The world's most useless horse...

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reindeerlover

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Is my horse Copper (otherwise known as UGB- useless ginger b....)- Fact. He spent all winter in light work so that I could compete on him this Spring while getting the other one fit and a couple sold. He ate his way through a lot of expensive hay and haylage, conditioning cubes, balancer, outshine, paddock licks, fence posts etc. He was fine all winter although didn't look the greatest. He has been lame since it was nice enough to ride- bruised soles after abscesses after more bruised soles after more abscesses after kicks after jarred legs from hooning in the field etc. He has been temporarily sound in between each episode and I have been too scared to ride him in case his fairy feet fall off. Each time a show/sponsored ride/lesson comes up he appears fairly ok only to break himself the day/week before and I have to take an alternative beast.

This horse is so stupid he cannot be trusted with a bucket and has to have his food strapped to his head so that he can find it. He only grew a winter coat in November and he still has no summer coat, he looks like he was clipped last week- complete with tramlines. He could not find his ass with both hands (if he had hands). He is unable to eat haylage without choking on it at least once per day. He has no medical conditions other than lack of grey matter.

Does anyone have a more useless horse?
 
I don't think I'm far behind you.....bought 8 year old mare in April last year - she got a tooth problem 6 weeks later and spent the next six months going up and down to Edinburgh hospital as she got infection after infection which wouldn't clear up. She came home and then her fetlock swelled up - I took her back to Edinburgh to get he sinus and tooth problems checked and an x-ray was done only to find there was bone chip in there which needed to be removed. She was up there for another 2-3 weeks and then came home for three weeks box rest then light in hand exercise. She went mental in hand, so I sent her to a rehab yard with a huge horse walker. She did nine weeks up there at great expense to me, came home, I started road work with her and she has gone lame again on the same leg as the fetlock operation, but it's not the fetlock. So yes I think mine could be just about as useless, however I bet mine is more expensive......if I add up the vets fees, livery etc, I reckon she has cost me about £15000 in 12 months - and she only cost £1200 to buy!!! Thank God for credit cards....
 
Mine had all winter off with respiratory infections, has been back in work for 3 months and now off with suspensory ligament damage on paddock rest, but is already turning himself inside out (only been off for 2 weeks so far!!) vet reckons 6 months, I have a sneaky suspicion we're looking at a year-18months :(

I wouldn't mind if it just grazed and enjoyed the time out, but it looks like a carthorse and gallops round at least twice per day bucking and squealing :rolleyes:
At the moment he is totally useless, and if he carries on like that will be forever! :mad:

But I love him dearly! :)
 
Farrierlover, sounds like you need to try barefoot.
I had terrible trouble with my TB's feet before I learnt how to manage him barefoot ;)
 
Mine is like yours!! He had no time off all winter just hacked him as was bored in the school. As soon as spring starts to arrive with the sun he got an abcess, then got kicked, then got something else wrong which caused all of his nutrient levels to drop, then got another kick, and now is just coming back into work! last summer he got collapsed heels which put him out for most of it, again was sound the winter before..... Horses eh who would have them!!

Friend has a more useless horse but then she was advised to PTS by the vet and would have got an insurance payout but instead has a stabled horse with no use who cant be turned away as would perminatly break and have to be pts. Turned out during the day on his sounder days only!! But thats the choice she made, i wouldnt have chosen that one I do have to say..
 
Yes I can join in! My last horse, a TB no-one will be surprised to learn, was a walking (or hopping) disaster zone and a bottomless pit where money was concerned :(

Not long after I got him he developed an infection in his knee that required an operation, bone scraping etc, which cost more than my insurance so had to sell me trailer to make up the difference. Not great for a horse I bought to compete!

A couple of months he decided to escape from the field and rip his leg right through to the bone. Cue yet another massive vet bill and six months box rest. Whilst on box rest he managed to get his tooth stuck in the chain over the door and break some of it off pulling away. Yet another vet visit.

He is also the only horse I have ever known that managed to sever an artery in the stable :eek::eek: Scary stuff.

No matter how dilligent I was, he would also colic at least once a year, thankfully never badly, and was also a chronic headshaker!!

Poor soul was PTS three years ago this summer after devloping a serious of DJD conditions in both front legs and feet.

He cost me an absolute fortune but he was one in a million. RIP Harvey xx
 
I have a useless brown beast.

He's had ulcers, he has been diagnosed with RER, and frequently cuts or impaled himself on things.

He's just had a year off tomrecover from muscle damage after repeated tying up, during which time we had an insurance job injury as well (I've claimed £12,000 in the last three years!) and is likely tom have the rest of this year off because I have a broken knee and he isn't going to be the right horse to get back on once I'm healed!
 
Does my big ginger freak count? He injuries himself every 3 years and does a good job of it. He has had £14k worth of majoy heart surgery to reattach his heart to 2 veins and 1 artery - it was hanging in his chest by 1 artery after landing on his foot! He spent 3 months in Newmarket Vet School for that. He had a 2% survival rate when he did it. The next one he did was kick into his fetlock which was £5k vet bill for a double joint flush. He is a bleeder - I say he has a dust allergy but it's not really it's a case of - if he gets dust he coughs, if he coughs enough his lungs break down and he bleeds so he lives a dust free lifestyle. And his latest one if a hole in his DDFT - on his hind leg, round the fetlock, and it's not a core lession, he kicked into it and took out 50% of the tendon and also part of the tendon sheath. So he is in his box till August now and may never be ridden again. He has also had a Hobday Op as he couldn't breathe.

As for thickness - he constantly tips his water bucket over. When he gets his dinner it goes in a bucket that can be swivelled out and then back in in the side of the stable wall and every single day he sticks his nose down to look where the bucket has disappeared to and doesn't move it in time before he gets his nose knocked by it when it is on it's way back in to him. He does this 3 times a day ...

He also just doesn't grow a winter coat full stop!

On the plus side when he can be ridden he is pretty darned good at it!
 
I have a useless TB, well he is useless to anyone else except me, I worship the ground he walks on, love him to bits and have the time of my life with him. I could turn down £10k tomorrow for him...

Although from the outside he looks like a rather lazy, spooky, crib biting, hates schooling, refuses to jump anything that isn't a single straight bar (spooks at ground lines, cross poles), won't go near any jump over 2ft, has never travelled in a trailer, can't travel alone in a lorry, hates being groomed or touched thoroughbred... (I don't think turning down £10k for him is ever going to be an issue!!!!! :D)
 
these are making me feel soo much better (sorry!) in the three and a half years i have owned mine she has spent more time out of work than in it.
After 3 months she got nasty kick on hock.
Year later did her hind tendon in fetlock area had op for it and very nearly died during it.
Following that had an allergic reaction to some bee stings and had lots of sores on her legs the had spasmodic colic, then lame behind had funky shoe on that after three months decided she could no longer walk in, then scratched her eye.
Then to top it off had a bad back whcih turns out is djd of the joints in the spine.
also had a baddly cut knee and a very odd lamness were she couldn't move that was a bit like tying up but only in one leg!
Having had nearly all winter off we are trying to come bk in to work but quite unsucssfully as she is like a raving monster!
but she is a very good pet!
 
this post is great! makes me feel much better as a horse owner - all I can say is my hubby started out being pretty obliging about 4 legged crtters, but if he sees me not talking or looking miserable, he starts wondering about how much it will cost him this time. I have 6 (including kids ponies) and he thinks they should all be PTS immediately.
 
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