Horses????

Flurette Farm · Mar 7, 2010

I have 3 horses, which during winter I allow to run free over 60 acres of hay fields & 40 acres of pasture. They are unfenced on 2 sides that is adjacent to 1000’s of acres of national forest. I grain them at the barn daily and they never leave my property.
The problem is that for most of the winter (3 months) I have been feeding 5. I have no idea where the 2 came from and none of my neighbors is missing horses. A cow or two yes but, no horses. They are fair but not fabulous animals. Tame to walk up to anywhere but one appears to be unbroken. Both are gaited horses and appear to be fox trotters.
My question is what do you do in a case like this? I certainly have no need for them and any horse here is of dubious value. Should I call some equine rescue farm or just wait hoping someone will come looking for them this spring?

johndeereman · Mar 7, 2010

place an ad in your local papers most run them for free

Billy NY · Mar 7, 2010

Sheesh, that is an odd one, you had best be careful, some jolly do gooder, could turn you in for abuse, that happened to a reputable operation south of here, he's going to trial, hard to say about the details, but it has many of us on the alert, or a bit paranoid, even though ours are well kept, fed and ridden, it seems these activists can easily cause trouble, if push came to shove, and there was no other option, I'd not want to take the heat for 2 strays, hopefully you have been able to help em out, I'd want closure on it, in these times, probably a lot of this going on, how in heck did they just show up, someone had to have put em out there,

JMS/.MN · Mar 7, 2010

Considering the price of hay, maybe no one wants to admit to missing any?

JR.Fyre · Mar 7, 2010

Ya know this may trip a trigger or two if it dose
it is not for you ok:
Now that we have no more slotter plants for horse"
people can not aford to feed them and they starve to death or the people that own just turn them lose>
How do I know this because it has happend to me,more times than I want to say. I have been advised by my ATT: RUN A ADD ON THE HORSE'S for 2 months after that they now belong to you, to do what ever you want to do with them.Having siad this remember the HORSE MARKET is so low that people are giving them away, Take it to a horse sale and hope you can get ride of it.Good luck
and happy trails:
JR.FRYE

Anonymous-0 · Mar 7, 2010

If I had a retired horse I would love to keep it on someone else's land for free. Kind of like dropping off kittens and puppies. My father used to talk about the days on the Canadian prairies when the unused work horses "ran the straw piles" for the winter.

c.w n.y · Mar 7, 2010

what ya mean the price of hay, that stuff is dirt cheap. neighbor buys it for $240 a ton for beutiful 24 % protein alfalfa delivered from idaho to southern new york.

glennster · Mar 7, 2010

first i'd call the sherriff and fill out an incident report that you have the stray animals at your place, at least then someone cannot accuse you of stealing them. then call a horse rescue outfit and see if they will come an get em. lastly the slaughter house in dekalb illinois is going to reopen for horses shortly. it will prolly be the only operatinng one in the U.S.

S2710 · Mar 7, 2010

Check around and get the name of someone that was condeming the slaughter of horses and in the middle of the night time to their porch

led · Mar 7, 2010

Probably a horse that couldn't win a race! Kind of like Greyhounds.
Led

kyhayman · Mar 7, 2010

Check your state laws. They are usually pretty specific what you have to do. Here you have to notify the owner 45 days in advance of the sale by certified mail and run an ad in the paper. If there is no owner then you have to turn them into the state as unclaimed property with a board bill against them. In either case after the 45 days then you can sell them and it specifies how to pay out the proceeds. Usually the person with the horse ends up getting them for a dollar bid, in which case you can then sell them private treaty to whoever you can find to buy them. If they are gated horses it might be worth checking them for tattoos. Might be a way to trace an owner.

Bill(Wis) · Mar 7, 2010

Do they implant chips in horses for ID? Common for folks to do that with pets nowadays. A vet should be able to detect that.

jim johnson · Mar 7, 2010

Heard a report on the farm network on Friday about someone turning out a trailer load of horses on a guy's pasture. Most of us saw this coming a few years ago and had a discussion on here about. We were told about the money that was to be made keeping horses. The question was posed as to what do you do with a horse when they didn't pay their bill. They are worth nothing. I bet the French are laughing their A's off. What about all the starving people in the world that would like to have something to eat.

Jim

Anonymous-0 · Mar 7, 2010

Call the cops, they can not force responsability on you if you think this will cost you out of the pocket.

Tell them you want no part of the horses, for disease, fighting, etc if need be.

That is the only way the officials will get the message.

If you are the good guy, you perhaps may become a target.

bc · Mar 7, 2010

What Glennster and JR Frye said. In this recession, people can't afford horses. Just letting them go. Big problem on Gov't range as well. Probably horses with all kinds of problems. People can't ride them. Can't afford the vet bills either. The rescue people don't have the capacity for all of them either.

Problem is that people can't afford their horses and if they wait too long, the sheriff will be after them for animal abuse. Easier to just let them run away.

Some of the problem will go away when they open up some slaughter plants instead of hauling them to Mexico.

kyplowboy · Mar 7, 2010

My money would be they were dumped. Two years ago when there was no hay in this part of the world folks started dump'n horses on public land. A few wildlife managment areas and LBL here had horses running all over them. Now that folks are lose'n their jobs they are still doing it.

I have a buddy who has got'n in with a few local law enforcement agencies and has made some good money the last few years rounding up and hauling off dumped and strays.

Dave

bc · Mar 7, 2010

Now you know why the French have wine with their meals. A few glasses of mad dog 20/20 and that horse meat tastes great.

Bill(Wis) · Mar 7, 2010

The reason they made horse meat illegal for human consumption in the US was to save the beef, pork and poultry market during the depression which also saw a tremendous surplus of horses. The US Army shot almost every horse they had during 1940-41. Buried them in long trenches.

bc · Mar 7, 2010

And the germans in WWII used millions of horses.

Bill(Wis) · Mar 7, 2010

I remember the story of a US tank outfit that was pulling into its positions for the night when a german horse drawn artillery unit rode right through the middle of them. They all just looked at each other and it was all over as fast as it started. They compared notes after the war and found that both commanders got in trouble over that one. Pretty funny.

GeneMO · Mar 7, 2010

Call PETA or the Humane Society, I'm sure they'll be right out to take them off your hands.

Gene

Mike (WA) · Mar 8, 2010

Have also heard in some areas, guys are putting locks on their empty stock trailers when they go to the auction- because there were some instances of guy coming out to the rig after the auction was over, and there's an unknown horse in his trailer.

Most state laws involve taking them to auction after advertising in the legal notices- "finder" gets reimbursed for his expenses, county gets the rest. But what if the auction refuses to take them, because they know no one will buy? Don't know. Recommend you call the Sheriff (or the Prosecuting attorney if Sheriff is clueless or won't help).

kyplowboy · Mar 8, 2010

The ones my buddy has been picking up are where a stray horse turns up or some one who can't take care of it will let them run loose neigbors call the sherif, sherif calls him and pays him $100 or so to make it disappear. He takes them to a horse trader who will give him a few hundred for the better ones. Not a bad afternoon's work. Laws are laws but the sherif finds it easier to just pay to have them gone.

Dave

Horses????

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads