Why Do People Think Anyone Wants to Buy Your Blind Horse?

[IronwoodFarm]

I am sorry but these kind of FB posts make me so mad, The poster is asking for $$$$ for a blind horse. When I suggested very respectfully that horse has the best home now and that rehoming her is going to be risky. I got a nasty response calling me dumb and terrible to suggest such a thing. I am sorry, but I don’t care about the poster’s contract, this is a highly vulnerable animal that is likely to meet a not so nice end. I have changed some details, but I would like to hear COTH’s comments.

Looking for a very special home for a lovely mare.

Dobbin is a 9 year old 14h registered mare. Dobbin is a wonderful sweet girl who the best personality. Easy going, loves to be loved and groomed. Dobbin has good breeding and has foaled out in the past. Her last foal is now 2 years old. Dobbin has been ridden in the past but not recently. I have sat on her and was led around and she was fantastic. Just a sweetie.

Dobbin is looking for a very special home that will love her and care for her. Dobbin has vision loss in both eyes, she has a caract in her right eye that blocks some vision and her left eye was damaged at some point in the past and also has vision loss. This doesn’t stop Dobbin!She gets around great, she requires solid fencing so she can see her boundaries. She has no problem in a herd. She lives with three others. She can get around trees and runs around the paddock.

Her confidence comes from her “seeing eye pony” Pathfinder. Dobbin and Pathfinder have been best friends the last few months and Pathfinder is her seeing eye pony. Pathfinder let’s her know where she can run without fear of hitting something. They are bonded and love each other. It’s amazing to watch the two of them interact. Pathfinder helps Dobbin significantly.
Pathfinder is a 6 year old 10/11h (will stick) pony cross mare. She is not broke to ride but has been saddled. She was my first rescue. I’m looking for a home for Dobbin but would prefer to find them a home together but if not together, Dobbin needs a friend to show her the ropes.

I am looking for a forever home only. They will be sold on a contract, that they will not be resold or flipped and that if cannot be kept then they comeback to me. I will require updates on them and they will only go to the most perfect home. Would also consider a breeding lease.

[red_mares]

If Dobbin were merely a blind broodie offered for sale - go for it.

The forever home part for the next ~20 years is ridiculous. Hey world, I kept her for the first 9 years, you get the next 20.

Keep my unbroke pony for the next 30 years & you get to pay for the privilege!

That’s a deal I want.

What part of SOLD do people not get? If you want updates on them, pay the board/feed/vet bill for the next 20-30 years.

[JanM]

I agree with you, and see only a sad future for the mare, and her companion.

[gloriginger]

I see facebook posts all the time that make me cringe…but I try not to engage the crazy on facebook. Basically anyone can write a sales ad for anything they want, but that doesn’t mean they are going to get it.

When I read that ad I say “NO THANK YOU!” --it reads to me: please take my blind horse and her companion pony friend and feed and care for them because I don’t want to (can’t afford to) but I want to remain in complete control over them.

Just keep scrolling, you can’t fix stupid.

[Ambitious_Kate]

Its an ey rolly one for sure. This is “you can’t fix stupid” definitely. FB is full of crazy. I have to just keep scrolling.

[trubandloki]

I am scared for Dobbin and Pathfinder.

[BeeHoney]

I know, I see stuff like this all the time–people trying to sell or give away some poor old or lame horse that they no longer want to bother with. But even though they obviously don’t want to feed/care for the horse any longer, the whole ad is filled with talking about how special the horse is and how they love it soooo much, as if it changes the fact that they are dumping the animal. Also a bit ironic that the seller in this case rescued a pony and is now dumping it but requires a forever home with updates.

These people are living in some kind of a fantasy world to think that their behavior is reasonable. But, like gloriginger says, you can’t fix stupid. It’s better to not engage.

[toady123]

So sad. How much are they asking?!

[BuddyRoo]

Stuff like that makes me want to ask, “If you’re not willing to keep them “forever”, why on earth do you think someone else will?”

[cayuse]

There is one here in my area that sounds similar. “Lovely horse, super disposition, to forever home, yadayada. Free. Need surgery. Has cancer”. I have changed the description slightly.
Some people’s sense of responsibility sucks.

[Chardavej]

I hate this so much! I have a blind horse, have for 12 years now and he’s now in his late 20’s, I wouldn’t give him away! I had one time looked to free lease him but decided not too (he still rides, like a champ, blind as a bat, verbal queues. I even ride in cowboy races. No jumping, just step over the logs )

[Calhoun]

Who going to be the contract police? You can have the buyer sign and inital every page of the contract, what does that prove or inforce? If the seller finds out a year later the blind mare went to auction, what is she going to do? All the buyer has to say is she doesn’t know where the mare is and she’s broke so no compensation for breaking the contract.

To the OP, the seller was nasty to you because she knows in her heart what she’s doing is wrong. Poor mare hope she lands softly.

[RedmondDressage]

This sort of thing makes me cringe as well. I regularly peruse the feedlot listings because I must like being depressed… I always wonder how many of the horses in the ads like this end up showing up at the lot. If I REALLY wanted to be depressed I’d try tracking them. I’ll bet the number is obscene.

I’ve got a 32 y.o. that has been retired for close to 8 years now and was semi-retired before that… Apparently I’m the ultimate sucker - I should’ve just pawned him off on someone else when he was no longer useful. Shoot, I can’t even get rid of the young healthy ones! I pulled a feedlot horse last year. He’s young (11 or 12), sound, and useful (but not suited to my sport) with THE BEST bomb proof temperament. My plan was to rehab him, put some training on him, and find him a home… Here I am a year later and I can’t imagine sending him on because I don’t trust anyone else to do right by him long term. I’ll probably still be feeding him 20 years from now :rolleyes:

[saultgirl]

I think I saw that one and had to sit on my fingers. Is that the fjord?

[HungarianHippo]

yeah, there’s an ad on CL today for a grade, plain wrapper, chronically lame horse and they want $900 for her. Including the requisite suggestion that she’d make a great broodmare." What cracked me up (while i shake my head sadly) is the seller actually included this in her ad:

"I purchased her at the end of May. A few days after she was brought to her new home she came up lame at the trot. I haven’t ridden her since. I had the vet out on a few occasions. She was diagnosed with a right stifle issue. […she listed the things they’ve tried to get her sound…] As much as I want to keep her, I board and I don’t want to board for an indefinite amount of time waiting and hoping she gets better without being able to ride. "
Ummm, even fewer people want to BUY a horse and wait and hope it gets better.

Sad all around. I really do feel for this young person who bought a lame horse, and now is stuck. Her ad certainly offers full disclosure. Just makes me grateful for my acreage and inexpensive horse keeping costs, so my riding dreams are not pinned on only one horse.

[cayuse]

Chardavej,
I too have a pony that is visually challenged, partially blind in one eye from a fungal infection resulting in surgery. She has been this way for five years. I would never consider re-homing her either. She’s old, she’s quirky, it would end badly.
God, this thread makes me so angry.

IronwoodFarm, I understand how you feel.

[Lady_Eboshi]

Firstly, let me say one should not believe even HALF the stuff you see on Facebook. Shut off that “feed” thing unless you want to wind up on anti-depressants with a lot of crap in your head you can’t “unsee.” Goes for Craig’s List, too. As someone said above, people can write anything and I’m convinced a lot of the time it is nothing more than twisted satire or trolling.

However: The irresponsible disposable-pet trogs of this world are now FULLY AWARE of the apparently numberless bleeding-heart-Go-Fund-Me because-I’m-penniless idiots out there who polish their halos by “rescuing” literally ANYTHING; and it seems to me lately that the more pathetic, the tastier the bait. This has become so lucrative a major East Coast broker now gathers up New Holland’s most emaciated to stock his bogus “No. 10 Pen” with desperate “rescue” bait he’s flipping weekly at up to $700 a head! Some of these horses have lately wound up needing “rescue” from the “rescuers” in short order, and some are re-posted for flipping again soon thereafter.

When the opportunity to rehab an unwanted horse comes your way through legitimate, real-life channels, go into it with your eyes wide open because you will likely accumulate a daunting pile of vet bills before it’s over. Make sure that income is really “disposable.” Aside from that, block FB & CL pathetic situation ads like you would block PORN. Because on some level, that’s pretty much what it is.

PEER PRESSURE, exerted by neighborhood horse owners’ standards, VETS, and diligent Animal Control enforcing EFFECTIVE laws are the only way to end abuse and neglect situations. That, and discouraging irresponsible breeding.

[roseymare]

Alas if you try to give them away you would get lambasted as well.
But in this case it is the tone that gets me. And the I get to control them but not feed them that everyone else finds annoying as well.

[Lady_Eboshi]

From what I can see, one of the most overlooked animal welfare problems in this country right now is the Amish predilection for working an animal half into the ground, then trying to unload it emaciated and unsound at the nearest auction. Friends of mine donate liberally to outfits like the American Fondouk, who pick up the tab for veterinary care for overworked beasts in places like Morocco and Egypt, yet right here in PA and OH we have the equivalent going on every single day, but for some reason because it’s a quaint, picturesque part of “Americana” everyone turns a blind eye.

I totally get it that they don’t want to use 21st century machinery, stay simple, all that–but insufficient care of an animal is JUST THAT, and it’s past time the veterinary community and everyone else stopped giving them a “pass” on it.
Goes double for the insane numbers of donkeys, mules, and wretchedly conformed minis they apparently allow to breed at will.

[IronwoodFarm]

In answer to questions, it is a Fjord and her sale price is $1200. I assume it includes the Pathfinder pony, but he doesn’t seem to troubled by separating them. As a breeder I am always taken aback that simply because the mare has a uterus, then she should be bred idea.

He does seem to think his contract will protect the mare. I don’t. I sell horses and I know perfectly well that once the horse is sold, the new owner does not have to answer to me. Allegedly he has rescued 126 horses in the last 6 years and placed many of them.

I really don’t mind being called names by this guy. Just his reaction alone to the suggestion that he was the best guarantee of a forever home was telling.

He actually deleted the post and reposted it: Reposting due to unneeded comments. Please do not comment unless interested in providing a loving forever home.