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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/lunaticguardian on 2023-08-22 22:15:53.

This has been bothering me for years, now. I grew up in a small farming community. I had a good friend who lived a short drive from my family’s farm. Her parents were not farmers, but they had bought property in the countryside. Her father told her he would buy her a horse for her 16th birthday.

The house she lived in had a corral with a lean-to and a trough. Basically an exercise ring for horses. She was extremely excited about the upcoming purchase of her horse and I, being raised in a dairy, asked her in front of her father about when they would be building a barn and a pasture fence for the horse. She laughed at me and her father took great pride in telling me that all of that could wait.

She got her horse the following spring. A 16 hand, grey and white paint named Money. I helped her feed and water him, but it took 3 months for her father to get a saddle. Once he did, I had to show her how to saddle him and halter him, and she went riding exactly once. Money refused to even walk, all he wanted to do was graze. With the bit in his mouth, because he’d been locked into a dirt corral for months. My friend didn’t know how to ride or sit the saddle. She never rode him again, and Money just stood in the corral.

That winter was extremely harsh, which is common in the North. I went to her house in -26 C weather, and the 15 minute drive took 45 minutes on the back country lanes. When I got there, I saw Money standing in the corral, as far into the lean-to he could get. He had ice in his mane and tail, and ice and snow all over his withers and back. He didn’t even have a blanket or straw to lie down in, and no way to get out of the wind. He was stood with his head and neck down, covered in snow.

I cried all the way home, and as soon as I walked in, I made a call to the RSPCA. I told them her address, her parents names, and the conditions and food Money was dealing with.

The next day, my friend called me, screaming and threatening me. The RSPCA had visited her house and threatened her parents with livestock neglect and animal cruelty if they didn’t immediately transport Money into a heated barn for boarding. They said he was underweight, undergroomed and endangered. It was going to cost her parents thousands to board him.

It probably would have been cheaper to build a reasonable shelter and a pasture fence, honestly.

But, when she was on the phone, screaming at me and threatening me, I lied.

I told her I had no idea who would do such a thing.

She wanted to fight me, but I only wanted her horse to survive the winter. I wasn’t jealous of her. I didn’t do it to make her or her family look bad. I did it because they were going to kill that poor horse.

She told everyone that I’d grassed her and that I was a liar. Money was immediately transported to a heated boarding facility and sold before the spring.

I reported her, and then I lied. AITA?