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Horsey money saving hints? (merged)

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Comments

  • trudij
    trudij Posts: 1,905 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Ramble away!!! (and the girls on ex-racers love a ramble!!) :D

    As long as you are honest about your capabilities and facilities with yourself and the owner/trainer theres no reason why you wouldnt be fine with an ex-racer, but you have to put your head and heart seperate...

    whereabouts are you??

    xx:beer:
    Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup
  • ~Chameleon~
    ~Chameleon~ Posts: 11,956 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Petal, I can fully understand the emotions you're going through right now but you really need to think this through logically. If this horse had a realistic chance of coming 100% sound then he would probably be sold off at market, so the fact they are willing to give him away tells me his working days are most likely over and they need shot of him.

    You might be very lucky to get some light use out of him between bouts of lameness (costly vets fees - uninsurable!) but the fact he's been fired tells me this has been done as a last resort so tendon damage was likely to have been quite severe.

    How old is he? I'm thinking possibly 4-5yrs old? If so, he's also going to be very green. Do you have any experience handling youngsters? They're a totally different kettle of fish than what you might be used to.

    D'you know, the more I think about this, the more I think you should run a million miles in the opposite direction ;)

    If I were you I'd look for someone who needs a sharer in your local area. Chances are with the way the economy is going there will be quite a few people out there at looking to share costs/responsiblity if it means they can keep their horse.
    “You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”
  • trudij
    trudij Posts: 1,905 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Though there are plenty of fired tbs knocking about who hunt, hunter triall, showjump,play polo and horseball and do endurance,without so much as a flicker of a problem re-occuring. Any horse that has had a tendon injury is a bit of a timebomb, but it completely depends on what you want to do with him. Horses are still fired in Ireland,so its not such an unusual thing - and while its not everyones cup of tea,a lot of old school thinking still rates it as a treatment.Time (IMO) is the best way to deal with a tendon, and the year off hes had is just as likely to have healed him.Im presuming youre not planning on competing him a lot, so as long as hes fit to hack and do low level stuff,youd be happy? (havign had him vetted first of course!!) plus, as chamelion rightly says, youre insurance will not cover his legs in front (presuming hes fired in front!) (either of them) as there is already a problem with them. You will be ok for accidents and bone problems,but not tendon or ligament problems.

    Personally, the fact that you are asking about this on a moneysaving board suggests that hes not nececcarily the right horse for you at the moment - but equally,dont let the fact that hes been fired put you off if you are certain everything else fits - They will be getting rid of him because they wont get anything like a decent amount of cash at the sales for him - at the moment its costing almost as much in fees as you get back - and if they were to ship him over for Ascot sales, the chances are that he will be going the same way as an awful lot of the unsolds/£300 ones - and its not nice.

    Id be erring with Chamelion - maybe a sharer will be the best way for you to go for the moment - get your hand back in, get an idea of the real costs of horse ownership - (its certainally changed a lot lately!) and get yourself riding again before you look to get one on your own??
    Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup
  • Petal_3
    Petal_3 Posts: 779 Forumite
    Thanks both for your replies and you're both absolutely right! Just to confirm tho....I know the owner of the horse and the trainer knows I know him so I think the info on the horse is genuine - I guess that's also part of why they're prepared to "give" him away - he's not worth a heap of money at the sales and I know it's costing the owner a lot of money as the horse is still with the trainer. He's a 6 yr old gelding btw...raced once. I've done heaps of research since and, if had the time, I think I would take the gamble. Now I've come back down to earth I think that sharing would be a great place to start. Our local stables does Stable Management sessions starting soon so I think I'll do that for fun and cos I'm a bit rusty and I'll make some enquiries there.

    I think some part of me has this romantic notion of sharing the bond that I used to have with my horse again....it was so special (Gosh, welling up now) :o I sooo want another that I can talk myself into the fact the I DO have the time - when realistically, I don't (was up for 2 hrs in the night thinking about this!) . So, sharing it is then! Although that brings its own problems.....lol

    I'm in Reading, Berks - btw.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to help me through my mid-life crisis! lol
    Perhaps I'll lurk and live vicariously through you. Maybe I should get myself the barbie with the horse and trailer ;)
    Owned by [STRIKE]4[/STRIKE] 4 cats: 2 x Maine coon cross males, 1 x Pixie Bob male and[STRIKE] 2[/STRIKE] 1 x Norwegian Forest male....cute!

    R.I.P Darling Jackson 11/7/09 - 15/1/10 :(
    Miss u sweetie... :heart:
  • Petal wrote: »
    I sooo want another that I can talk myself into the fact the I DO have the time - when realistically, I don't (was up for 2 hrs in the night thinking about this!) . So, sharing it is then! Although that brings its own problems.....lol

    I'm in Reading, Berks - btw.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to help me through my mid-life crisis! lol
    Perhaps I'll lurk and live vicariously through you. Maybe I should get myself the barbie with the horse and trailer ;)

    My Barbies had to ride My Little Ponies because the Barbie horses were too expensive. They also drove Tonka Trucks and lived in decorated cardboard boxes. Ah well, I didn't mind at the time!

    I'm a sharer, I had been looking on Friday Ads, Free ads, ridemyhorse etc... then found "oodle.co.uk" which was great because it sends email alerts for loads of different sites within a specified distance of home. No one replied when I answered their ads though, in the end I found the horse I'm sharing now on Freecycle of all places! Not exactly a landfill item, nor was it free, but I can't complain because he's fantastic and sharing is definitely the best way for me, I think having a commitment every single day would become a chore.

    (For oodle I set up two alerts, one with the key word "share" and the other "loan", horses are under the pets category and in the "refine by" bit you put your postcode and distance from it, then just click "email me when new listing match this search". You can choose for emails to come daily, hourly etc)
    :heart2: Give blood. :female: Use a mooncup.
    But ensure the two are not connected!
  • Petal_3
    Petal_3 Posts: 779 Forumite
    Thanks for that Purplelotus - will have a look. How long have you been sharing? Ever owned ?

    Just thought....I seem to have hijacked someone else's thread...doh! Sorry!

    ~x~
    Owned by [STRIKE]4[/STRIKE] 4 cats: 2 x Maine coon cross males, 1 x Pixie Bob male and[STRIKE] 2[/STRIKE] 1 x Norwegian Forest male....cute!

    R.I.P Darling Jackson 11/7/09 - 15/1/10 :(
    Miss u sweetie... :heart:
  • I don't think it's anyone in particular's thread, think it's the only horsey one here.

    Not been sharing long, only a couple of months, but I've wanted a horse "forever". I've never owned one, always been very jealous of all 4 of my aunts that have horses as well as my godmother, so that and lessons on holidays have been my only experiences really.

    You might notice from earlier posts I'm not in the slightest bit technical about horses. The one I share is brown (chestnut?) and has no balls (gelding?) and lives with a couple of white ponies (greys?). Orlao kindly taught me the name for "the thingie that goes on his face to stop bugs going in his eyes" (fly face mask!!)

    When I went to uni I spent what others would have spent on alcohol on weekly riding lessons instead and have done a three day treck in the Breckon Beacons which was great.

    At the same time as desperately wanting to be completely "in the know" about all things horsey, I was often also put off by the utter snobbery of many people I came across... however how can anyone be a snob on a "money saving expert" forum?! This site is great and so are the people on it so here comes another of my probably quite stupid questions...

    what's firing?
    :heart2: Give blood. :female: Use a mooncup.
    But ensure the two are not connected!
  • ~Chameleon~
    ~Chameleon~ Posts: 11,956 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker

    what's firing?

    Very basically it's a technique whereby a hot iron is applied at several points, burning through the skin, on a horse's lower leg in an attempt to accelarate and promote healing of the damaged tendons below. It's a rather painful and barbaric treatment and the horses legs swell up considerably during the healing process. It's been banned in the UK since around 1991 thankfully.
    “You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”
  • orlao
    orlao Posts: 1,090 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    At the same time as desperately wanting to be completely "in the know" about all things horsey, I was often also put off by the utter snobbery of many people I came across... however how can anyone be a snob on a "money saving expert" forum?! This site is great and so are the people on it so here comes another of my probably quite stupid questions...


    As they say there's no such thing as a stupid question:D

    Some people are snobby no matter what the subject is.....but IMO horsey people can sometimes be a bit too "technical" and forget that what is blindingly obvious to them isn't to others who haven't spent as many years around those beasts called horses...I don't think they mean to be so standoffish...but I do know exactly what you mean!!!!

    Petal

    This thread probably has about 6 threads merged into it.....so very very general and open to all comers:D

    If you are thinking about loaning/sharing go to the BHS website and have a look at their template loan agreement doc....it looks very detailed but TBH that is the absolute minimum level of agreement that I would want as a horse owner from a loaner/sharer and as a loaner the more detail there is in an agreement the more protection YOU have if it doesn't work out or god forbid there is an injury/accident to the horse, yourself, bystander etc....

    I'm really not being negative :o but they are big strong unpredicable animals that you as handler are liable for so it always pays to check everything out throughly beforehand and sadly a lot of people don't and end getting hurt physically, financially and emotionally.....in saying that, with a bit of caution it usually works out well
  • GemmaB78
    GemmaB78 Posts: 288 Forumite
    I started sharing, before I bought my horse 5 years ago. It's a great way of finding out whether you have the time, experience and sheer bloody-mindedness to be a horse owner, particularly as this is THE worst time of year to have a horse LOL!

    Re: tendon injuries. As someone was already said, it really is a gamble. My horse gave herself a bout of tendonitis earlier this year. Thankfully, there was no damage to the tendon fibres, but it remains to be seen whether she'll ever be up to doing ERs (endurance) again.......
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