Overworked and Underfed
I worked as an equine assistant at a ranch in Indiana. The stuff that went on at that place made me so depressed to the point where I was crying every night.
The ranch mostly had horses, with a few goats here and there. The horses were underfed, overworked, and just miserable. At the time, the owner had around 20 horses ON A HALF-ACRE OF LAND.
By right, one horse needs around three acres for adequate space. There was also little shelter, and the entire “pasture” was a huge mud-lot all summer. The owner had no knowledge of equine nutrition, so she made us change the animal’s diets almost daily.
This resulted in two colic cases where the horses could not pass anything for about 48 hours. I pleaded with her to call the vet, but she refused. We also had two horses with fevers that were still being used on rocky trails at the time in 108-degree heat.
The same thing happened with two horses who had hoof abscesses. Most of them hadn’t had their yearly shots in two years, and none of them had their teeth done for five. The only thing she provided for was hoof care.
The worst part was that the owner was praised by many people for her horses and her facility. She also had a boarding facility.
She had gotten horses sick, their diets get mixed up ALL the time, and we had a horse almost die from the contaminated feed as a result of a horrible raccoon problem.
I ended up calling the local ASPCA, hoping SOMEBODY would go out there and take her horses away from her. She inadvertently found out and threatened to sue me on the matter. Story credit: Reddit / explodingcranium2442