OK, missed that. But even farms that don’t have a contract usually ask… ‘who can we contact, if you are out of pocket’. That sort of thing.
Until this boarder showed up with her horse, the barn owner has never had a problem with vanishing boarders, which is why there wasn’t a boarding contract. Put it in the “live and learn” file. New boarders will have to sign a contract.
Have you checked to see if the horse is stolen?
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Is it possible the horse owner died or is otherwise incapacitated/hospitalized?
Hopefully the new contract includes an emergency contact number so you have a parent/spouse/friend you can call just in case. Be awful to sell her horse only to find she is in the hospital.[/QUOTE]
This would be my concern, as well. I hope for the horse’s sake it lands in a good long term situation. I also hope the owner is OK. Good for your BO for taking good care of the horse in this odd situation.
When the owner arrived, she provided at least two phone numbers. We tried calling her about two weeks into July because her horse had a terrible case of hives, and wanted to let her know. initially, the calls were answered, not by her, with promises to pass along the message, but she never responded, or came to check on the horse. Now the numbers have been disconnected, or are never answered (she may have blocked our numbers), so we have no way to reach her by phone, or what her situation is. We only have her word that it IS her horse.
Have you checked Net Posse? Maybe the so called owner is hiding the horse, maybe a divorce thing? what ever is up, the person that dropped the horse off may well not be the owner. Did you google her name, the phone numbers etc?
I know someone who abandoned a horse once. It was horrific. The horse went from having nightly bran mashes in a stall and monogrammed blankets to never seen again. The BO put the horse in the pasture and continued to feed it and have it’s feet trimmed for years until finally someone tracked down the owner through an in-law or something. Finally she came and picked up the horse like nothing had happened. Very bizarre. I don’t know if the BO was ever re payed or not. Different situation since the horse had been at the barn for years prior to abandonment.
That’s a horrible story, and we’ll try to check to see if anyone has reported a stolen horse. The barn owner is taking really good care of this poor guy–same grain/hay/turn out as if the owner is actually paying. He looks better now than when he arrived.
At my previous barn we had a similar situation. Young woman who had been at several barns over the years shows up at self care barn with TB gelding. Within 3-4 weeks she’s skipping a feeding or two. Naturally the other boarders feed her horse, who’s going to leave a hungry horse staring out the bars of his door while you feed? The girl never came back, at some point texted “find him a home”…and was on Facebook a month later looking for a new horse. Your BO should certainly try social media as a last ditch attempt to find the owner. Poor horse. And while the earlier poster’s concern is commendable, pretty much no one is in a hospital for 2 months unless they’re in a coma. In which case a simple Google search might turn up a story on an accident.
Hinderella, we did find her facebook page, and there’s not much there, but clearly she’s alive and functioning. A friend of the barn owner called one of the numbers the horse owner provided, and she answered the call because she didn’t recognize the number. She said she’d stop by with some of the money owed “tomorrow.” That was two weeks ago. Now she’s blocked that phone number too, and isn’t answering any calls.
This all sounds very familiar in a very bad way. Get the lien process started ASAP, I don’t think this is going to get better. There are a surprising number of people who just don’t think that board bills apply to them.
