training nightmare

AbitDramatic

Hi everyone,
I sent my four year old gelding off for a month of training a while ago at a pretty well known place in my area- we weren't asking for anything fancy just simply to help him balance out etc because he was already broken in and riding. Anyways, we checked on him every so often (unfortunately not enough i guess) and one day I was supposed to go up for a riding lesson on him. We were called a half hour before saying that he had a "little stone bruising" and that we might want to put it off-we went up anyways to say hi to him and brought the trailer just in case.
He was in terrible shape!!! HE was cowering at the back of the stall and basically on three legs. We are talking about the most social horse I have ever had- usually he will come up to me and not leave me alone. (Iv raised him since birth so its a trust thing...) He stayed at the back of the stall and wouldn't even look at us. Finally we got him outside to take a look, a little stone bruising?! yeah right his entire leg was swollen and we later learnt that there was gigantic absess.
Anyways, he came back to us in terrible condition -there were more problems.. he was now headshy and very very underweight and it seemed like they had done nothing with him whatsoever!!!! He wouldn't even lunge for us anymore when he was back and all healed up. And they still charged us! ( we had payed in advance...)

I was just wondering if there is any organization to report these kinds of things too? Because I looked into it at the time and I couldn't really find anybody.

oh- and he's doing fantastically now!! we found a fantastic trainer after we got him back to normal- so I guess really its good news.

Any information would be great!
Thanks

napoles

That's dreadful... I'm based in Cork and I'm shocked to think that your horse was treated that way. I have taken many liveries for training and would always ALWAYS let the owner know immediately if the horse had been injured and the severity of the injury. I'm disgusted to think that someone would have treated both you and your horse this way..
Oh, and I probably shouldn't ask, but I would actually be very curious to know who it was if you want to send me a PM... Just to be aware of the sort of people they are.
I don't know of any organisation and would usually try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I suppose the best thing you can do is make sure not to recommend them to anybody.. Probably best not to badmouth them too much for danger of slander etc..

convert

That's really awful...

Is the place to which you sent him registered with any body, like the Association of Irish Riding Establishments, etc. If it was, you could mention it to the body in question. Other than that, just make sure you don't recommend them to anybody.

togster

Sorry to here that OP.

But do you actually know what happened the horse? I can't see how you can report them to anyone with no evidence of mal-treatment. Was the absess in his hoof? If so it could have been caused by a stone bruise.

Again i feel sorry for you and the horse but i can't see how you can take it any further. Word of mouth usually serves as best medicine for people like this

kerrysgold

That's awful, poor guy. I hope he heals up well both physically and mentally! I know of a place like that here in Kerry and nothing can be done. (Have reported them to a few organisations) as well as not training horses that they are supposed to training there was also obvious neglect and abuse but the law in this country is crap.

AbitDramatic

Napoles- Iv PM'ed you...

Togster- Well of course I dont know what exactly happened to the horse- and of course I can only assume. (and of course the hoof absess was caused my a stone bruise..) But if it was only and absess it wouldnt have been as much of a problem, because those can happen? Its just the behavior of the owner etc (and the secrecy) that would cause me to suspect- now if the horse came home reasonably cheerful but in pain it would have been less suspicious.. you get my drift?

Anyways! Thank's a mill everyone! I just wanted to see if there was anything that I missed at the time (that I could have reported it too.) But really I guess I should just let it go and be grateful for the fantastic trainer we have found now!