10/02/2024
The cruelest thing, for me, is giving horses a taste of this life and then taking it away.
Bringing horses to me who have huge behavioural and physical issues all caused by traditional management. The horses who weave, windsuck, pace, kick the door, have ulcers, prone to colic, are explosive or shut down, have laminits, are obese, have deformed hooves, or are just generally miserable.
Those horses who get brought to me and I watch all those behaviours and health issues fade away. I watch them become part of the herd, making friendships and bonds, become calm and relaxed and show none of those behaviours that I have been told they exhibit. The ability to make their own choices, eat when the like, play when the like, sleep when they like, move as much as needed, and be free from solitary confinement.
To then have it all taken away because the owner wants better facilities. Wants them closer to home. Wants to be able to ride everyday. Wants the indoor school, the XC facilities, etc etc but forgets that often in order to have those things, they have to go back to being stabled. Individual turnout. And all those behaviours and health issues that I saw leave, will return.
I watch members of my herd mourn the loss of their herd mates. I have to distance myself from worrying about how the horse that has left is going to cope.
Time and time again I have people tell me their horse will be here for life, and then they decide to move them.
It's the hardest part of running a livery. And I get it, I really do. I know that life gets on the way.
I know we have horses to enjoy them. But is that really fair when 'enjoying them' has negative impacts on how they live? Do we have the right to make those decisions? I'm pretty fed up of watching horses transform at my livery, make friendships and settle only to have it all taken away.
It's why I could never offer rehab livery, to only watch the horse return to the environment that caused the problems in the first place.
If your long term plan is to move your horse back to traditional livery, I think it's fairer to never give them a taste of this life in the first place. Letting them experience this life that mimics how they are supposed to live, meets their physical and mental needs, only to take it away for your own wants, is just cruel, and I'm fed up of watching it happen.
Horses owe us nothing. And deserve for us to seriously consider the impacts of our decisions on their lives.
*EDIT* I must admit as I can now, I wrote this after I was lied to by a particular livery who told me her horse was here for the 'foreseeable' due to all the issues she'd be having with him on traditional management. He was so happy here. Then she moved him after only 6 months and announced on Facebook that she had only had him here while she finished her studies and now could bring him back home. That was news to me and my staff and other clients who had seen this horse transform.
Those moments tend to trigger a good bit of writing in me so I go for it, obviously without any names etc. It's happened a few times when people's circumstances have changed and that I understand, but this time was different.
If people were honest it would be a different story, and I know life gets in the way, but this particular instance was just downright deceitful.
He was also particularly difficult to introduce into the herd and I would not have bothered with all the effort and disruption to my herd had I known her plan!!
He's now in a tiny paddock with just one other pony and stabled overnight. It breaks my heart. He was such a herd horse.
