Pickle...

There is a situation at my place that has me in a pickle about what to do.

Furry Husband and I go walking many mornings with the dogs... we walk to the South and if we go far enough we pass this house.  Last fall this house added a horse to it's little paddock/pasture and we noticed because there are metal t-posts with no caps on top, barb wire, scrap metal, a camper and a snow mobile in this enclosure. 

Not that I'm judging - people do all sorts of different things with animals that I don't choose to do.  But as we walked past we made a comment that our horses would surely kill themselves in an enclosure like that... they are hotter and Rosso is a huge drama queen who's run himself into and through a fence at least 3 or 4 times since we've owned him.  The metal and barb wire would have ended his drama pretty abruptly.  This horse however seemed calm, older, quiet and has been fine in this pen without any injury to itself.

This spring we went walking in that direction far enough to pass this house.  This horse has lost a dramatic amount of weight - he's lost the winter coat and we hadn't been down that way in a while.  I looked online and he's probably a 3 on the Henneke body scoring system.  He was in good weight when he arrived in the fall.  His hooves are very long and beginning to dish up which makes me think "neglect".

There isn't enough grass or weeds for a horse to live on in the pen.  Right now there isn't any grass or plant matter at all - he's eaten everything.  I don't see any signs of hay bales or tarps that might be covering hay anywhere.  I could be wrong - I'm not on their property. 

Maybe these people brought this horse home as weed/grass control.  He could be ill.  Tho', he seems bright eyed, isn't cushionoid, walks normally... he looks o.k.  He is older - but he isn't as old as Brandon or Jess were... he just doesn't have that super ancient horse look about him. 

Furry Husband and I discussed going up to the house to talk to the people... I hesitate to do it because I would expect a lot of anger if we did.  A neighbor suggested we offer $ for the horse to save it.  Someone else told me I should be prepared to take it if I talk to the people.

Only I don't want another horse right now.  And while I care, why does it fall on us to pay for someone elses lack of responsibility? 

Horses aren't cheap... vet, farrier, vaccinations, feed... and they live a long time.  I think most of the animals we have are rescue.... 2 dogs from animal shelters.... 5 cats we found that were stray/feral/sick - we trap and spay/neuter any other cats that show up and try to re-home them or if they are feral, we release them back where we found them (google Trap, Neuter, Release for feral cats) .... I've had 2 free horses cuz no one else wanted them... I feel like we do our part to help give a home to unwanted animals.   We spend a lot of money on our animals to give them good vet care, food, training.... our financial situation isn't great but we do o.k.   We don't have unlimited funds, time or space to keep bringing home animals in need.

At the same time, it's not right that this animal could be starving and we are supposed to turn a blind eye?

I submitted 2 reports to the Larimer County Humane Society, asking for a home visit and education to this address... the horse may or may not be in a neglect situation.  I've been leaving messages for a horse rescue near Ft. Collins.   I've offered a donation to the horse rescue if someone can come out to evaluate/educate the situation.  I'm trying not to make assumptions but trying to get help from an organization who's job it is to do this sort of thing if it's needed....

I'm thinking about dropping off some bales of hay for these people to feed... I don't want judge or be holier than thou and I would really rather not even be IN this situation thinking about getting into these people's business..... I also don't want to see an animal that might need real help and ignore it either.