Neighbors......arrggg......venting....LONG

[Lil' Horse Lover]

So I have this neighbor who owns five horses ALL of which are SKINNY, skin and bones! Let me start off by saying that this lady knows NOTHING about horses and could care less about what is best for them and she THINKS she KNOWS EVERYTHING. I've tried MANY times to give advice about what she should do with her horses (from riding to feeding) and she just doesn't listen, she says "oh yeah, I know", but then continues on repeating the same wrong thing over and over. Her oldest horse is 20 (or so) yrs. old and the youngest is a three year old (pretty sure, either 2 or 3).

The three year old is a paint filly who has ALWAYS (since they've been here, couple years) been underweight, never once have I seen this filly at an appropriate or acceptable weight, she's never had a nice healthy shiny looking coat, always rough and dry looking, and she's always had a "hay/worm" belly.

The next oldest horse they have is about 11 years old and he is an appaloosa gelding, she got him last year and let me tell you he was a NICE looking horse. He was healthy weight and had a nice coat and was overall a very nice boy. Now this horse looks a lot worse, his coat is dull, he's underweight, he looks like a different horse. He too has had a bit of a hay/worm belly since she's had him. And now she's got him in a small round pen behind their small barn all by himself, I'm guessing she thinks he's still "fat" and is putting him on a starvation diet. He's NOT fat!

The next horse she has is a 12 or 15 yr old (not quite sure but gettin up there in age) Quarter horse mare who is also underwieght and has a dull unhealthy looking coat, wormy/hay belly. When my neighbor first got her she was a nice looking mare who was at a healthy weight and was very pretty, now she looks aweful.

The next oldest is a 17 yr old QH gelding who came with the mare above, and he too was a pretty/healthy boy when she first got him. I used to really like him. And now he too has a dull coat, he's VERY skinny, and looks like a totally different horse.

The oldest horse is a 20 yr. old or so (not quite sure but he's old), now I understand because of his age he would have more trouble keeping his weight on but there's no excuse for the way he looks. He's VERY skinny, has an unhealthy coat, and a wormy/hay belly. I'm sure with better care he could look a LOT better!

Now from what I can see she feeds them relatively good hay, she just doesn't feed them nearly enough! All of them eat together except for the appaloosa gelding, he's in a small roundpen behind the barn. And she only seperates the hay (for the four horses) into TWO SMALL piles! The horses always have it cleaned up within a couple hours and then go ALL day with NOTHING but their own manure to eat (which I saw one of the older ones CHOWING DOWN on a pile the other day) until later in the evening, and it appears they get the same amount and its always in the same two small piles.

I don't believe she floats their teeth or worms them (otherwise the horses would be in a bit better shape I'm sure). She also rides the horses like crazy! Just this fall we went on a trail ride and she took us up this LONG/STEEP mountain, I was on my 6 yr old IN SHAPE QH gelding and she was riding her 17 yr old OUT OF SHAPE gelding! And I thought my horses was gonna die....I was surprised that poor boy didn't have a heart attack (and by the way she is overweight! She feeds herself before her horses...).

I've tried talking to her before but she just doesn't listen. She thinks her horses are fat because of their hay/worm bellies which she thinks is all fat! I told her that her horses are way too skinny and she replies, "well look at their bellies....". I was all like "hello, you don't judge a horses weight just by their bellies!". I just can't believe her! One day she asked my mom, "how do you get all your horses to look so healthy and shiny?", my mom was all like "well maybe its because we FEED our horses" (she didn't exactly say those exact words but that was what she was trying to get across).

I just tell her "well if I can take care of 11 horses (ALL of which are at a healthy weight and are WELL taken care of, ALL have BEAUTIFUL shiny/healthy coats year around) then you should have no problem taking care of 5 horses". She spends all her money on her WANTS rather then her horse's NEEDS!

I'm worried for the horses going into winter, all are WAY to skinny to be going into a cold winter! I'm going to try and get a couple other horse people to try and give her some advice about her horses, praying she listens.

Is there any advice you guys have to give? Anything I should do differently? Last year she practically killed a B sized mini gelding that she had due to malnutrition/starvation. When I confronted her about this poor boy's weight she said, "well look at how big his belly is". I just shook my head and tried to explain to her the best I could that she had basically starved him to death and he's WAY to skinny and wormy. A couple hours later we had the vet put him to sleep, it was very heartbreaking. I just wish she had learned.

Sorry this is so long, I'm just getting really frustrated.......and sorry if there are errors I'm too lazy to go back and correct them...lol

 

[Charlene]

*sigh* been there, done that, have the tee shirt. you can talk until you're blue in the face and you'll only end up frustrated and more angry. i don't know how much more you can do or what you can do that you haven't already done.

i was in the situation some years ago with a woman who had only 2 horses. i bought de-wormer for her and went to her place at feeding time and showed her how much to put out. she did it for a few weeks and her horses looked SO much better but then she decided she was spending too much money on them so she was back to a little flake of hay here and there a couple of times a day, never de-wormed again and her horses eventually ended up being sold at auction because she got tired of "taking care of them" if that's what you call it!

as hard as it is for me to do, because i would love to save them all, i find myself turning a blind eye to these sorts of situations. thankfully, they are few and far between. people can be such idiots!

 

[Marty]

We don't have a lot of starvation around up here where I live thank goodness. But the horses up here get rode and very hard, way too hard. The worst offenders up here in the past were actually out of staters that moved in. But for the most part, people are pretty good and provide feed and hay but will not pay vets for anything. They will worm and feed and hay but many will simply not get a vet for any reason no matter what. Floating teeth are always out of the question.

You cannot push your ideas on some people that are set in their ways. They think you are nuts. They do not care and are simply not interested in what you have to say. So to keep the lines of communication open, you have to know when to not say anything and MYOB. If you do, chances are that someday they will come to you for help of some kind. Sometimes I think I run a first aid clinic out of my tack room and that's a good thing. People will stop by for bandages or a bit or whatever every now and then and I'm happy to share and help when I can. I do stock pile wormers and if they ride their animal over I do offer one. But I do not push my ideas on anyone and I do think that is the key.

One thing you can do is go to Jeffers Equine and order some wormers there on sale for $3.99 and take them over there and offer to worm them yourself for her. I did that with some mules up here. I"ve been doing that for years for some. The owners are proud people who do not take handouts so I like to make excuses and say I ordered too much and they will go to waste and expire if not used quickly. But don't leave the stuff there. Get the owner to let you do it yourself so you can be sure they are getting it.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

I had neighbors like that.. had 2 bred mares both foaled in Jan in the middle of a snow storm with no shelter. I went to tie the placenta when "I" saw she had the foal in the middle of the night it was literally frozen

What did I do for the skinny horses.... the only thing I could do...feed them my hay sigh

 

[runamuk]

I had neighbors like that.. had 2 bred mares both foaled in Jan in the middle of a snow storm with no shelter. I went to tie the placenta when "I" saw she had the foal in the middle of the night it was literally frozen

What did I do for the skinny horses.... the only thing I could do...feed them my hay sigh

ahem...and convince some sucker to buy one from them dirt cheap

 

[tigeresss]

I'd report her to the SPCA (don't worry it is annonymous) so at least there would be a file on her.

If at all possible maybe print off loads of information that you think would be relevent and give it to her after trying your best (I know it's hard) to once again explain to her the needs of horses.

Possibly get in touch with local horse rescues in your area so they can help keep an eye on her situation.

This may not be an option for your family but could you buy any of her horses for cheap? Or any friends that could?

Good luck. If you'd like me to put you in touch with the director of the horse rescue I am a part of for further info in these types of situations I could do that for you.