our pockets. We publically fundraise , all proceeds going direct to Bank End. Rescuing is a debatable issue, some come to us as neglected, broken down abused cases, others as competition horses who can no longer perform to the level expected, though are very useful and capable riding horses, others still come from the "pikey dealers". Yes, we can argue that buying from such dealers only perpetuates the problem and I, personally have considered this each time I have bought from said dealers but in the long run what life would these horses have otherwise.

I have in the past "rescued" from France but it not something we do any longer as most of the "rescue" horses in France are NOT going to slaughter judging by the prices they are commanding, they are simply dealers cottoning on to the fact that that us Brits are generally soft touches.
 
I have done a mixture of both over the years. One was given to me by her owner as unrideable as a companion because she didn't now what to do with her, a chiro and vet visit later it was clear that the pony was in constant pain with a severe back problem. After consulting with the owner I had her PTS at my yard by the hunt. She could have travelled for meat to recover some costs but it would have painful for her so we didn't take that course - the owner (on reflection) was simply asking somebody else to make the call that she knew she should have made up to a year earlier.

Another was in a field on his own turning wild after his field mate died, he wasn't old, or broken, she just didn't know what to do with him. We turned him around and he has been a riding horse for nearly 5 years now - not the right horse for me so he has been out to a couple of loan homes. He is in his current loan home for life, is very much loved, and has a fulfilled life. His owner simply lost interest in him as soon as I took the problem away - but (on all the paperwork at least) she does remain his owner, although she has passed all responsibility and authority on to me to do the best thing for him.

Others have been what you might call true rescues, animals abandoned at the side of the road or in a field, usually injured or very neglected. I do a lot of work with the RSPCA and Blue Cross, some are taken on by them, in other cases I work with the landowners to find a long term solution and homes for the ponies.

This isn't my full time job, I've never been paid for any of the work I do so how much I can do is restricted - after all there are invariably costs in driving around the countryside, loaning rugs and equipment, sorting out transport. I am fortunate that I do have contacts that will provide transport, stabling or grazing at short notice and any money made from eventual sales (and these are rare) goes completely to cover their costs.

I only do as much as I can do, if I had personally taken on every welfare job I had encountered over the years I would have been bankrupted years ago, it simply can't be done.

I do sometimes struggle to understand charities that rescue horses, and use huge lumps of the money people have kindly donated to them, on horses that, in my view, do not much expectation of a good quality of life. I can't help but feel that their policy of preserving life at any cost is not the best possible use of their funds.
 
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if posts on here are to be believed, any Equine that has been bought from a sale/market/pikey/some internet sites, is generally thought of as being "Rescued"....



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I agree with this completely, so many people think that just because a horse isn't kept or trained in a manner that they see fit it must need 'rescued' a true rescue case is a horse that if left in the condition it is in will probably not be around within 6 months.

A Cruelty case would be a horse that was kept or trained in a manner that was against UK law (not just what the BHS think is law but the actual law) taking on a thin horse, a horse off the race track, a horse that has draw reins on in the ad or even a horse that is destined for the abbatoir (I do not agree with live export but if we all started eating horse meat here in the UK there would be less sent overseas!) is not a rescue case, it's just a horse that happens to have had a bit of a hard life up to the point the person bought it.

Ok rant over
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back to work!
 
Someone at work said she thought that if I won the lottery I'd probably set up a rescue centre for horses and was rather taken aback when I said no way. I'm afraid I'd find it all too depressing and would probably want to call round and take an axe to the previous owner. As it is I get a regular e-magazine from the US which has a link to an adoptable horse. If you click through to those websites you will see horrors you'd never believe happened in this day and age. Humane slaughter is a far better option in many cases.
 
i'd say i rescued both of mine, the 1 st because he was gonna be pts for no reason if i didn't have him and the 2nd because she was so poor and ill when i got her bad rainscald and mudfever.

dunno if everyone would agree with me though?
 
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