Help me help my horse please

*Warning- Long Read*

I got my first horse on July 16th, 2010. I board him at a farm that I have been taking lessons with for years.
He is a 4 yr old, 17hh thoroughbred gelding, named Digbee.
He is my dream come true and I want everything to be perfect with him. But it isn't. Turns out that they put him in a field with 12 other horses, and it is a 5 acre pasture. He doesn't have enough room to run around. He has been in the field since July 18. He gets beat up everyday. Whenever I go to bring him in, he has a new bite or cut or hoof print somewhere on his body.
His old owner gave me a bag of his feed that I asked them to feed him, and my feed bag is still full. He is alot skinnier than I would imagine an OTTB would be. He has lost weight since I got him. His old owner had no problem keeping weight on him.
I try to visit him everyday so he can get away from the other horses beating him up, and so I can make sure he gets fed. I do my best to see him, I try to see him at least 3 or 4 day out of the week.
They know he is getting beat up out there and they aren't doing anything about it. I have asked them too and they still haven't.

Many of you probably know what happened to ilovesonya this year. I board at the same barn she used to. She is my best friend, and I didn't like what happened to Sonya just as much as she didn't.

So what do you guys think? Should I wait to see if they move him into a different pasture, like I asked? Or should I move him to the barn ilovesonya boards at?


Here are some pictures.

The first day I had him:





And now(it was raining):

He's far too thin.

You need to move him ASAP. I'm not even sure why this is something you need to ask.

He looks bad, he's out with too many horses for such a small acreage, and he's not being fed properly.

I'd have had him out of there at the first sign of him being improperly fed.

I would move him to a totally different facility where the people actually fed him and kept their pastures maintained properly. Poor guy! Hope you get everything sorted out.

As a BO - I will tell you horses WILL get marked up - it happens.

Yes he has lost weight, although I am not impressed with the weight he was at when you got him.

Some horses will take up to 30 days to settle in to a new herd. If he is new to you and to the environment, he has to 100% adjust to a new way of life.

I am curious as to what your BO said when you approached them?

His dings and marks are no big deal, really. They are part of herd life.

Sometimes the horse getting the dings is the horse causing the problems (not saying it is the case with yours, just saying). One horse pesters the others to play, etc and the others finally just say 'go away'.


Weight wise he looks horrible. But you obviously realize that. I am not sure why you are still boarding there.

I asked them 5 days ago if they would move him, and they said ok. They still didn't, so I asked them again and they said they will move him today. I doubt that they will because they aren't very true to there word.
There solution is running a line down 1 of the other pastures they have, and putting him in there by himself.

And you knew that before you moved a horse there?

I have been telling my parents that Digbee needs to get out of that farm. I already have the farm picked out, and have talked to the BO, and they are fine with me moving him to their place. My mom just doesn't want to deal with drama, or leave on a bad note. My parents have told me that we will move at the end of August or September. I want to move him NOW!

If you have talked to the BO about this before and he has done nothing; or worse, he said he would handle the situation and nothing is being done about it, move your horse. He isn't going to get better by you "sitting around" and hoping the BO decides to start feeding your horse. I would be packing my things to be ready to move...asap. Because the longer you wait, your horse is just getting skinnier and mor beat up.

I just talked to me mom, and she said that we are going to move him to Lencourt sometime this week or next. :)