I must say, looking at that last news clip posted, none of those horses look to be in bad shape at all. In fact, they look just fine. NOT what I expected when first reading the title of the thread. Granted, there is no excuse for them having no water, but those horses in no way look like they have been malnourished or abandoned for weeks at a time. Just my opinion from looking at the news clip. This very much looks like a horribly unreliable pet sitter issue to me…
I grew up in Maine, in the Bangor/ Dedham area in fact. The farm/trailer looks no different from a lot of the properties in the area. It is, in general, not a wealthy area. Many properties would look like “dumps” to people from more urban areas with tighter zoning/ordinances. Does not mean that the horses are not cared for. Obviously, trash/junk in pasture areas is a hazard, but really can’t tell from the video clip if this is the case. Just because there is junk in the YARD of the trailer, does not mean it is in the horses pasture. Again, seen a lot of “dumpy” properties in rural Maine like this. I keep going back to the fact that the horses did NOT look at all skinny to me…muddy? some, yes. Not “show groomed?” Ok. They look like any other backyard horse that is not clipped/groomed/showsheened every day. It rains a lot in Maine, gets MUDDY. Horse like to roll in mud. I know MINE does, ESPECIALLY after I have just bathed him! lol.
The couple of comments made by the neighbors bothered me as well…makes me think they don’t know that horses are meant to live OUTSIDE…one comment was how the horses had “ice on their hair” in the winter. As we all know…horses living outside in the winter, even if they HAVE access to a barn, will often stand in the snow and rain. Heavy winter coats are made to protect them, and the snow is insulation. Our horses when I was growing up, lived in a pasture year round. Never clipped, no blankets. Their shelter pine trees, which served as a wind break/ snow break. We brought them in the barn, ONLY on the bitterest of days, or if there were severe thunderstorms in the area… maybe total of a couple of days a year. They were FINE! Happy, healthy, fat and sassy… when I listened to the neighbors…“they are standing in the sun”…its MAINE…rarely gets above 75 in the summer…“they have ice and snow on them”…they are HORSES…meant to live outside etc…something seems off about the whole situation to me.
anyway…will reserve judgement and wait for more info. I must say, if the situation DOES turn out to be not what advertised in the media, it will be a good wake-up for me. I am as guilty of anyone of indignant outrage when these horse neglect threads show up. If this turns out to be “bad pet sitter and neighbors with a vendetta,” (which is looking very likely to me at this point,) it will show me I should take SOME of these threads with a healthy grain of salt…
:sadsmile: