I have a problem. It's called the horses next door... my neighbor allows some guy to rent a portion of his land (a small portion, the neighbor said 4 acres, I'd say maybe 1 or so is fenced in by the guy renting) to this guy who has three older thoroughbred mares. He has a trashy run in shed that he only put up because the local Humane Society happened to notice the small paddock with no shelter and poor water and no food. He made the paddock slightly larger, but not at all large enough for 3 horses. Their water is disgusting, it seems they just refill it and never dump the old water out. They are wearing blankets even now and two of them are breathing heavy and sweating heavily. His fence is so poor that they've broken out for the second time, today a woman was frantically knocking on my door because she thought they were mine and they were in my front yard. Both times I've caught his horses now and put them in my care. I'm sure he won't be out to check on them until tonight or tomorrow, if that.
I'm very concerned about the welfare of these horses. They are poorly cared for, and the guy laughs at me when I try to give suggestions. The first time that I caught the horses, one of them was passing excessive amounts of gas for hours and biting at her flank. When I told them this, they LAUGHED at me like it was a joke. I tried to tell them she was colicking but he just shook his head and said "You know how you tell when they're really colicked? They lay down!" I couldn't believe it... they just took everything I said like I was some dumb kid.
Is there anything I can do? They have shelter (a rickety trashy plywood run in shed that's missing a huge piece), water (foul), and food (some grass and some leftover hay, and they get grain at night sometimes). They are mean in my opinion. I watched them handle the horses one night and they use leads with chains at the end around their noses and if the horses get excited they just yank and yell at them. They're ill tempered anyway... when I caught the horses the first time I put them in my barn, each in a stall. They had the nerve to COMPLAIN later, saying "Damned stalls... never did like them damned things... horses get all stupid in a stall, get them the hell out of this damned barn..." I couldn't believe it. I saved their horses from being hit by midnight semi trucks going 80 mph on our road at that time of night, and they were angry!
I'm worried that if I try to report the situation nothing will be done. I'm with a horse rescue already and I know how hard it is to have anything done. They have food, water, and shelter technically, and I've never witnessed real abuse other than the people just screaming at the horses and yanking them around. Is there anything I can do?
