‘Teddy needed to stop’
Rebecca Bullock took on loss of use horse Teddy as a loan five years ago when he was no longer able to event at the level his owner needed him to compete at.
“The claim was made on Teddy because he had back issues, stringhalt and problems with his check ligament. He’d been turned out for over a year to rest and recover,” recalls Rebecca. “I saw a post on Twitter about a schoolmaster event horse for loan and made enquiries. Teddy’s owners were completely honest about his loss of use status. He has the ‘L’ freezemark, but he was still capable of lower-level eventing, so I agreed to take him. I took meticulous care bringing him back into work and had his hocks and back injected before we started. We had great fun in BE90 and BE100 open classes, although his dressage wasn’t great. He also loved arena eventing.
Time to retire
“Then, at the end of one season, we tried a novice level event and he stopped on the cross-country course. I dropped him back to BE90, but he was stopping then too, so I decided to retire him completely. Teddy was a competition horse really and, although we tried hacking, it didn’t suit him. We had a freak incident where he fell in a ditch (not his fault) and the fire brigade had to rescue him. At this point I knew he needed to stop.
“He remained insured and I did claim successfully for some things, such as ulcers.
“I still have Teddy — he’s a part of the family now. I think it was great for him to have a job after the loss of use claim, but I don’t agree with selling a horse like this. I think the owner needs to take responsibility to find their horse the right home and, if it’s not working out, take him back. A LOU horse shouldn’t be passed around.”