Distressed horses by the River Lea navigation, Enfield

Was not sure which thread to post this on.

Has anyone cycled past the horses on the River Lea, on the west side on King George's Reservoir, i think it's technically Enfield and just north of where Lea Valley Road cuts through (coordinates: 51°38'56.5"N 0°01'21.5"W)

I cycle past there a lot, and saw the horses around a month ago and they looked pretty healthy, with quite a few foals, but went past yesterday and was completely shocked at how their condition has deteriorated - look malnourished, manes and tails completely matted, bloodshot eyes and in distress. It looks like nobody is taking care of them at all but they are not wild, on private land and no more grass to graze on. It was really upsetting to see.

I've contacted the RSPCA and British Horse Society. If anyone has seen them and has similar concerns, please can you do the same to try and get something done about this?
https://www.bhs.org.uk/our-work/welfare/reporting-horses-in-distress
https://www.rspca.org.uk/utilities/contactus/reportcruelty

Thank you!

I've passed these over the past few years. Always been neglected. Frequently fed on a diet of what looks like dumped bread.

I have reported to the RSPCA in the past who said would be investigated but perhaps rather selfishly I've not followed up as well as I should.

I commute past them everyday and have reported them to the RSPCA multiple times. I spoke to the landlord of the pub opposite and he says they are owned by travellers. He lives above the pub and has had to frequently take buckets of water over to them as none was provided.

I’ve been tempted to cut the wires and let them escape but know it could be dangerous to the horses and to drivers if they were to make their way onto one of the nearby main roads.

RSPCA will probably do fuck all. Redwings is the local horse sanctury - give them a call with all the details - I am sure they will be more than useful - https://www.redwings.org.uk/

Thanks @Thrasher, I'll give them a try.

Sad to hear that it's been reported previously and nothing has been done. I think they are the worst i've ever seen them now though.

I don’t know why the go to is calling the RSPCA. Animal sanctuaries. Always.

Might be the PCA bit

Hi.

I went past there yesterday, Nov 2020, and the horses were still there. Open land, no cover or shelter, manes and tails matted like dreadlocks full of burrs, and the grass has all been grazed flat and is covered in garbage & plastic bags. Someone appears to have dumped some wet straw in the middle and that is it. I couldn't see any water troughs.

Did any of you get any response or interest from any agency? I was thinking of doing the same.

Who's the landlord?

RSPCA will probably do fuck all

The RSPCA take the second highest number of people to court after the CPS

To be honest, I would have little faith in the RSPCA, for no other reason than they destroy about 53,000 animals per year – 45% of those it took in - and, hence, reporting matters to them can lead to a death sentence for the animals you are trying to help (rather than the animal abusers).

I know this as a fact from other cases.

But I wondered if anyone followed up with any agency, before wasting my time.

If they are left there by travellers who are on the road, then I guess they'll be hard to track down or prosecute.

I thought the best angle might be landlord if it is council or agency owned, eg the water authority who runs the reservoir.

Hi, that is really sad to hear.
i got quite far with this - or so i thought..

The last update I had from the welfare team at the British Horse Society was at the beginning of October. I provided all information to them and photographs. And after a few emails back and fourth, and a couple of phone calls they emailed me to say:

I am getting in touch regarding the concern for the horses at River Lee Enfield, that you had reported to the BHS last month.

I am pleased to confirm that our local Field Officer has attended to the concern. They have been made aware of the horse owner and will continue to monitor this concern moving into winter. Please be assured that on assessment of the horses body condition there were no immediate concerns present, all horses that our Field Officer was able to assess were standing at a healthy weight. With the levels of burrs present in the manes and tails of these horses, please be assured that these shouldn’t be having a major impact on the welfare of these horses. I can understand that they do appear to be unsightly, and why you would be concerned from seeing them.

As stated this will be something that our Field Officer will continue to monitor, so if you have any future concerns or notice any signs of deterioration, please do get back in touch.

I also found out that Thames Water are the landlords, and after sending an email to their general email, which i thought would be a complete long shot, i actually received a phone call from their land assets team a couple of days later - showing concern and that they were going to follow it up with the tenant. And that I should get back in touch if nothing is done. Again sad to hear to that they haven't take responsibility as landowners

I cycled up there around a month or so ago with a bag full of carrots and fed them, someone had already piled a huge pile of scraps in the middle of the land which they were feeding from but they still looked like they were not being properly cared for.

I urge you to contact the welfare team at the British Horse Society - welfare@bhs.org.uk as they do seem to care but maybe under resourced or need chasing?

Red Wings only told me to get in touch with RSPCA (i did at the beginning but i found that they weren't very helpful). Red Wings also emailed me to say:

Thank you once again for your call and email. I have had a chat with our Essex based field officer, who has asked me to get back in touch with some information for you.

Our field officer spoke to both the RSPCA and BHS in the area, who said they’ve both made visits to the horses recently, and provided some advice to the owner. From the photos you’ve provided and the visits by the other orgs, the horses are in good body condition, and their weights are currently no cause for concern.

As for the burrs, while they are really distressing to see, they are very common around this time of year. We receive lots of calls about horses with burrs in their manes and tails, and while nasty to look at, they generally don’t cause the horses any harm or distress.

If you have any questions or further concerns, or if anything changes about the horses and you’d like to report them again, please feel free to do so.

It seems to me that if the horse's weight isn't at risk, charities etc don't seem to really do much. But I definitely do not think these horses are doing great and I wish we could do more

Good work, slw. I've followed stories like this before and they just tend to run and run, unfortunately. It doesn't seem right that the agencies aren't following things up, but I don't know what laws they might be able to invoke. The problem is often that people who neglect animals go just as far as they know they can go. I mean, I haven't seen them and I don't know much about horses, so wouldn't really be able to comment even if I did see them.

Much appreciated.

The horse owner videos I watched on Youtube all suggested the burrs (burdock/thistle?) did in fact irritate the horses.

I did find this government advice, eg "Horses at grass should be inspected at least once a day, preferably more often". Seems they're vague on sheltering.

What are they doing with them, breeding to sell or meat? I don't see many "travellers" using horses these days.

It is quite odd that they just keep them on this land, and makes me question what their intentions are with them. There are around 30 or more horses there.

makes sense. That do not care for animals. They treat them like collateral.

A piece of land that large, so close to London, can't be cheap.

Do they keep the sheep too?

There's the big horse fair up in Appleby each year. Is that where they get sold?

Distressing moment travellers leave horse dead on the side of an Irish country road after crashing it into the back of a car while racing it

Today and yesterday I've been there around... Yes i noticed all of the problems you guys saying... burst tails , distress and so on... no one care about them and its really so quiet about all this situation, its so obvious that they are left without any normal care.... that makes to research about who are responsible for them... sheep there as well... what purpose of keeping horses there ??.. I wanna know. I think it would be a good idea to start take photos and videos of everything how they left unattended and shere everything viral to push some responsible inspections..... I really love animal and cant see them strugling like that and i will never understand people who are doing some nasty business and literally killing them in certain ways for money abvious.. And unfortunately its happening all over the world of all kind of species and its difficult to control.....

Yesterday they got some hay finally. So i guess someone just reacted to this situation.

One of the foals fell into the canal last Saturday night and couldn't get back out. It was very distressed and so was it's mum. Luckily passers-by managed to pull it back out after several attempts. But it's only a question of time before another one falls in and drowns as the barbed wire fence around the field is broken in places.

That's really devastating. And worse to hear that after all our efforts, no real intervention took place. Particularly from the land owners (Thames Water) who are allowing this to occur on their site. Maybe it does need to go to press for it to be truly acknowledged as an issue of animal abuse.

I cycled past a few weeks back and the horses looked a lot healthier than the previous years but I couldn't tell whether they were the same horse or just replaced with new ones? Sad to think they are potentially kept there through the winter like that too.

A friend cycled past there recently. I can’t believe this is still ongoing.
Perhaps getting in touch with some of the horse sanctuaries in the New Forest can shed some light on what the process should be.
Having said that, their situation is most definitely neglect and goes against DEFRA’s guidelines on how horses should be cared for and they are missing main things, like shelter, water and clothing in the winter. Food control is acceptable if they’re not skinny but exercise and regular maintenance is important for their well-being according to the document. I’m not a horse specialist but I do think that this is wrong and those poor horses deserve better!

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/700200/horses-welfare-codes-of-practice-april2018.pdf