would you feed or rug some-one elses horse?!

C

chaps89

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 July 2009
Messages
9,019
Location
Lincolnshire
Visit site
My horse is on grass livery and shares a field with one of the YO's ex-broodmares. Mare is late teens and as far as I'm aware in good health, doesn't have anything done with her, she is just left in the field. I make a point of glancing over her and saying hello to her (she's quite nice natured) but don't want to get any further involved.
Happened to mention to one of the other liveries yesterday (who used to be on grass livery in that field) that the mare was shivering head to toe and I felt sorry for her- livery said between her and another lady they fed and rugged the horse last winter :o
Field has no shelter, not much grass now, and mare is in good condition weight wise but certainly couldn't afford to lose much weight. Hay will be given over winter tho.
I can't afford to feed/rug another horse and don't want to get involved (YO is a funny old lady) plus sods law says if I gave her a handful of chaff shed be allergic to it or something and then I'd be to blame. So I am just going to carry on giving her a check over but do no more. I'd be pretty annoyed if someone just stepped in a did my horse, tho quite happy if someone said something to me so I could explain why mines not rugged or thank them and change what I was doing if I was unaware. Unfortunately YO is not really the approachable type who I would dare to talk to about this else I would just mention she was very cold/wet through and leave it at that for her to do what she wants with it.
But just wonder what other peoples opinions on this is, would you ever step in and feed or rug some-ones horse? Just musing really!
 
If it was really suffering & I knew the horse, yes, I have. Brought one in on an old diy yard that was bordering on hypothermia & insisted non horsey yo rang owners & vet. Owners wouldn't ring vet so got welfare involved. In your case, probably not. Think I would speak to yo & pretend that I was offering to do her a favour. Eg 'when you start rugging if you want I can do yours too when I'm up doing mine' & see what response there is.
On the other hand I nearly killed someone who interfered with mine. We had someone who was an over rugger, hw hairy cob wearing a hw combo on rainy summer days & boiling hot. One night when mine were in one winter she put a hw combo over my mares thermatex, & a mw stable rug & mw combo turnout on daughters unrugged pony. Next morning mine had a drenched thermatex but luckily was mainly dry. Daughters had a chill. Stable rug was drenched with sweat, as was pony. After screaming blue murder I accidently drenched her when I was using the spray attachment on the hose.
 
Not unless it was obviously suffering but I certainly would explain to YO how you found her, up to her then to do something about it. Even asking if she'd like you to feed/hay it the same time you do hers would be a start and would get the ball rolling.
Remember what happened with Lesley Skipper simply because she didn't ask for help, don't let this mare become another statistic simply because you didn't like to talk to the owner please.
 
Why not simply ask YO if she has a rug you can pop on the horse?

As long as she's warm and getting plenty of feed she probably wouldn't need a hard feed.

But I think we all have a responsibility to the animals we have around us. And if there's a problem or a potential problem then you should act.

But just wonder what other peoples opinions on this is, would you ever step in and feed or rug some-ones horse? Just musing really!
Click to expand...

Bottom line is - yes I would.
 
Last edited:
This horse belongs to your YO?

I don't think it appropriate to rug or feed someone else's horse without their express permission. I'd inform the YO if I was concerned about her horse and expect her to deal with it. I would probably have left the yard long before it reached a welfare issue. Honestly, if she can't look after her own, I wouldn't trust my horse in her care.
 
Yes, I did last winter otherwise the mare would have died. Finally tracked down the previous owner on the internet, who was devastated. We planned a strategy to get the new owner to allow the mare to return to her previous home and the old Shire mare went home in time for Christmas.

Sometimes you just can't look the other way.
 
I did this last winter for the pony that shares our field. The owner can only get up once a day so when its wet like this and horses need to come in to dry off, or in winter when hay needs doing twice a day and feeds etc, I just treat him as I would my own and rug, hay, water etc. If its a hot morning I'll take his rug off and ten put it back on at night as I do with Bails. A few times I text and ask if she wants me to but I rarely get a reply so I just get on with it

Sometimes I worry I'm a busy body but I don't want to see the little lad hungry or cold. I know he has a cough so if they need haying and she hasn't got any haylage for him I just soak some of my hay and give him that. I know it's not ideal but its that or he goes hungry, or tries to pinch my lads hay which isn't soaked.

I do sometimes begrudge doing it as often I don't get a thank you, but he is a sweet pony and I'm already about doing my horse so might as well do him too.

If I'm ever told to stop interfering then I will but until then I'll carry on lol!
 
I'm afraid I couldn't possibly not do something in your shoes. Even if the YO is unapproachable, ask her if she has a spare turnout rug as her mare is shivering, or if not, would she mind you using a spare one of yours. But I have loads of spare rugs so wouldn't be a problem for me. It's a different story if you don't have one spare. If she refuses, I'm afraid I would leave and then report the welfare situation to World Horse welfare or the RSPCA.
 
I think I'd try and talk to the YO/HO about it somehow.
We share our field with one other horse and will change rugs ie add/remove a rain sheet etc as needed and the other owner does the same for us but it's on an agreement and if we do anything we txt the other owner to let them know.

I have brought a fellow liveries horse in to dry off and warm up before turning out again because it was frozen - she was shivering so bad she could barely walk. We got into so much trouble over it, wasn't a brilliant yard tho
 
I might talk to the YO but I wouldn't do anything without permission unless the owner was absent. Two well meaning people rugged and fed a hairy native who was roughed off, turned away, perfectly fine. This included feeding at the gate which made the pony's friend became aggressive when anyone went through the gate and all the hay put out just got eaten by the rest of the herd, who really did not need extra! :eek:
 
Flummoxed said:
This horse belongs to your YO?

I don't think it appropriate to rug or feed someone else's horse without their express permission. I'd inform the YO if I was concerned about her horse and expect her to deal with it. I would probably have left the yard long before it reached a welfare issue. Honestly, if she can't look after her own, I wouldn't trust my horse in her care.
Click to expand...

exactly this ^^^
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top