I understand that it costs a good deal of money to keep a horse sound, especially an older horse nearing the end of his career. I also understand that the profit margin on a barn, even an expensive boarding barn, is painfully slim. I further understand that in your opinion, horses are sports equipment, not pets. However, none of these is a reasonable excuse for failing to provide timely care for the animals in your custody, especially the lesson horses, which are your personal property.
If your operation simply isn’t making enough money to provide appropriate care for the horses you use for riding lessons, I have a suggestion: Get out of the lesson business.
Here’s a thought, which I would have imagined would be obvious to a business owner such as yourself: If you don’t maintain your equipment, it breaks down and doesn’t make money for you. To put this in horse terms, when you don’t spend money on the farrier care and meds needed to keep your lesson horses sound, they go lame and you can’t hire them out for lessons. Even if you don’t care about your horses’ comfort, you ought to care about the implications for your business.
I am *this close to taking my tools up to your barn to perform amateur hoof trimming on the horse your trainer put me on last night. His hooves have overgrown his shoes (which were loose last night and which are probably sprung by now); where they aren’t spreading, they’re cracking. His feet are an injury waiting to happen, and we won’t even discuss the shameful way that you’ve decided to save money by not treating his joint pain. Seriously, if you can’t afford to maintain this animal properly, then retire him or sell him. Shoot him if you have to - it would be kinder than working him until he’s totally lame.
That’s part of what makes this kind of thing so infuriating. The bar for “abuse” seems to be set very high when it comes to non-pet animals - it seems to me that you can get away with considerably more neglect with horses, cattle, etc. than you can with dogs or cats. I can make a complaint, but even if someone comes to check out the horses, they’ll most likely do nothing, since the animals aren’t starving or bleeding.
And that, too is infuriating. The horse I rode last night is, superficially, decently cared for. His weight is good, and he has no obvious injuries other than the stuff you’d expect to see on an aged Thoroughbred. But the lack of hoof care and the joint pain is going to make him unrideable, and thus unprofitable. He’s good at his job and he deserves to be compensated better than he’s getting.
I don’t know where you are, so I can only give you info on my own knowledge in Illinois. Here, horses, cats, and dogs are all considered companion animals. While horses have different criteria for humane care and treatment than cats and dogs, they are NOT considered livestock and fall under different laws and rules for care.
A call to your state’s Department of Agriculture could be in order. It wouldn’t hurt to see if they’ll make a surprise inspection based on your complaint. I don’t investigate horse abuse myself, but it’s included in my training every 2 years as a Humane Investigator, and I’m pretty sure overgrown hooves are among often listed offenses. Even if the guy doesn’t get in “trouble”, he may at least get a notice of compliance with a certain amount of time to get it done prior to re-inspection. (usually 3-7 days)
Tell the trainer “I can’t ride this horse – his feet are too neglected & unsafe to ride”. He might complain, but you are the customer, the one paying the money – you have the power here. If you and all the other customers started to refuse to ride this lesson horse until his feet are cared for, the barn owner would soon take care of it.
Because I second-guessed myself. I told the trainer about my concerns before the lesson, and she said it wasn’t a problem. I agree that I should have pushed back and asked for a different horse before starting the lesson. I’m not getting back on this horse until his feet have been attended to.
Farriers trim feet and apply shoes; hoof trimmers just trim feet. I’m trained to trim hooves. I don’t have the experience to apply shoes (although I can remove shoes properly).
I can ride a horse competently; I take lessons because I want to be a better rider.
Olympic champions still take lessons to learn how to ride. Better. Kinda like how Tiger Woods has a golf coach? I know it’s confusing for some people, but even if you are good at something you can always learn more.
Back to the OP, the fact is, unless animal control is swimming in unspent funds they WILL NOT be interested in a horse that is not in Body Condition 3 or less (ribs visible), has hooves so overgrown they are turned up, has no water or shelter or otherwise is in danger of imminent death.
Shoes that are loose and clinking are a sign of terrible management. However, you made the choice to continue the ride. I’m sorry but if the horse feels lame underneath me, I don’t care what a trainer says, I’m getting off.