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....

Well done op. Thank goodness you noticed! Ungrateful cow. Not fit to own a horse.

I'm not a horsey person ( never even been in a saddle ) but I think you did,the right thing .
Surely a horses well being is paramount and to be left with no water or food and mucky is not good horse management .
She is angry because she knows she was in the wrong and it was all to see in the group chat .
I'm glad the owner of the place has backed you up . Hold your head up high .

Thing is regardless of the rights or wrongs of the lady who put him in the owners or someone arranged by her is meant to visit twice a day.

She didn’t and didn’t notify anyone.

Some horses are ok to be left alone over night turned out many or rather most won’t like that.

The owner failed in the most basic way. A simple text could have solved all the issues. Also his stable wouldn’t be that dirty from one night. So she clearly didn’t muck out the day she turned him out either.

Oh my god, calm down 😂. The op is saying it in a lighthearted way.

Good on the manager @Balloonheartsfor sending that text. The owner is just probably feeling massively embarrassed that everyone knows she’s been a crap owner. You all absolutely did the right thing. I remember riding as a teenager in the summer and the stables were like an oven!! He was clearly distressed. Just ignore the silly cow now and hopefully the manager will deal with any more issues.

I know nothing about horses or stables but if I were following the Whatsapp group you mention, I think it would be crystal clear what had actually happened, although maybe not how long the horse had been left. Hopefully, the stable has a plan to monitor poor Dom and the care he is given for the next few months to ensure he is being looked after.

The OP admitted on a previous one of her "lighthearted" threads about stable life that she once spent a entire ride beating the horse she was leading around the face with a riding crop, so I wouldn't assume a) that she's joking or b) that she's quite the expert on horse behaviour and welfare that she presents herself as here.

Yes, but if you would care to read my comment you have replied to my point was the owner didn’t leave the horse in the stable. Someone else did that. As far as the owner was aware the horse was just out in a field, like horses do. I understand OP found him in a situation but the owner didn’t cause it.

It's a thing for horsey kids who don't have the money for a horse of their own or often even for riding lessons.
Those children would sleep in the stables if they didn't get prised away.
My sister did it back in the early 70s and it led to a lifelong love of horses.

Oh, I do have knowledge. Neither situation was ideal but I think it’s unfair to blame the owner for the horse having no feed/water when she thought he was in the field.

😂 Tells me you have never had a horse. If you'd spent any significant amount of time with them, you would know that they are complete goofs.

We have a 30 year old mare who needed stitches because she jumped out of her field, directly into a tree for no other reason than the cow parsley on that side of the fence was clearly superior to the cow parsley on her side.

One who diligently pulled his friends tail repeatedly until he was kicked in the face despite being the best of friends the other 99% of the time.

One who can open bolts and let's himself into areas where he is very not welcome, most memorably the toilet block because he decided he could not be more than 6 inches from me at any time and also once tried to burgle an ice cream van.

One who cast himself in a large water trough with his legs underneath him and did such a superb job of it that we had to tip it over with the tractor to get him out.

Ask any horse owner and they will add to this list of ridiculous misadventures.

Whether or not the horse was fine to be left alone in the field , it is a condition of her livery that his owner checks on him twice a day. She was negligent not to let anyone know that she couldn’t come up to him. Had she bothered to have some communication, none of this would have hapoened.

Having been left completely in the dark by his owner, who wasn’t answering her phone, everyone else did the best they could by trying to keep to his routine.

Liveries are in at night, he wouldn't have been left out and she knows this. He'd either have gone bananas when his friend went in or his friends owner would have brought him in (as did happen) assuming she was simply running late.

Have you used AI for this? You’re using American terms but ££ etc so I’m confused.

If this is true then this should have gone straight to the yard owner/manager not managed by kids helping - putting a horse in the wrong field is an absolutely disaster waiting to happen which non horsey people wouldn’t understand but my horse was killed by someone putting the wrong horse in his field - if in doubt he should have been put somewhere on his own.

If that was my yard anyone leaving a horse in a stable more that 12 hours without visiting would be given their marching orders.

Do you remember the cartoon ‘Rugrats’? 🙂

the owner knew the both horses would presumably be brought in together. as one gets upset if left alone and the other removed. so the owner should have known what would happen and spoken to the other horses owner at the very least. to either ask her to look after both or leave both out if that would be ok.

its common in the horse world. one of mine was like that. ran about screeching like a maniac for no reason if left alone. the other two didnt care.

horses can be pretty stupid. yea maybe on occasion because they are stables and it’s unnatural. mine would crap in his stable water bucket. his only source of water. how stupid. i had to leave two buckets spread out so hed have one left if he crapped in the other. idiot horse.

result with the yard owners message. very sensible.

It's obviously a case of guilt , you did everything you could do and more .
She's obviously not looking after her horse and l would be keeping an eye on him on future.Well done you 👏

Absolutely disgusting, neglectful and rude behaviour. That poor horse

Hi op she went ballistic because she knows she was in the wrong the owner should send her an email saying if you can’t be bothered to come and feed you horse or contact someone else to do it we will not step in after your rude behaviour to my staff and we will report you for neglect. Horses not having a drink in this heat is diabolical fuck her whoever she tells it will only be half of the truth because anyone decent who loves horses would tell her straight she was bang out of order and you both deserve an apology.

This is why a lot of yards now insist that you share feeding layouts etc when you start boarding in case there is an emergency in which you can’t make it / can’t be reached.

horse couldn’t be left out clearly as he’d be alone and probably hit the roof.

I would report her anyway, that was gross neglect. Poor horse, and well done OP for helping.

I've owned horses and worked with them professionally. You didn't read my comment before you started scoffing - absolutely all the injuries you describe are the likely result of exactly what I said they were - horses kept in unnatural and stressful conditions, injuring themselves trying to escape confinement or boredom, and/or on items (bolts, troughs, fences) that don't occur in their natural environment. You won't find these injuries occurring in wild horses, nor is there any evidence that wild or free roaming horses are particularly accident prone.

And once again, I'm not really up for being lectured on welfare and behaviour by someone who beats horses round the face with a whip. No wonder horses are injuring themselves around you if that's how you treat them.

OP you should've informed the yard manager that the horse was without water and hay and let them deal with it - if they asked you to hay and water the horse that's fair enough but you really shouldn't have guessed at the hard feed.
Your yard manager should be having a 'pull this shit again and you'll be looking for a new yard' convo with the owner.

The owner didn't turn up at all the night before and nobody could contact her. So someone thought they were doing her and the horse a favour. That's why the horse was brought in, because you absolutely do not leave a herd animal out in a field overnight on its own.

I’d have done exactly the same as you, and THEN I’d have informed the yard manager. You can leave a horse in a distressed state, with no water or food, in a dirty stable.

They are children. They won't break.
But they learned how to help, how to care for animals and not how to do it. Brilliant lessons.

Why you fixating on something that's not relevant?