I feel like calling the SPCA on a horse owner that lives on the road to work... I am generally not the nosy, busybody type, but... these horses are breaking my heart.
We know the woman semi-personally. She lives in a HUGE house (like, I'm talking has two Christmas trees every year, etc), with white picket fence and a quaint little barn that could probably hold a half dozen decently sized box stalls. Only problem is that her barn is filled with dog kennels - she runs a puppy "farm" (the kindest thing I can say without saying puppy mill!) - we have a friend who acquired a breeding age female from her as a "rescue" - the dog was extremely underweight and had broken off most of her teeth trying to gnaw her way out of the kennel in which she was also chained, and they were infected. And I'm not even concerned about the dogs so much as the horses! She does not have a place to put her horses away - even if my horses were on 24/7 turnout, I would want to have somewhere where I could put them "away" if I needed to.
She has two paddocks - in one, an elderly mare that has serviced this woman for many years, a pony, a middle aged QH mare and a year and a half old QH. They are gutted out and ribby, they definitely need wormed. Their pasture is down to nothing and she has been feeding round bales... sometimes. The mares have no access to ANY shelter - we have been having cold rain here for the last several days. The horses are usually huddled around, miserable.
In the second paddock she has two 6-7 month old weanlings, and a miniature horse - this paddock is mostly flooded from all the rain we've been having and neither do these foals have anywhere to get out of the elements. Same situation with the round bales, same situation with body condition - potted out belly and ribby.
Now I am not opposed to having horses out in the rain, mine certainly go out! But the key to mine being out in this cold rain is that, at some point, they are able to come inside and get out of the rain and dry off. I can't even begin to imagine leaving MY seven month old colt out in cold rain day in day out.. it might have something to do with losing his dam, but I certainly don't think I'm being neurotic, I would hate for him to get sick.
This woman had, at one time, a stallion that had not been wormed ever in his life because she was unable to put anything in his mouth - she had my mother sell her some wormer and mom had to administer said wormer... don't believe that her horses have been wormed since. We are getting some cheap wormer in and considering selling her tubes "administered" which means at least the foals would get some wormer into them.
Ugh. I hate this position - generally, I feel that the SPCA, while it's heart is in the right place, tends to harrass some people that really don't need it and don't help the animals that truly do (based on personal experience), but I certainly hope they'd do something in this case.
We know the woman semi-personally. She lives in a HUGE house (like, I'm talking has two Christmas trees every year, etc), with white picket fence and a quaint little barn that could probably hold a half dozen decently sized box stalls. Only problem is that her barn is filled with dog kennels - she runs a puppy "farm" (the kindest thing I can say without saying puppy mill!) - we have a friend who acquired a breeding age female from her as a "rescue" - the dog was extremely underweight and had broken off most of her teeth trying to gnaw her way out of the kennel in which she was also chained, and they were infected. And I'm not even concerned about the dogs so much as the horses! She does not have a place to put her horses away - even if my horses were on 24/7 turnout, I would want to have somewhere where I could put them "away" if I needed to.
She has two paddocks - in one, an elderly mare that has serviced this woman for many years, a pony, a middle aged QH mare and a year and a half old QH. They are gutted out and ribby, they definitely need wormed. Their pasture is down to nothing and she has been feeding round bales... sometimes. The mares have no access to ANY shelter - we have been having cold rain here for the last several days. The horses are usually huddled around, miserable.
In the second paddock she has two 6-7 month old weanlings, and a miniature horse - this paddock is mostly flooded from all the rain we've been having and neither do these foals have anywhere to get out of the elements. Same situation with the round bales, same situation with body condition - potted out belly and ribby.
Now I am not opposed to having horses out in the rain, mine certainly go out! But the key to mine being out in this cold rain is that, at some point, they are able to come inside and get out of the rain and dry off. I can't even begin to imagine leaving MY seven month old colt out in cold rain day in day out.. it might have something to do with losing his dam, but I certainly don't think I'm being neurotic, I would hate for him to get sick.
This woman had, at one time, a stallion that had not been wormed ever in his life because she was unable to put anything in his mouth - she had my mother sell her some wormer and mom had to administer said wormer... don't believe that her horses have been wormed since. We are getting some cheap wormer in and considering selling her tubes "administered" which means at least the foals would get some wormer into them.
Ugh. I hate this position - generally, I feel that the SPCA, while it's heart is in the right place, tends to harrass some people that really don't need it and don't help the animals that truly do (based on personal experience), but I certainly hope they'd do something in this case.
And I can't shut Gavotte away if all the others are out having a lovely time now can I?! Lol! Mine however do have a field shelter that is wind and rain proof, Gavotte is rugged up at night, and they have hay ad lib, and concentrates when they need them.... The field is on a hill and is never waterlogged so their feet are always dry.... I don't see an issue with horses wintering out, as long as they are well cared for.