What to do about sister-in-law's horse
I'm in the UK, so may need UK-specific advice.
Basically, about 5 years ago, my chap's sister bought a pony, while living with their dad, then moved out. He knows nothing about horses, but has cared for it the best he can. She does actually work with horses but has somehow decided that she doesn't care for her own. She doesn't live near enough to come visit it (she doesn't drive) and she doesn't give her dad any money for using the field or for food. He never asks her for money, either, he'd much rather complain than actually confront her about it. The pony is never exercised, the field he lives in doesn't have proper grass and he basically just eats pony nuts and ginger biscuits and whatever he manages to nibble in his field.
Last year, my chap and I moved in to attempt to renovate the very rundown family house. During the 10 months we've lived here, the pony has broken out of his field into our garden about 12 times. Every time, my chap and his dad patch up the fence and put him back in until he gets bored enough to try again. This week, he's broken out 4 times. There is a zip line down the end of the garden in case he does break out, but he's broken all of his lead rope clips and any attempts to tie him up have ended in more destroyed ropes. He's destroyed the garden, too, and every time I try to take my dog out to do his business, he comes charging over. I'm pretty good with animals, but know nothing about horses and he's completely unsocialised and has quite a history of biting people, so I don't feel overly comfortable handling him. He was probably only about a year old when she bought him and barely anyone has interacted with him since then. Further, he's very interested in my dog, who is very large and nervous and prone to snapping at animals who scare him, so after some controlled attempts to introduce them early last year, I've kept them entirely separate. Now I have to deal with the pony in my face and a strong, nervous dog and it's just impossible to control both at the same time. My chap's dad is home all day, but more or less acts like we're being stupid if one of us has the dog and is trying to scare the pony off by shouting. He doesn't seem to understand that you can't just grab the pony with the dog as well, nor does he seem to understand how dangerous a situation putting those two animals near each other could be. I just really, really don't want my dog to get kicked to death and I'm also small, pregnant and don't want to get caught in the middle of two very strong animals, either.
Just to make matters worse, today he's started kicking our back door. Our front door is sealed off, so we really only have the back door into the garden as access. We've tried to scare him away from the door, but he's clearly bored out of his mind and our efforts to chase him off pretty much result in a blank stare. I left the door open today when I took the dog out and came back to find him front hooves in the actual house. I seriously do feel bad for him, because everything he's done seems to be purely from boredom. My chap's confronted his sister about the whole situation and tried to urge her to sell him to someone who actually wants a pony, but her answer is just, "Tell me how much it'll cost to fix the fence, dad needs to tell me when he needs money for food and hay and so on." Paying for things would be a great start, sure, but it won't cure the poor thing's boredom, which really seems to be what's causing him to be so destructive. Despite the fact that my chap's dad thinks it's ridiculous she has a pony he has to care for, he also won't confront her about it.
Obviously, I'm pretty fed up. When my chap's home, we can, between us, keep the horse from coming to close to the dog, but I can't manage on my own and am really just at a loss as to what the hell I can do. We are going to buy a lead rope tomorrow evening and have told his sister that she'll be paying for it, but I have to find a way to get my dog in and out of the house safely before then. Even then, chances are high he'll break anything we buy, too, because he has nothing but time. Honestly, I even offered to take him for a walk last summer and his sister just outright said it wasn't allowed. So she doesn't want a pony, but also doesn't want anyone else to give him what he needs. For the record, she's 30 this year, so ought to have a bit more sense.
I have genuinely considered selling him from under her nose, but she bought him for £70 with no paperwork. This whole situation is genuinely ridiculous. There's a horse in my garden that's trying to break into my house. See? Ridiculous.
I honestly don't know what I expect advice-wise, but at this point, anything at all would help.
Submitted February 13, 2018 at 02:12PM by not-a-tapir
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/7xcpq3/what_to_do_about_sisterinlaws_horse/?utm_source=ifttt
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