What provision have you made for your horse?

GaryB

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Mar 23, 2015
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As per the title really - have you made provisions for your horse if you get ill or die suddenly?

In June 2019 I had a message from a friend's sister, sent to all her Facebook friends. It basically said A (as I will call her) has been found unconscious and is now in hospital still unconscious. Please can somebody sort out her 3 horses as we don't know what to do with them. One of the horses used to be my share horse so I knew the horses routines, and fortunately they live out. A group of us set up a rota to look after them until the owner recovered. While A regained consciousness and was released from hospital after having a brain tumour removed she was never able to look after the horses again and 2 of us have been looking after them ever since (she does pay the bills still). Fast forward to now and A is in a hospice and not able to communicate. Unless there is something in her will she has left no instructions about what is to happen with the horses so at the moment we are in limbo. Two of them can be sold but my old share horse is 22 now and doesn't mix well. If necessary I will take him on, but I would rather not have to find the extra money

Anyway - please don't leave anyone in the situation I have been left in - you never know what life will bring (Harvey is covered in my will and I have arranged that my YO would look after him short to medium term)
 
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Belle is gifted to my friend should anything happen to me, plus a sizeable bank account to fund her lifestyle and a list of instructions on her health, what she likes/doesn’t like and her allergy, although friend knows Belle pretty much inside out anyway, she’s offered to let her live out her days with her (own yard) and I know she will be loved and cared for as I would, the only thing my friend isn’t aware of is Belles bank account.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be left in your situation @GaryB, I imagine though that most of us never expect to get seriously ill or to have life limiting conditions, especially when we are youngish so yes it is important to make provisions.
 
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This is something I often worry about but don't seem to have got around to doing anything about. Realistically, our mares are old and one has a life long problem / injury so would be impossible to rehome. Zi could be rehomed, but it would need to be the right home as he came to us for a quieter pace of life (he has an issue I won't discuss on here). I always said if anything happened to Mr t and me that we'd make provision in our will for the mares and Zi to all be kept together at a sanctuary. But that's just not realistic now - particularly with the travel and length of it involved from where we now live. Also with the covid, I don't think anyone would be jumping up and down to take three strange horses on.
Hmm. This is food for thought and something I need to address. I have horsey neighbours but I wouldn't lumber them, they haven't got the same facilities as me, nor I should imagine the will to provide the lifestyle to which ours need / are accustomed to.
That's an awful situation @GaryB it really does sound bad for all concerned. I guess I need to get something sorted even though it's an upsetting subject. We all think we will live forever, and not only that, we don't like to think that anything could be waiting around the corner for us.
First step for me I feel is to sort out a proper will. I was going to sort one with the charity that we re-homed Chloe from, however due to Scottish law that isn't possible as they are in England.
 
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Belle is gifted to my friend should anything happen to me, plus a sizeable bank account to fund her lifestyle and a list of instructions on her health, what she likes/doesn’t like and her allergy, although friend knows Belle pretty much inside out anyway, she’s offered to let her live out her days with her (own yard) and I know she will be loved and cared for as I would, the only thing my friend isn’t aware of is Belles bank account.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to be left in your situation @GaryB, I imagine though that most of us never expect to get seriously ill or to have life limiting conditions, especially when we are youngish so yes it is important to make provisions.
That's lovely that you have made provision for Belle and it must give you peace of mind completely knowing it's a friend she'd be going to.
 
You raise a really important point and it sounds like a very difficult situation to find yourself in, although how nice of you to rally round and care for them.

No one would want Ale and that's the sad truth. I would hope my family would put him in a good retirement livery with my savings for the rest of his days but I think they would see this as a waste of money.
 
You raise a really important point and it sounds like a very difficult situation to find yourself in, although how nice of you to rally round and care for them.

No one would want Ale and that's the sad truth. I would hope my family would put him in a good retirement livery with my savings for the rest of his days but I think they would see this as a waste of money.
This is the thing isn't it - I think I need to make provision for ours because nobody would want the mares, and if I left it to my family to decide they'd probably not really know what to do. My own mother would do the right thing but she's getting on in years and the hassle involved would probably mean she'd have to defer to other family members.
 
I would hope my family would put him in a good retirement livery with my savings for the rest of his days but I think they would see this as a waste of money.
You don't need to hope - you can leave explicit instructions (which is what I have done) :)

A is almost exactly the same age as me, so a bit close to home!
 
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What I worry about is would that money be more useful for something else. Yes Ale is my whole world and I would pay anything to keep him, but if I'm gone and he was pts neither of us would know otherwise, as sad as that is to make myself think about it. Another worry is I don't even think he would do very well at a standard retirement livery. As awful as it is perhaps I should instead request that he is pts. Need to have a good think about this one!
 
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What I worry about is would that money be more useful for something else. Yes Ale is my whole world and I would pay anything to keep him, but if I'm gone and he was pts neither of us would know otherwise, as sad as that is to make myself think about it. Another worry is I don't even think he would do very well at a standard retirement livery. As awful as it is perhaps I should instead request that he is pts. Need to have a good think about this one!
Yes I understand that about retirement livery too. That wouldn't work for the girls.
 
I keep thinking I should get a living will drawn up, let’s be honest riding isn’t the safest sport and head injury isn’t unlikely so I don’t want my family being stuck with making awful decisions because I made a bad decision and I don’t want to be kept alive if I’m not likely to recover, it would also cover what should happen with the horses. The boys would be relatively easy to rehome at this stage, Jess may be more challenging with all of her issues and as such would probably be PTS, although my middle sister would have first refusal on any of them. I have had the conversation with my mum, she knows my feelings on it all but I think it would be best to make it official.
I’m executer on my friends wills (married couple), mostly to deal with their horses (13) and dogs (7), they were really nervous about asking me, but I think it’s wise to have a plan.
 
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I have a friend who I ride with regularly and she has a horse very similar to Kennedy. He would first be offered to his previous owner - as agreed at the time of sale. And if she was unable to take him, my friend has said she would. I hadn't thought about it until Covid began and I decided it might just help with my mental wellbeing if I knew what would happen to my beloved animals. I know my partner would take the dogs but I think he'd struggle financially so I have backups for them too. He did however say he'd never see Kennedy go to someone we didn't know and that if he had to, he'd find a way to keep him...which is very sweet but completely unrealistic.

Edit: I have said to my friend that, should it ever come to that, she would be fine to do with Kennedy what she felt was best and I'm confident she would find him a good home if she needed to. Of course some money would be left to help out with him. I've spoken to my OH about all this so it's clear what he should do should something happen to me.
 
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First Gary, what a great friend she has in you, you've gone above and beyond. I talked about this recently to OH. He's not at all horsey, but the look of horror on his face when I told him he shouldn't feel bad if Hogan had to be pts, because I wouldn't want him sold on if I was gone. He said that the family would find someone to care for Hogan, but he'd always be the family's horse. He know Hogan's "issues" and he knows it would have to be someone with an understanding of these, but he also knows if push came to shove, and that person couldnt be found, then pts would be kindest for Hogan.
 
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I'm so sorry Gary. You've certainly gone the extra mile for these horses - fo what it's worth, for a 22 year old companion, I think you could PTS with no shame or blame attached if you needed or wanted to.

My will states that Pete would be PTS. With funds left aside to do that - and his running costs in the interim.

There's also enough there to cover his running costs in the event I was hospitalised for some time- so hopefully, most avenues covered. Like @Kite_Rider he has his own savings account, so the surplus would go back to my OH/family - my OH might change his tune about horse's being a waste of money :D

When I get a second horse my will be updated - hopefully they'll be more straight forward so would be loaned out so my family/OH would retain ownership. If not, then PTS too.
 
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