Loan Horse & Illness

[Gloucester2019]

So, I've had a 16 year old horse on loan since the start of the year. All was well initially (apart from he's buddy sour and is tricky to hack alone, but I can deal with that). Recently, his personality has changed and he's become grumpy. I've had the vet out twice, on the last visit they've diagnosed equine asthma which may explain the change in behaviour. Going forward, WWYD regarging managing the illness? In the loan contract it states that the owner is to pay at least 50% of the vets bills (they have paid 50% so far which is great). Would I be unreasonable to ask them to put it through their insurance? as I need more medication for him and it's £100 a pop for two weeks worth! Obviously I've not been able to ride him, plus I've had to change from hay to haylage for all the horses as they share a bale. Advice/experience really appreciated! thank you xx

That’s such a shame. Is there anything else that could be triggering it that you could change? Could it be stress induced? New horses to fight, new shavings, new anything else?

I’d absolutely ask the owner to put it through insurance as that’s what it’s there for. At the end of the day it’s not your horse so they can’t expect you to keep stumping up £200+ a month for meds.

Thanks so much replying, it's draining me at the moment worrying about it! There's only two other horses there, no change there, he's the boss of them so definately no stress. We thought it might be the bedding so also changed that to dust extracted. They all live out 24-7 with access to the stables for shelter. I'll have to have a conversation with the owner 😓xx

Yes I think you definitely need to talk to the owner and she needs to talk to the insurance ASAP, there's usually something in the T&Cs about notifying them as soon as a diagnosis is made/treatment started in order to make a claim, you can't usually start off a course of treatment self-funding then change your mind and ask insurance to pay halfway through so I'd get going on that.

I'd also be thinking you might need to be sounding some gentle alarm bells with the owners about whether this loan is for you long term. Presumably you took this boy on on the basis of him being a ridden horse and while of course you can't expect a 16 year old to never have any health issues at all, it sounds as though the management and health/soundness is not going in the right direction for what you were expecting/needing. Did you cover with the owner at the start of the loan what their expectations were should he need a prolonged period off work or even need to be retired or have health needs beyond what you can manage in your current set-up, as this is not unforeseeable with an older horse? Were they expecting you to effectively offer him a home for life or is there provision for them to take him back at some stage? Asthma is of course manageable and with the medication and the right set-up he might have many years left of happy working life but perhaps they do need to be thinking about what retirement might look like for him now so there aren't any nasty surprises or panic if you do need to give notice to end the loan? Harsh as it is unless you committed to this effectively being a permanent loan he is still the ultimate responsibility of his owners so I don't think you should feel obliged especially if you have other horses to consider?

Our pony has asthma , it was initially caused by a neighbouring farmer spraying a field and we have good years and bad years but she is retired so it’s not a massive issue . She won’t tolerate inhalers / nebulisers so she’s on ventilate supplement permanently and has ventipulmin if needed in the summer . Frankly in your position I would probably give notice unless you were planning on keeping him forever