Because the many schools we are familar with, have donated to, know those who have donated to or investigated donating to do not behave like WW does…or seems to from what you have seen and have been told.
Most of them have to be able to use the horse and cannot afford to keep them if they cannot use them, no time, space or money for them along with keeping the useful ones. So they go.
And most of them can and will sell the horse to fund the program and so state in the donation contract.
[QUOTE=bayou_bengal;6266238]
THIS for sure. Many colleges use them for experiments of various kinds- some very unpleasant, I would think from the horse’s pov.
Some euthanize perfectly healthy horses so the vet students can dissect them.
Some send them to low-end auctions when they are through with them.[/QUOTE]
This does NOT happen at UM-Western.
Could you email me your friend’s information? rachel@iselltack.com. Thanks! =)
[QUOTE=xQHDQ;6261427]
I know of a great person who takes donated horses, trains them and rehomes them as part of a charity (her services, the horse and the purchase price for the new owners are donated to a real charity). You can write it off as a donation. PM me if you would like her contact information. She can give you all of the tax details.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=bayou_bengal;6266238]
THIS for sure. Many colleges use them for experiments of various kinds- some very unpleasant, I would think from the horse’s pov.
Some euthanize perfectly healthy horses so the vet students can dissect them.
Some send them to low-end auctions when they are through with them.[/QUOTE]
And SOME take absolutely wonderful care of the horses and appropriately retire them when it is their time to do so.
Beware of therapeutic riding programs and vet them the same way you would schools, I say.
[QUOTE=Belmont;6261406]
I am currently trying to sell my OTTB, and through one of the sites I have him on a woman contacted me about donating him to a college in Dillon, MT for the ISHA to use for their Open/Advanced riders. I was wondering if she has ever contacted anyone else and if it’s a good idea? I’ve never actually had a big tax write off, as I am a college student myself. I have really low-ball listed because my horse herd has aquired to be too large, but he is pretty highly valued with his training and everything. I just don’t know if anyone has ever donated to them and if it’s a good idea! I also have no idea how tax-write off’s work. I don’t know if I could get my money back out of him eventually.[/QUOTE]
My red flag goes up just by virtue of the fact that they are trolling for donations when people are dumping horses because of the economy. Personally, I would tell them no…I am sure you can revisit the situation if it becomes necessary.
This is an old thread btw…
A number of years ago, I donated a horse to a therapeutic riding program. When I had my taxes done for that year, I asked my tax guy about taking a tax deduction for the donation. After he listed the paperwork necessary to “prove” the value of the horse to the IRS if I got audited, I said forget it. The tax deduction wasn’t worth the hassle.
Keep in mind that a tax deduction can reduce income. Say your donated horse is worth $5K and are in the 15% tax bracket. If you can claim the entire deduction (and I am not sure if you can), you are talking about a tax reduction of $750. Even in the 28% bracket, you are talking about reduction of $1400. That is IF the entire deduction is allowable, if the AMT doesn’t kick in, etc. Frankly, you would be better off selling the horse even a low dollar amount as it would be more profitable for you.
I agree that programs really vary. I’ve heard horror stories of horse being sent to auction when no longer serviceable for a program. One friend had learned her donated horse was euthanized by the vet school, even though she had told the program she would take the horse back as retiree. He was retirement sound when euthanized. So I would be careful and look very carefully before I donated.
Absolutely you need to be very careful in placing a horse in a college or therapeutic riding program - just as much as if you were to sell the horse privately. Ultimately, when you give up ownership of a horse you give up control of its outcome, and unfortunately many horses are going to wind up in less quality homes as they age, have less athletic ability, etc.
In my opinion, if you truly care about the horse’s well-being, the best thing you can do is remain in touch with the school, therapeutic riding center, or private seller, and keep up with the horse. There are places where the horse will get fantastic care, and places where it won’t, and circumstances in a school or nonprofit can change drastically over the years.
I’m on the board of a therapeutic riding center, and we take, IMO, exceptional care of our horses. They live on beautiful pasture, carry a light workload, get supplements and maintenance as needed, see a vet and farrier religiously, get chiropractic and acupuncture, etc. When a horse is ready to retire from our program, we make every effort to find them a good retirement home, often with volunteers, and/or return them to their prior owners. However, please be aware that from a nonprofit’s perspective, the organization has a fiduciary duty to use donated funds to fulfill the mission of the organization. In the case of our organization and many others, that mission is to offer equine-assisted activities and therapies to children with disabilities. It would be unethical for us to take donations toward that mission and use them to feed 10 retired horses. We regard our horses as equine staff, and we care for them to the absolute best of our ability. We appreciate what they do, and our program could not exist without them. However, we must direct our efforts to providing the best possible therapeutic experience for our clients, not toward providing a cushy retirement for our horses. Riding centers should not be construed as retirement farms - sorry to be on a soapbox, but this is a pet peeve of mine as I think much of the horse community has come to regard therapeutic riding centers as a great place to rehome elderly, unsound horses, which we just are not. Our horses work hard - they deal with tantrums, unbalanced riders, rider miscues, medical equipment, etc - while often older horses retired from showing or needing a stepdown career are perfectly suited to this work, asking a horse with soundness issues to carry an unbalanced rider is just not right in my opinion. I don’t mean to imply that we don’t take care of our horses - I’ve been out at the farm multiple times just in the past week to provide extra care to two horses who were injured in the pasture. However, they get care as equine staff members, not as my personal “pet” horses - they are going to get good basic care to keep them sound and healthy, but the program is unlikely to be able to invest money in extensive diagnostics, colic surgery, etc. I think anywhere that you are placing your beloved horse is worthy of some time researching, checking references, etc.
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