I know we have a horse forum here, but I don't play there. I do know we have many horse people right here in doggy forum land, so please allow me to rant amongst those I know.
Every now and then, I will read a post here and wonder to myself, why does this person own a dog. Not often, but once in awhile. Based on my limited experience with horses, I truly believe that the percentage of horse owners who shouldn't own horses is far higher than that of dog owners who shouldn't own dogs.
First, a little background. As I mentioned, my experience with horses is minimal. I married into horses, if you will, about 3 years ago. My wife is quite knowledgeable about horses and my step daughter is really an expert. My personal involvement with the horses is pretty much limited to shoveling what they tell me to shovel. My forte is pasture management.
Horse people are all around us. Within a couple of miles, are two, large, equestrian training centers. Several of our neighbors operate boarding facalities, some good and some not so good. We used to board horses, but haven't done so for a couple of years. It was just too much work for too little income.
About 3 years ago, on Memorial Day weekend, we had a situation with one of our boarders. The boarder's wife had come out that morning and fed their two horses. This was spring time. The grass in the pasture was very lush. The horses had not yet been turned out for longer than a couple of hours at a time. Unfortunately, on this morning, she neglected to close the paddock gate of one of their horses and there was no one home to catch her error. The horse spent the day gorging himself on this lush, green, no doubt, very tasty, grass. When we got home that evening, the horse was down, in the pasture, with horrible colic. We called the owner and the vet. The owner arrived before the vet but we were unable to get the horse up. I offered to shoot the horse, but the owner elected to wait on the vet to see what he had to say. When the vet got there, the decision to put the horse down was made.
If you have ever seen a horse colic, you know it isn't a pleasant experience for the horse and it certainly isn't pleasant to watch. For all practical purposes, there is nothing that can be done for a horse with severe colic. Surgery, I am told, is an option but is very expensive and seldom successful.
All of this brings us to last night and my rant. I was cooking supper. The wife was outside, doing chores. She came to the door and asked if I could help catch a couple of horses that were loose in the neighbor's pasture. It was getting dark. We weren't sure who the horses belonged to, but we figured we could get them confined and figure that out later. That's the way things are done here. When you see horses loose, you catch them and, if you don't know who they belong to, you wait for the owner to come looking for them.
Our neighbor did know who the horses belonged to. She called the owner, who said she would be there in 10 minutes, while we tried to catch their horses, a mare and a gelding. The mare we were able to catch pretty much right away and get into a fenced pasture. The gelding was being stupid, as horses can. He was determined not to be caught. By now, it was getting very dark, the sky was overcast and there was no moonlight.
While we were doing our best to just keep the gelding in sight, we noticed that the mare was down in the pasture, rolling around, and not getting up. Not a good sign. The wife and I did discuss that the mare looked pregnant and perhaps we were going to get to see a baby be birthed right in our pasture. Cool.
The owner arrives. As it turns out, she is boarding at one of the places down the road a bit. One of those places who should not be boarding horses. She catches the gelding immediately. She says the mare is not pregnant and is 27 years old. We do get the mare up. The owner comments that the mare looks very bloated. Wonderful.
The owner had two teenage kids with her. They start walking the horses home. They get to the far corner of our large yard and the mare lays down again. We go to see if we can help. Now, on the scene are my wife, my SD, me, the horse owner and her two teenaged kids. So there are 5 of us. The mare is in obvious distress. The neighbor across the road and his wife come out to help. 7 of us on the scene. The neighbor says he thought he saw the horses on the wrong side of the fence that morning, as he was headed to work. We now figured that these horses, who were used to a crap pasture, had been grazing in waist high alfalfa, all day. The 7 of us are unable to get the mare to her feet.
I head to the barn, to get a whip, to see if we can beat the mare and get her up. The owner okays this plan. Just as I am walking away, a couple of guys in a pickup stop to see if they can help. Not really wanting to beat the mare, but realizing we must get her up, we decide to try, one more time, to get her to her feet. This time, between pulling on her head and beating on her butt, she gets up. FINALLY!!!
Now is where the stupid owner part of this comes in.
The owner tells her kid to walk the mare to the barn and put her in a stall. My dear SD, completely out of character for her, gets right in this woman's face and CALMLY says, "Don't put the horse in a stall, you **cking idiot. Walk the horse around until the vet gets here. If you put the horse in a stall, she will lay down. Don't let her lay down. You have to walk her around." The owner tells the kid to walk the horse around for awhile.
You could tell by her response that she had no intention of calling a vet. Probably hasn't got the money. She probably boards at this crap place because it is the cheapest boarding facility around. Her horses are pieces of crap, with no respect for people or for fences. I bet you that mare was dead this morning after suffering all night long.
Sorry for the long rant and the waste of bandwidth.