AIBU for stepping in when a livery horse was left unattended for 2 days?

[Balloonhearts]

So, I really don't think I did anything wrong here. I'm not unreasonable. I'm pretty much just venting here instead of being unprofessional on the group chat. Sorry, its a long one.

I work at a riding school which is part school, part private livery. Yesterday, I was working with the barn rats (group of kids who help out at weekends/after school/any time their parents don't forcibly evict them)

We have 2 stable blocks, back-to-back. I was working in one block, mucking and two of the older kids went off to start the other block which is mostly livery/working livery. This was about 11 am. All the horses are out by 9. We turn out the school ones and working ones, private livery are DIY so do their own, there are 5 PL at the moment.

They came back almost immediately and told me Dom (not his real name) was still in and was weaving in his stall, windsucking and upset.

I went round to look as Dom's owner is an early bird, we hardly see her. She's in at 7, feeds him, turns him out, does his jobs and we don't see her again until bedtime.

He was indeed, in and very agitated. I went in and found that he had no water at all, his bucket was dry, no hay and there was no bucket in there to indicate he had been fed. There was also a LOT of poo and wet bedding.

I sent a child for a haynet and one for the hose and they filled his water,which he guzzled so fast they had to keep stopping him for fear he'd bloody colic.

I text the barn owner asking if he was on stall rest or something and she said no so I tried to ring his owner. No answer. I messaged the group chat, asking 'has anybody seen Karen this morning?' Nobody had. Someone asked if Dom was OK I said yes, he's OK, just trying to reach Karen.

One lady said that she was trying to text her last night as she hadn't been down at her usual time and the other lady had brought Dom in for her so he wouldn't be left out alone. Assumed she was just running late.

Established that Dom had not been fed or watered this morning or night before. No one had seen Karen.

I got him a scoop of the school feed. Didn't know what he usually eats so I went safe and just gave him a scoop of chaff and a scoop of pony nuts.

Tried Karen again, no answer, left another message. At 12.30 we still hadn't heard anything so I told one of the kids to put him out.

Now this was my fault as I didn't think to specify where. He normally goes in one of the little paddocks with one friend.

Child put him in one of the larger fields, as that's where his friend was, with 6 other horses. We have 6 pastures in total for the purposes of resting some while we use the others and being able to split up horses who don't get on or are prone to sillyfuckery.

He was fine out there, no one he didn't get along with, was peace and harmony. We mucked his stall as it was disgusting. Used the school bedding as we couldn't get into her storage cupboard, where her shavings are. Left hay in there and full water as we still didn't know wtf Karen was.

She appeared at about 8pm, half hour before we brought them in and closed for the night.

Hit the roof. How dare we interfere with her horse, demanded to know who put him in the 'wrong' pasture. Child immediately fessed up and apologised and she had a right go at her. Told her Dom could have been hurt being turned out in a herd.

I stepped in, pointed out we don't normally look after Dom so how was she to know? Also pointed out that Dom was fine and with horses he got along well with. He was in the 'Chill Field" where the calm horses go. He was a lot happier out there than stuck in a hot smelly stall.

She then saw the hay and started complaining that was the wrong hay. She gives him sweetened haylage which was, again locked in her cupboard. We do not have any sweet haylage. We teach beginners. We prefer those ponies and horses not to go absolutely nutcrackers on sweetened feed.

Most of ours are easy keepers who get far too many treats and are honestly getting a bit rotund. They do not need extra calories. They eat regular hay.

I'm afraid I rather lost my temper and told her she had some fucking nerve to criticise when she'd abandoned her horse for the last 48 hours with no food or water, hadn't even told anyone she couldn't make it so we could at least feed him.

I called her ungrateful because we'd fed her horse out of our own pockets and told her the child she was telling off had looked after her horse better than she had.

She complained to the barn owner who backed me and is now bitching about me on the group chat saying I interfered with her horse, did everything wrong and bad mouthed her on the group. I didn't. I just asked in there if anyone had seen her, trying to work out when she was last here.

She'd just vanished. Excuse me for caring if she was dead in a ditch.

Ungrateful cow.

And breathe....

Barn rats is a pretty common one now, think the name originated in the US. Its an affectionate term. Being a barn rat is how most horsey kids learn stable management without having to pay through the nose for the experience.

Yanbu but you would have been very unreasonable not to give her a telling off, so I'm glad you did. Wtf is she doing neglecting to feed and water her horse and bollocking people for helping it.

I would be tempted to bin Karen but then poor Dom would pay, again.

Her excuse for not showing up was pathetic.

Her complaint that he got the wrong hay was silly. Much better when in doubt to feed the low energy stuff just in case of laminitis or insulin resistance. What would have been unwise would be to feed the sweeter stuff to a horse that may be super sensitive.

I hope this was a one-off from Karen, and the manager’s letter has an effect.

The horse should have been left out in the field. People interfering is what has caused the whole situation.

This is my view as well.

Horses are fine being left out - they don't need to be locked in stalls overnight, and the only reason he was stuck in a hot stall with no food or water is because someone took it upon themselves to interfere, and then you decided you had the right to feed a horse you knew nothing about.

Rink rats is a common and affectionate way to talk about dc who are always around an ice rink. At least in the USA where they are going to be more common.

Contract is on our side, states that if you can't make it to do your horse and do not give reasonable notice, horse will be fed but you will be charged £50 extra on your livery for each instance. That relies on them giving ANY notice at all though for us to know they haven't been.

I assume abandoned horses would be surrendered to RSPCA if the owner can't be contacted. Honestly it's not something we've come across before.

Other lady was kind to bring him in as he would have been very distressed to be out alone but, yes, this did contribute to us not realising that he was unattended. Not her fault, she was just trying to be helpful.

Who turns their horses out during the day in summer? Surely they are out at night and in during the day?

Horse owner here, you e done absolutely nothing wrong! She had basically abandoned her horse, if you’re in the UK on the hottest days of the year. If she was unable to visit her horse she should have contacted the yard owner! YO should be asking her to leave!

Loads of horses live out 24/7 no matter what the the time of year

This 👆👆

The side fields are shaded and have a stream running through the back. The stables are like an oven atm, the heat hits you as you walk in. They're better off out.

Yes, forgot about that bit. But, given Dom was distressed, hot, dirty, thirsty and hungry, the OPs decisions were sound (barring forgetting to specify Dom’s field, though luckily he ended up being fine in the bigger group).

If you’re a horse owner thank god you’re not on my yard! Basic courtesy is that if the owner could not attend her horse, she should have notified the YO! If the horse has a routine to come in at night, it will get very stressed being left on its own, stress can cause colic! OP did the right thing, she tried contacting the owner, who did not respond, no one had seen her, so no one knew if she was alive or dead! I’ve a friend who had a horrific accident bring her horses in, had everyone just assumed she’d left her horses out she would have died! So think on

And is ‘Karen’ her real name or just another slur?

As someone called Karen I am still getting pissed off with this.

She is definitely in the wrong but just to give her slight benefit of the doubt, she thought her horse was in the field with access to shade and water etc

People were not interfering, they were concerned for the animal's welfare.

The owner fucking off and completely abandoning her horse with no food or water is what caused the situation.

It wasn't left without food or water by the owner, but by someone taking it upon themselves to interfere. I too would be mega pissed off if I'd decided to leave my horse out for whatever reason only to discover it had been brought in, dumped in a stable, not fed, watered, or mucked out . . .

Poor horse. You did the right thing. You didn't make any silly assumptions or interfere needlessly. You saw a huge problem and you handled it.

That she's bitching about you online just shows what a childish fuck she is.

I think the lady who brought Dom in should have at least given him water. She was obviously trying to help but never got any reply from Karen (maybe she's not the sort to send a "thanks for bringing Dom in" message). Definitely Karen is at fault for not being in touch with the yard, did she expect her horse to have been left in the field overnight? (I think that would be fine for many horses but seems not your policy.)

I think she did right bringing him in. He's a highly strung warmblood who hates being out alone and would just have worked himself up and that way lies madness, vets bills, and property damage. They usually come in together.

He's also not an easy keeper, always winters underweight so didn't want to give him nothing, considering he'd skipped 2 feeds already. I swear he drops weight every time he poops.

I know he usually has some sort of hard feed, think it's Ease and Excel from seeing it in the bucket and chaff is always a safe bet. He usually has barley and stuff too but we didn't have any so I worked with what I had.

She very lucky he didn’t colic, from lack of food or water or from stress. She’s also very lucky you showed concern. If this was another livery I knew, I’d be panicking she was dead on her kitchen floor alone.

Unless this is incredibly out of character, as the yard owner, I’d probably be asking her to leave after this.

Is she normally reliable and this is out of character for her? Or has she done similar before? It could have been some kind of emergency. Yes, she should have informed someone, asked on the group chat if someone would bring him in/muck him out/feed and water him.

I agree that leaving a horse out on its own can cause a lot of stress and injury. Especially a highly strung one.

I think what needs to be taken away from this is that if someone notices an owner hasn’t turned up for whatever reason then they need to inform someone and post on the group chat about it. That way everyone knows what is happening with that animal and how long it’s been in/out. I understand why the first person brought him in, but had they flagged that he hadn’t seen his owner then the livery owner would have kept an eye on him themselves and made sure he was fed/watered/clean. It perhaps also needs to be a rule that each horse has their schedule and feed on a chart on their stable door, so if their owner can’t make it then it’s easy for others to feed them the right thing and know when something is out of the ordinary.

And perhaps a spare key for each person’s locker needs to be kept with a trusted person, head groom or the yard owner?

Yard owner here. YANBU.
However:
Barn manager should have been aware that the horse wasn't being attended to and made sure that it had been taken care of appropriately.

Barn manager should have been the one trying to contact the owner.
Barn manager should be giving that horse owner notice for A) not attending to their horse and not organising for anyone else to do it B) being abusive towards staff who were taking care of her horse as well as possible, given that they could not access her supplies C) continuing to be abusive online.
I would give her 48 hours notice for that. She would not be permitted on site and the horse would be kept on full livery until departure, payable in full by the livery.

Em everyone? My cousin is an international event rider and his horses are out all day and in at night. I'm surprised riding school ponies aren't out at night and in during the day for work.
Horses should be outside in a herd type environment when possible.