Horses- Settling into new homes
Right, as of late I have annoyingly had a few clients wish to return a bought pony or horse within days, yes days. Varying from 1 day to 5 days. I don't like posting stuff other than updates on the horses for sale/sold, but this has become ridiculous now.
I don't sell rocking horses, machines, robots. I sell living animals, horses that have a brain and feelings. Unfortunately I cannot guarantee how well or not so well a horse may settle into a new home once leaving me. I take each and every horse as I find , some settle right away , some take a short time and some a while. I treat every horse differently, although in the ideal world you want to jump on and ride from day one, which some we can, others don't tolerate this and show signs, which means you give them a couple to a few days sometimes even weeks until they are ready and adapt what we do to suit their needs and help them settle in. The more a horse is moved the longer it takes to settle. A horse will not just load onto a box and get off the other end and settle (apart from the rare diamonds that do). It leaves behind people and horses it was or became used to, a certain environment, routine, smells , feed, sights etc If a horse is unsettled, guess what, it will show unwanted behaviour or 'dangerous ' however you want to word it, remember if a horse is scared it will flight or fight and this is the only way of communicating. As horse buyers/owners we need to be responsible and reasonable and give the horse ample time to settle this can take months, even a year. Sometimes horses are not happy in certain environments/routine, this is where they should come first and we should adapt to suit their needs and not the other way around.
If a buyer/new owner can not accommodate this they should not be buying horses and should go back to riding schools etc as it's them who create these dangerous situations often ruining horses because they can't give their new horse for life one important thing 'time'. Why the rush? Why does it matter what Harry, Jane and Paula think on your livery yard, or why should their advice and so called knowledge (often better and more educated then professionals such as vets) be listened to when they don't know the pony or horse be to be right or it even relevant.
The sellers then get slandered and degraded for selling dangerous horses and the horses written off. Majority of the time it is never the horses and always the people. Hence why some of these poor horses are passed from pillar to post. I'm not denying that these animals sometimes develop problems and behaviour changes if in pain, however if a horse has passed a vetting or behaved differently prior to this where it was settled then it is often the simple thing of allowing to settle.
But on the otherhand again, as these are living animals, they can get hurt and develop problems all of a sudden, the same as us. That's a chance you take owning any animal, does not give anyone to right to accuse or blame anyone for this unless evidence to suggest otherwise.
One example of many , bombproof cob bought from private home, used to children First couple days of arriving with me reared and bit. Didn't last long and never did it again with me or in new home. He had moved twice in a fairly short period of time due to owners change of circumstances (twice) no fault of own and this was clearly him displaying he was scared/unsettled/anxious
Also remember just because the horse doesn't suit you does not mean the horse is unsuitable or not for purpose.
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