It bugs me considerably more than "a little". OF may accept donations of super famous horses, but in the normal course of events it is my understanding that the owner has to pay in order to get his retiree accepted into OF. If in doing so the owner has to sign over all rights to OF, keeping the horse for a while and then adopting it out for a rehoming fee sounds like positive cash flow.djnorth wrote:The incident with Kona Gold was sad. I couldn't remember if it happened overnight or early morning. I think he may have been turned out with another horse but I do recall there were questions on whether there was a night watch that patrolled the park overnight checking on the animals. It sounded like a kick injury and I think the KHP stopped turning them out in company after that, at least in the HOC pastures. It did sound like just a horrible accident that can happen with horses but at least they addressed it. Sunday I didn't attend the shows, so I don't know how they do it but KHP has some Champions in the Big Barn with the draft horses. I saw Da Hoss, Mr. Muscleman, Be a Bono and maybe one other in that barn. Don't know if they contact the owners or if it's agreed upon on donation or lending.
OF kind of clammed up with the news about Bluesthestandard came out. I don't even really have a problem with them farming out horses to other facilities since I'm sure they get more requests for help than they have space. However, it didn't seem that there was any attempt to contact the donor of the animals. I remember Kristin Mulhall had said that OF approached her about Blues and that she told them she would take him back if it didn't work. She didn't even know that he wasn't at the facility. I actually think that re-homing some of these animals would be good PR for the retirement industry. OF could show horses that are cleared for some work, be it jumping, dressage, pleasure, therapeutic etc. The horses should be cleared by a vet for the activity and the original donor should be notified and given first refusal.
I've sent small amounts even with the questions but I don't know if I'd be comfortable with retiring a horse there without some explanation of the policy. I also noted that OF's Board was never quoted as unveiling new policies for rehoming horses or keeping horse donors in the group. That bugs me a little too.
It would be interesting to know how many people liked the set-up enough to keep sending their retirees to OF.
what a bizarre, and frustrating, story all around
