Sending horse off on loan to a college

[Lou23]

My daughter is thinking about going to university & we're thinking of options for her horse.
Obvious ones are to sell or to loan.


She's looking at doing a 3 year degree but not in equine studies possibly at Sparsholt, Winchester.

An option other than livery is to Loan the horse to them and wondered if anyone had any experience of doing this.

Feel free to pm me good or bad!!!

 

[Equi]

I'd personally not. I Have no doubt they get well looked after but they also have to put up with people less than adequate at riding/people who will teach it bad habits/people who will ride the mouth off it etcetc.

 

[Tern]

Depends what your horse is like - if horse is quirky she own't have the numpties on her but if more sane schoolmaster type then horse may have to put up with a bit. What area are you in? I may have another idea.

 

[Boulty]

I had an absolutely disastrous experience of loaning my previous horse to an equine college. Firstly they wanted him on trial for a few months to make sure they liked him and then me to have him back for summer hols (btw if you can't have your horse back during college breaks normally they will charge you livery for that period) which was fine and all went well and all parties were happy. Sadly they had a change of yard manager during the summer break who decided she had something to prove and got rid of a lot of horses / rubbed a lot of owners up the wrong way.

I'd only been at Uni 2 weeks when she announced they had decided they didn't want my horse afterall! (was spitting feathers as obv I'd lost a big chunk of my last summer with my horse before I went to uni with the original trial and was now buggered).

He had mild arthritis which was well controlled with half a bute a day which college were happy with initially but I think this is part of what then became an issue. I also think something happened whilst he was there and to this day I don't know what as never got to bottom of it.

College claimed they'd got vet as they were worried he'd tied up (in fact they also mentioned possible grass sickness), vet said it was a routine visit to check ALL the horses. College said vet had concerns about his weight. Vet said all they'd said is he didn't want to lose any weight and to maybe up his feed a bit with increase in work.

Horse ended up on loan to one of their students (briefly as she turned out not to have time for him with her course) and they didn't tell her about his arthritis or his medication even though they claimed they would pass this info on to any potential loaners (they advertised him on their noticeboard for me as I was at other end of country) leading me to believe they'd not been giving him it (I had to turn up at the college to demand the return of my bute and the supplement he was also on at the time... they had great fun finding where it was for me and I refused to leave without it).

Oh they also managed to lose several small pieces of tack whilst he was there as well (martingale, noseband, stuff like that). I'd go for a private loan or sale every single time unless I personally knew who was running the college and that they weren't planning on leaving! (I actually think that had the original YM stayed I probably would not have had all the problems I did)

 

[JustKickOn]

Carthorse on here sent one of hers to Warwickshire College, I'm sure she would let you know her thoughts if you PM'd her.

 

[Lou23]

Tern, We on the Oxfordshire borders.

Yes our mare can be quirky!!!

 

[Tern]

Tern, We on the Oxfordshire borders.

Yes our mare can be quirky!!!

I have sent you a pm re another option.

 

[Jinx94]

As a student at an equine college, I wouldn't. I'm planning on doing all I can to get my college "loan" horse (actually owned by the college) out of there asap. The staff are great and do their utmost to care for the horses, but they are constrained by time and financial limitations. Some of the other students drive me crazy. You do get some really good ones who know what they're doing, but a lot of them resent any kind of yard work, and god forbid you ask them to walk a horse off after a lesson.

If you have other options, I would avoid sending a horse to a college.