I completely agree! I have seen horses that every time I passed them they got skinnier it made me sick. The sad thing is that animal control did nothing to help them...
Please don't let that little red horse down. I'll be prayin' for it and for the owner! I'll pray for her to get a heart, and some sense.
This is an all to common situation anymore. Please keep us informed about the little red horse and his progress.
You just can't fix stupid. I always wonder how stupid people who do cra$$y stuff like this would feel if it were done to them. How'd gardener lady like to stand out with no shelter in 100-degree heat and eat cheap, dry ramen noodles two times a day? (As opposed to those of us who eat ramen noodles by choice so our horses don't lack for anything. :-p ) I am sooooooooooo glad you are there for that poor little red horse. Too bad its owner isn't.
I hate it when people think they can just give up with a horse (or horses) and start over like its nothing. Horses are living creatures! Not that dead garden in the backyard! And good for you for calling Animal Control! Keep us posted! =)!
My horses are on the other end of the scale! I have a real easy keeper that I have to pen up 12+ hours a day off pasture just to keep her looking somewhat like a horse ( even with exercise) Sadly so many people just think of their equines as another "purchase", these same people have dogs chained up and their unfixed cats populate the world at incredible rates. We were driving down to visit relatives last week and the number of extremely thin horses on pastures containing zero grass was shocking. I couldn't see any evidence of hay being fed.
I know excatly how you feel, we just rescued a horse she is a 7 year old appendix. She was a race horse at one time. She is so skinny her ribs and hips are showing. Their excuse for that was she cribs and the lady had 4 kids and no time for her. Well thats funny because I have had her a week and already see a change in her weight. We are not rich people in fact my husband is a sheriff deputy and as everyone knows they don't make a whole lot of money. I'm a stay at home mom of 4. And we have 3 horses and they are well fed. There is no excuse for this kind of thing. If you can't afford them then don't make them suffer, sell them or give them away!! And by the way i allways find the time to take care of my horses and they arent even at my home they are about 6 miles away!!
I kinda know how you feel. There's this house that we pass every time we go into town. They have 6 horses on /maybe/ 2 acres. The pasture is split into two seperate lots I think. I do see that a big bale of hay is put out for them, but the grass in the pasture is almost non-existent due to the fact that there are 6 horses grazing this incredibly small amount of land. They aren't so bad that I can see hipbones, but some ribs are visible on a few of them (and I'm able to see that even going 55mph down the road). It makes me feel awful, because I don't even have a horse (despite the fact that I've been asking for one since I learned to talk) and here they are with more horses than I think they should have. They do have a run-in shelter that has room enough for all of them, so other than the fact that they are thin, I think they are being taken care of. It just makes me sad to think about all the poorly cared for animals.
I can see what you mean about horses that arent feed, but just by how they look cant always tell you if the horse is being well taken care of. A horse that I ride looks skinny almost all the time and he is given hay 24/7, hay cubs with oil, and beet pulb with senior feed. He is only ridden lightly but still is thin.