Who owns this baby (horse!)?

[MrsOnyx]

Very long story short, my friend bought a very nice, well bred young mare in early May, intending to train the horse into a particular equestrian discipline, at which friend excels, and competes at a high level.

By November, it was clear something was not quite right with the horse, and an examination by her vet confirmed that she's pregnant! The baby is due in April (11 months gestation for a horse), so the horse must have dtd just before friend bought her.

The horse's old owner has found out about the expected arrival (another long story) and is demanding the return of the horse, or of the as yet unborn foal, as he is saying it belongs to him. Friend is maintaining that the baby is her property and is not entertaining any approach by the old owner to lay claim to it. She has removed the horse from her property, to a place of safety elsewhere, until the matter is resolved.

The baby must have been sired by the old owners breeding stallion, whose progeny command extremely high prices in horse circles, hence his desire to have the foal back. Who is right in this situation? Has my friend got a lucky freebie horse, or does the old owner have any claim to the baby and the right to demand its return? (He has written friend a long letter offering a few options to "resolve the matter" ..... friend has yet to reply).

Old owner has no claim to the baby unless it was specified in the sales contract.

Without the owner "on side" to help provide proof of breeding to the stallion (breeding contract, DNA typing, etc.), the foal will likely not command the high price of registered progeny, and breed registries might turn the foal away (unless they do their own DNA typing or it's an open breeding book.) So it's not quite as much a windfall as all that.

But yes, the foal is hers.

Well, the old owner was extremely careless to allow this to happen. The foal belongs to your friend, and if it was me I’d counter any claims from the old owner with some words about how the pregnancy and ensuing birth may affect the performance of the mare in training and competition (is it the mare’s first foal?)

Your friend bought the mare and everything therein. In this instance, that included a foal.

The seller should have taken better care before selling her. Both to check for pregnancy but also to know that there was a chance she could be pregnant.

Old owner has no claim to the foal.

unless it's in the contract (not quite uncommon for breeding lifestock) the foal belongs to the owner of the mother.

if your friend bought from a breeder she needs to check the contract carefully.

Your friend owns the future foal. The old owner was irresponsible to allow this to happen by accident, especially if the mare is very young.

This is such a medieval-sounding problem 🤣

How dumb is the old owner. Not that hard to keep horses separate is it. Especially if one of them is a prize stallion. Not that hard to do a pregnancy test on a horse before selling it, either.

Congratulations to your friend on her free horse.

I’d suggest she either hire a solicitor to write a letter to him, or if she chooses to do it herself, write something very short stating that the legal situation is extremely clear: the horse is hers, any progeny of the horse is hers, any attempt to access said progeny will be referred to the police, as will any further harassment on the matter, and in the meantime “all rights are reserved”.

New owner owns both the mare and the foal. The same happened to a friend of mine recently. She bought a BOGOF unknowingly.

Although it's a "free horse " I'd be might unhappy with this situation. The horse will have to have about 18 months out of work/competition, she will have vet bills, it's a huge risk to the mare, and like PP said, at the moment you've only got his word at the moment that she was covered by a decent stallion.

*mighty

Thank you for the replies.

The mare is only 4 years old, so first foal for her. As I suspected, the old owner seems to have no claim here, but the letter he wrote sort of implies that his stallion must be the daddy: he clearly thinks it is!

Friend has moved the mare to a reputable stud facility where she will remain until the baby is born and weaned. She is Ok with taking the horse out of work for at least a year - probably more as pp said - she has three others to ride in the mean time.

I have suggested she gets her legal advisors involved in wording a suitable reply, as she's pretty angry at the old owners stance on this and might say something "unfortunate" if she replies herself.

Thank you again.

He can’t lay claim to the goal and absolve himself of all the other costs involves. Does he honestly think your friend is going to pay for all the veterinary costs of the mare and the subsequent loss of condition during the pregnancy/year off afterwards and then he just swoops in and takes the foal?

What a plonker!!!