Hi my name is Mia and I am here to share the heartbreaking story of my beautiful boy Dave,

Dave was placed in a large field on loan over winter to be looked after while I was recovering from mental health and focusing on taking care of my farm and my other horses.

Dave and I never clicked with riding and with lack of grass with summer before and with the winter coming up he started to loose a lot of condition and weight. I started to think that maybe him being with me and the upcoming conditions of winter it would be better for him to be out on companion loan or on Herd grass livery.

I was in contact with some people that were more than happy to keep him on their land and they would help look after him free of charge.

of course I was anxious and scared as this meant he was no longer in my care yet I still owned him.

the whole purpose of him moving away was for him to be able to gain weight and gain condition in a large open field, although it was only 10 minutes down the road from me, I still found it very hard and distressing and made plans to see him every few days.

a huge opportunity came by a few weeks after moving him and that was me buying my mare as Dave was doing so well and I was seeing so much progress I thought it would be a good idea to keep him there until winter was over.

unfortunately, after five months of me having my mare, I had to make the heartbreaking decision to put her to sleep and this Rightly so made me distance myself away from all Horses. I also have another horse that I sent away on Full livery to make sure he can be provided with the best care as he was now the only ridden Horse I had,my mental health fell drastically and I couldn’t think of anything worse then going to see my Horses knowing that my mare was no longer with me and the last I heard Dave was doing amazing I had a few friends that told me he was doing well but I was lied to and it definitely wasn’t the case. Unfortunately I didn’t think to go see him and the last time I did was three months ago and he was absolutely fine.

I then decided it could be time for him to come home same goes for my other horse Oscar, as I am having an arena installed this year and the Summer is coming so riding in the field would be absolutely fine for Dave and Oscar.

I decided to go see him yesterday Wednesday, the 8th of April with a friend to assess if he was ready to come home or not my plan was to pick him up the same day so Saturday after picking up Oscar as he is only 10 minutes down the road as well I got his original field and he was not there. I searched and searched and searched and I couldn’t find him. and then spoke to someone that knew where he was and I was I was driving down there. I saw him in the field and my eyes just teared up and so did my friends. I climbed over three gates just to get to him, there was no water in the field he had a medium weight rug on with a bib his eyes collapsed and his breathing was slow. He could barely walk towards me without stumbling.

me and my friend took of his rug and bib and layers of skin pealed of him he had been cooked alive in that rug and the temperature that day and previous was up to 28°. He was dripping in sweat and blood. I had no supplies with me no water just a bucket of feed and some carrots. I couldn’t give them to him due to the risk of choke I called Family and friends straight away for them to come right away to help me I then got in contact with transport and the person that owns the field I got him out of there and we were waiting for transport. I managed to get water from the neighbours down the road. He drank three large buckets of water and then Ten large bottles of water

He had no energy to stand any longer and it was a great struggle to get him into the lorry. I decided to bring him back to my Yard to treat his wound on his Withers straight away, I wanted to try the vets were called and they managed to get out the next morning. This is going to be the longest recovery I’ve ever seen for any horse. I can’t deal with the heartbreak of putting another horse down. I’m happy to share more about his injuries and the condition that he’s in but I would rather do it over private message.

Thank you for taking the time to read. I understand it’s very long but I feel like I need to share at least a snippet of what’s happened please don’t hesitate to contact me if you could help in anyway.

donation's will be used to help support Dave’s vet bills and upkeep until he’s back on track and any medication or medical assistance needed.