Wednesday, March 9, 2011

What if?

Do you have a plan for your horses if something happens to you? This is one of those areas that I think it can get touchy, especially with horse people. What would you want done with your horses? I've sat my husband down on several occasions and explained what I'd want to happen. I asked him to make sure that he has my horse friends help him to find someone to lease her, but that I'd prefer he didn't give over ownership unless he knew the person who was taking her and she went out on contract and he checked up on her. (This said with the threat of me haunting him.)

I guess it goes back to me worrying that something bad would happen to her. I went over every possible scenario,even (as horrible as it sounds) putting her down. He looked at me lovingly and told me that he could never possibly get rid of Denali because he knows how much I love her. Still. I get concerned.

What are your plans? Do you have any?

In lighter news, my new Back on Track Quick Wraps arrived today. My ankles were really sore and as I sat in my chair complaining about it I noticed the package and thought I'd give it a try. They are AWESOME!! Denali might not get these.

13 comments:

Checkmark115 said...

I have thought about this since I was like, ten! I always told my mom to give my horses to my ICP instructor b/c I knew she would take good care of them. But now my plans are to give my pony to one of my friends from college and my eventer to my good eventing friend from back home. I do not under any circumstance want them sold and if the friends want to sell them it obviously cannot be to a meat buyer. I would hope they would never sell them though, cuz even after one sale you never know where they can go. Freaks me out a little to think about!

SprinklerBandit said...

They look great on you. Might as well keep them. ;-)

Janine said...

I have a friend that I know for sure would take great care of my horse and keep him forever. I have willed my horse to her if something ever happens to me:)

Achieve1dream said...

ROFLOL! The wraps are comfy huh? Nice of you to try them on for D, but make sure she doesn't find out. The princess might not be happy. :)

If something happened to me I know my husband would keep Chrome and he knows about horses, so I'm happy with that. If something happened to both of us . . . I probably need to think about that . . . but I don't want to . . .

summersmom said...

Funny blog topic, because I have been discussing this lately with a few horsey friends. If something were to happen to me, I know my husband wouldn't run my horse through the auction but in the event he can't afford to keep her, I have asked a few friends to either take my horse or help him place her in a good home. He wouldn't know enough to do it on his own, but I have complete confidence in the friends I have spoken with. It could be a permanent lease, but I requested he keep the papers. I think sometime soon I'll be writing up a document to transfer ownership to these same friends if something were to happen to both me and my husband.

Rebecca said...

I'm glad you posted about this, it isn't something that most people think about, because it isn't nice to think about.

While we are currently horseless, we do have plans for our other animals. If something happened to me, my husband knows how to care for all of the animals, and is willing to.

If something happened to both of us, my parents would take the cats, rats, and tortoise (though my dad knows several turtle people and would probably find Koopa another home). The dogs are much trickier. My younger Border Collie has super high-drive and is extremely high-energy. He can be the nightmare dog people think of when they say BCs are hard to live with. My parents are in no way equipped to handle that kind of demand on a day to day basis. I would ask them to find him a home by working with a rescue and/or my agility trainer (with them keeping him for as long as it takes).

Even tougher is my older Border Collie. He is laid-back, sweet, and in general a WONDERFUL dog. He is my heart dog. My agility trainer said she has never met a dog as affectionate as he is, and she competes at a national level, so she knows a lot of dogs. :P That said, he is reactive to strangers. Very reactive. This is something we work on, but reactive dogs are never "fixed", they can just learn to be less reactive. At the moment, if something happened to us, we want him to be euth'ed. My parents do not the knowledge, or honestly, the will to deal with handling him for an extended period of time. Anyone with a reactive dog knows that you have to change your life around to make an environment suitable for them, and that is ignoring the amount of training that we do with him. It would be completely unfair of me to expect my parents' to deal with him, and him to deal with my parents'. He isn't adoptable, especially not with all the dogs out there with no issues. If, sometime in the future, he is less reactive than at present, we will revisit this, but for now, we've made the hard decision when it comes to this issue.

Sorry I wrote such a book! This is just something I've thought a lot about, especially after our car accident last year. We both could have died, and left family with no idea what to do with our critters. No one needs that kind of stress on top of having lost loved ones. Just ask anyone who has deal with the death of a family member who doesn't have a will. :( Not pretty.

Oak Creek Ranch said...

Brett and I have talked about this a lot. We can't stand the idea of them going to someone else and then on to who knows where. We've agreed that the horses will be put in retirement in a big pasture in Oregon.

Unknown said...

I've been looking into having the beneficiary of my life insurance policy be a trust for the benefit of my horses but so far I can't seem to figure out a good way to do it that would make sure that the trust was valid and enforceable beneficiary. So, for now, my trainer is the beneficiary on my LI policy, and the horses go to her in my Will. She knows what I'd want her to do with them, and the LI policy makes sure they aren't a total financial burden on her. So, you're not crazy for thinking these things through... I've got a plan too. :)

Unknown said...

Lucky for me my "plan"is fairly easy...ownership of my horse would revert back to my sister and she (my mare) would continue on in her life living like she always has with my sister and her horses. Beyond that, I'm postitve our bestest friends at our barn (my sister owns the barn) would do what is best for our mares. They (our mares) are highly prized for their exceptionaly calm attitudes, willingness to do anything asked of them, versitility, easy keepers and I know everyone wants "their hands" on our horses because anybody can ride them. (yes, I'm proud of our mares)

allhorsestuff said...

That is mighty thoughtworthy~
Always a good plan to at least think about the options as these funky, freakish things do happen.

When I moved to my recent boarding facility, last fall..whoa..they really thought of that for me. MAKING ME make my mind up on- Injuries,and what amount I would spend,and if the injuries led to the horse having a poor outcome what vet, and the release to authorise my mare to be put down.

Of course I consulted with my trusted vet. He rewrote the contract to suit our conversation and signed it. I feel somewhat better now, in the case of that BADD thing happening.
My sister would take the mare, should I be out of the picture permanently or temporarily so.

Good post!

Leah Fry said...

I think Mr. Fry would possibly keep Jaz and maybe even Daltrey if something were to happen to me. I had always thought that Jae, Heather's BF should get Poco. And so he did, and nothing even needed to happen for me for that come about.

Frizzle said...

I'm kind of dealing with this right now. Salem's owner was in a diabetic coma and pretty much on her way out last week. She did wake up, but things aren't looking good. I'm doing my best to make sure that Salem doesn't fall through the cracks.

Brooke (FBX Adventures - In Parenting) said...

Oh, I'm so sorry for her!! How sad. I hope she is able to recover!