Update on my sister-in-law's horse
Hey, I was asked to update after my last post, so here's my update!
Things have improved a little, but I still have concerns. The main thing for mine and my dog's safety is that we bought (and had my SIL pay for) a new lead rope and a D-ring. There was already a sort of zipline in the garden, so we've tied him to that for now. He has moderate shelter in the form of an apple tree, at least. She has also bought hay which is being provided to the pony daily now, along with the pony feed.
Of course, this doesn't solve all of our problems. A few days ago, he managed to somehow break the D-ring and get loose and we couldn't find the D-ring's bar afterwards, so had to magic up a different solution, which is working for now. It seems logical to me that he still wants to graze, hay or not, and there's just no grass left in the section of the garden he can reach. He needs to go back in the field where he belongs.
Of course, the fence has not been fixed and suggestions of an electric fence have not been received with any kind of enthusiasm, despite us seeing that it would only cost about £40 from our nearest equine supplies shop. My chap is just outright fed up, since he knows that the reason no one is fixing the fence is because he hasn't offered to do it and we've been either busy with our own maintenance of the house or preparing to move out or preparing for our baby. And, of course, we have a large dog who needs exercising, so it's a bit unreasonable for everyone to assume my chap has time to do it. There's such apathy involved here, it's very frustrating. Even when his sister did show up last weekend, instead of going and buying feed, she just gave their dad the money for it, meaning he had to then borrow our car and use our fuel to go get it. My chap has messaged her about both her fixing the fence and actually taking an hour out of her month to collect feed, rather than just delivering money, but hasn't had any response from her.
The pony not being in the field adds a further concern for me. I've been trying to spend a bit of time with him, just giving him a bit of fuss and just been very careful to only interact with him at the end of his tether, so I can back away if necessary just to be extra safe for my baby. I doubt now that I've given him a bit of fuss that he'd intentionally hurt me, but obviously, I just have to be wary. I'm now quite concerned about his halter. The halter is left on even when he's in the field and although it doesn't seem tight and I can fit my fingers underneath it, there is a very notable dent in his face. Even knowing not much about horses, it doesn't take a genius to see that he can't have a halter on all the time if it's causing that kind of dent in his face. I'm really upset, actually, that no one has noticed how bad it is until now. You can't see from a distance, I guess, and nobody bothers to go near enough to him to notice. Even if it's a nuisance to catch him when he escapes without a halter, leaving it on all the time must be causing him quite a bit of discomfort and I'm certain he could always be caught with offers of food, if necessary.
We're moving out in a month and if nothing has changed then, I'll do my best to get a rescue involved, as we won't be here to monitor the situation and can't trust that things will continue to improve for him. At that point, too, we'll be out of the way if it causes huge family drama. I still think the best solution would for him to be rehomed, but my SIL simply ignores that part of any conversation about it and you can't talk to someone about something if they just refuse to acknowledge what you're saying.
Oh, yes, and there's been absolutely no move or comment on getting him a passport, so he's still being kept illegally.
Submitted February 28, 2018 at 06:35AM by not-a-tapir
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/80w2j2/update_on_my_sisterinlaws_horse/?utm_source=ifttt
No comments :
Post a Comment