Sold my pony, went to see him yesterday and now feel awful.

[fortuneandglory]

He was very neglected looking, long tatty mane, hadn't been clipped for ages. Looked very downcast and miserable. We were all quite shocked. Family say they adore him . They've had him on loan for a while and sent a few pics of him looking happy jumping in the field etc. Turns out they now have no transport so he's just a hack. He used to be a really great pony club pony. Underneath all the tattiness he didn't look thin and his feet looked ok.

I feel like going to get him back and quite can't bear to cash the cheque. Please tell me I am being silly

I was always taught to leave a horse in better condition than when you found it. If you feel your pony is neglected then you need to do what you feel is right. You can always find him another home that will treat him as you treated him .

Are you saying that you haven't yet cashed the cheque from when he was sold? How long ago was that? Seems a bit odd that you have held onto a cheque for long enough for the pony to have been loaned out and become tatty and neglected. Have you had doubts about this family all along?

No they have been loaning him for nearly a year but I needed to sell him so they were keen to buy. I only got the cheque yesterday! I don't think he's neglected just tatty. I hadn't seen him for a few months and he always looked so smart before.

Smart doesn't seem important to me. But you say he's miserable?

He just didn't have any oomph or sparkle about him. I'm probably being stupid as I've seen lots of videos of him with them and he always looked happy.

Tatty really matters to me I would never let a pony or horse look worse than they did when they came to me (I've had quite a few on loan over the years).

I know I'm being silly, they do love him.

I bought a horse who had been clipped, rugged and gone here there and everywhere, he was ridden in a martingale and always booted. I don't clip, rarely rug him and only hack. The extra bits of tack have gone. As long as your pony has company, suitable grazing and enough forage and has his feet looked after he won't mind cutting back on his workload.

My horse gets clipped once, in about November. They shouldn't be clipping at this time of year when his spring coat is coming through. Neither do I pull manes in winter. I'm not competing at the moment and horses evolved with manes for a reason.

Look beyond the cosmetics and remember horses don't have competitive ambitions. Is he basically happy and healthy?

If you accepted money for him, I think it's too late. This is the trouble with selling and why I just can't, even tho I should :(. You say they love him and you've had lovely pics. This is a crap time of year for coats, thank god I clipped mine, or he'd look like a total scruff.

I think Campbell is right. I would add getting enough love and attention to the list, but it looks the pony is getting that.

Can I give a view from "their side of the fence" as it were?

I had an ex-racehorse given to me, on what I thought was permanent loan. After 18 months the person who gave him to me came to visit (first time in 18 months!) and decided that I wasn't looking after him properly. She said his coat was too long, my field too wet, my stables too small, that he looked miserable and that I shouldn't be riding him in circles in a school.

I had spent a season hunting this horse, and he went lame at the end of the season. I spent £400 on the vet and then rested him for 6 months. He came sound and I started riding him in late autumn, very gently, and started to go for side saddle lessons with a view to turning him into a show horse as I felt he wouldn't manage hunting full time. When she came to see him in January he was unclipped with a long-ish coat, unpulled mane, no shoes. But he was well fed, in good condition and all I could see was a happy relaxed horse enjoying a few hours turnout in a soggy winter field, starting back on the road to full work. She saw a miserable horse standing in a wet field who hadn't been rugged or stabled or groomed or maintained (he was rugged, and stabled at night, but she didn't seem to believe me). He was perfectly well looked after, with every aspect of his care attended to - but she did not see this and I couldn't persuade her otherwise.

I just wanted to tell that story - your pony may be perfectly well cared for and actually quite happy! If you still have the freedom to take him back and it would upset you terribly for them to keep him then perhaps you should take him back. But once you sell/pass on a horse, it is not really up to you to tell the new carers how to look after him as long as he is not neglected!

A full coat and a long mail are not really relevant to his welfare. You say he was a good weight and his feet were trimmed, so those are good signs. Are you sure you are not just feeling guilty for having sold him?

Also, what some people may regard as 'tatty' others may see as 'natural'.

Most of our welsh ponies are not clipped, not shoed, not rugged and out in the fields as much as possible, including in rain/snow/when it is freezing. They are checked daily to see if they are okay.

We also have a few top competition ponies. They are a totally different story. They spend more time in paddocks rather than on grass as otherwise they get too fat to compete at high level. Tthey are trained 6 days a week all year round. They have to be clipped during the winter. They are stabled when it is cold/rainy and if necessary rugged (including when riding out in the rain or cold). Several of them had to be shoed as well as they have thin soles which bruise quickly during eventing/driving.

I would not say that the tatty/natural looking ones are less well looked after. Sometimes I think they have the better life TBH.

He sounds like our horses looked having come through winter.

As long as he is fed, loved and cared for, when his summer coat comes through he will probably look better