Caution when adopting horses

I support and encourage people "rescuing" horses in need. But I got a
call from a woman today that underscored the need for people to
PLEASE take a good account of your abilities BEFORE taking on
"rescue" or "adoptee".
Many groups dealing with such horses do a really good job of
screening potential adopters and preventing disasters, others do not.

The scenario that triggered this is a retired nurse, who always loved
horses but had never even been near one, who had already decided to
"adopt" a yearling Thoroughbred PMU bred filly she'd seen through one
of the internet PMU "rescue" sites. She was going to keep it with a
friend who, though they had never had horses either, just happened to
have a "barn" and fencing on their property. When asked if anyone
experienced with horses was going to help them she said Oh, yes, a
6th grader (12 years old!) whose grandfather has horses in Florida
(we are in New Jersey!), and who needed a "project" to keep her
occupied while her parents were going through a divorce because the
father was a drug addict! The lady was only calling to find out what
she should feed it.

I think I managed to dissuade her, gave her lots of references for
more info on keeping horses and strongly suggested that if she really
wanted to help the child to get her involved with one of the local
riding academies and if she wanted to really get a horse to go
through one of the agencies that tries to match horse with adopter
and provided follow up (i.e.: Standardbred Retirement Foundation).

Especially with the PMU situation, too many people get caught up in
the "oh the poor baby" syndrome and get in way over their heads,
endangering themselves and the horse. A weanling weighs 400-600 lbs
and most of the PMU's have never been handled and therefore are
basically feral, even though they do tend to have great dispositions
once tamed. Real damage can be done-even to people experienced with
handling young horses (as my two fractured ribs from one of last
year's group can attest).

PLEASE: If you are not experienced or have experience only with adult
riding horses, DO NOT consider adopting a weanling or yearling horse
just to "rescue" it unless you have people with the experience you
lack to give you guidance and physical assistance (not just Uncle Joe
in Alaska). They require not only special training but also have very
different nutritional needs. Plus the facilities must be "baby"
proof, which is not the same as "dead broke riding horse" safe!

Sarah Ralston, VMD, PhD, dACVN

Note: Sarah is a professor at Cook College, Rutgers, and a
nationally-known expert on equine nutrition. For the past several
years, she and her students have brought about a dozen PMU foals from
a North Dakota ranch back to Rutgers, do nutrition studies and gentle
the animals, then hold a special auction to benefit the equine
science program. Through this program, the horse community has come
to realize how nice many of these PMU foals are. However, her point
here is well-taken. These are semi-wild foals, and people without
horse experience should think twice before adopting them. For
novices who want a horse, there are plenty of older, calm animals
desperately in need of homes, who would be far better suited to
those lacking horse experience. For more info on Sarah, you can
check out the Rutgers Equine Science Center website at
http://www.escrutgers.com/

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Oct 24, 2003