Not wanting contact from previous owners?

[Daytimetellysucks]

We have a rescue pony who is now retired. Pony had 4 owners, including ourselves.

Owners 1 and 3 I am in contact with - they’re friends on FB and owner 3 is local so we bump into her when out and about and stuff like that.

My pony, along with several others, was removed from owner 2 by the RSPCA after some pretty bad neglect. Owner 2 was prosecuted and banned from keeping horses.

About 6 months ago out of the blue, I got a FB message from owner 2, saying they they thought I had a pony they used to own and if so, how was the pony doing

I replied with a photo and a brief ‘yes, pony is with us, doing fine, retired and loving life’ message.

Owner 2 kept pestering me, asking for more photos and updates, asking if they can come and visit. I don’t want to update them, I certainly don’t want them to come and visit so I messaged to say pony is fine, but please stop messaging me and blocked them.

Now there’s a post on our local horse FB group from owner 2 looking for my pony, that I’ve blocked them and they’re heartbroken not knowing what’s happening to him (a friend sent me a screenshot). I’ve messaged the group admin and explained and apparently they’ve now turned off comments (be better if they deleted it but, whatever) but I’ve been tagged in the post a few times and a few people have messaged me about it.

There’s nothing to update, pony is retired, it does fuck all and I’ve told them that, so I don’t see the point anyway.

What’s reasonable contact to expect? I don’t want anything to do with the person who neglected my pony to the point they were prosecuted for it, and think I’ve already done enough

I’d share the legal / prosecution bit to the FB admins, plus I’d report the post to FB itself and ask to have it removed due to harassment.
If owner continues I’d threaten them with a harassment order against them.

You sound 100% reasonable in the situation. There is no way I’d engage further with the abuser of your pony either.

You have way more than most, I’d leave it there and not reply or offer any more explanation, possibly msg the page admin and ask for post to be removed.

Sorry but if you’ve neglected animals enough to have rspca take them away you do not deserve updates from further owners, you’ve told her pony is fine and retired, she needs to move on.

Google their names. Likely there will be an article in local news. Screenshot and post. And don't feel bad...

There is no reasonable contact the pony is yours and it’s none of their business IMO it was kind of you to send them the initial photo . I know lots of people are of the opinion that it doesn’t do any harm to share things with ex owners but having had issues with one of our horses in the past I will not now share any info at all except ‘he/ she is fine thanks’ . Is this pony yours or do you have it on life loan from a rescue , if it’s the latter it may be worth contacting the rescue and telling them to tell the ex owner to get lost .

Thanks

I sent the news reports to the FB group admin. I’m going to message again and ask for it to be deleted.

I don’t know whether to reply to all the other messages with an explanation. I don’t want anyone to think I’m just being awkward in not updating owner 2, but at the same time I don’t want to get involved with explanations and giving out information.

We own the pony. Owner 3 loaned and then became the official owner after a couple of years, then sold it to us a few years later.

I'd be very tempted to message Owner 2 one final time, and explain you know why the pony was removed from her, and you have news reports. I would say if she continues to post about this online, you will share the information in the groups she posts in, to explain why you won't update her.

I think you've been hugely restrained.

I would completely ignore and not have any contact, people like that can be very strange

Not saying at all that you should let them, but maybe in some weird way they want to see the pony again to 'apologise' to it for their ill-treatment/neglect and to make themselves feel better that the pony survived and is happy. I'm afraid that's their problem, caused by their cruelty, not yours. Could explain their strange behaviour...