Yes to this. If my circumstances changed so that I could only board one horse, I’m sorry, but I would choose to euth my older broken-kneed guy so that I could keep my young, healthy warmblood (unless in this hypothetical I needed the money from her sale). So in that sense, I am prioritizing my riding goals over his life. However, I won’t euth him so I can go out and look for another prospect. That will have to wait until he is in the ground (or one of these mythical companion homes arises. He is lovely to look at and have around and I haven’t found any takers in seven years he’s been retired).
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Maybe somewhat, but I live in an area with a lot of old, old barns, and their board isn’t any less.
And frankly, now that I have my own place, I’m somewhat surprised board isn’t higher at the nicer places than it is. (And by nicer I mean nicer horse care, not fancy facility.)
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Yes.
In another hypothetical world, what if my riding horse comes up with some sort of illness or injury that requires $ to manage. Maybe then I elect to euthanize my high maintenance retiree to fund the care of my young riding horse. In that scenario, I am also putting my riding goals over the continued existence of a retiree.
Or maybe even my current riding horse needs retirement unexpectedly. So I euthanize the old horse to make room for a new riding horse. Or maybe I decide that diverting funds from the old horse to I dunno better training for the young horse or something makes sense and I help the old expensive one cross the bridge and go get some other lower maintenance companion horse.
Maybe I decide to euthanize the old guy to make room for a pony for my nieces and nephews. Bc I guarantee that’s the only way they’ll get to experience a pony.
Maybe I decide to let the world’s most expensive free horse go to his grave so I can save more money for a nicer riding horse in the future.
Maybe I hold this old horse close to my heart until he can’t stay out of pain despite modern medicine.
Lots of maybes here but one thing is sure. I’m not going to run around judging folks for giving a horse a humane end of life experience regardless of why they went that route.
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Riiight. I’m very suspicious of what kind of care can be possibly funded by the board rates in my area.
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The costs to produce it from tree to shavings and then the bag it comes it is probably just had a rate hike.
Now my brand of toothpaste went up $1 from the 2 weeks ago I bought it last and it has already gone up $1.50+ since Covid craziness. That to me is shocking.
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Interesting that there’s a very recent thread on this forum about the retirement topic. Though the suggestion that USEF or another governing body set up a fund for it is wildly unrealistic, I think the discussion is way overdue. Not a lot of people want a companion, or a walk/trot trail horse that spooks at everything, who requires $150 of senior feed a month plus alfalfa cubes and yes (thank god) he still eats hay!
I’ve been a member of this forum for close to 20 years and threads like this one have become almost a subgenre in the last couple of years: “Priced out of the sport,” “How do you afford it?,” “40 is the new 20” in Eventing, “Why even a six-figure salary isn’t enough” in H/J and I think there have been others I can’t recall right now. Yes a lot of that is about discipline-specific show and training fees versus basic care costs … but the fact is that horse ownership is becoming increasingly untenable within reasonable commuting distance of the kind of jobs that allow people to afford it.
Like another poster my SO makes a much higher salary and covers our major bills, plus we have no kids. Otherwise I could not support two, even with a full-time job and a weekend shift doing inpatient/resident care at an equine clinic. Honestly so much of this thread is resonating. I am constantly working to the point that when I have a choice I would usually rather collapse on the couch than putz around with a 4-year-old who really needs to get started under saddle.
Before the pandemic I never noticed so much frank discussion of how people fund this lifestyle or how so many of us are on the very margins of being able to do so. Yet at the same time there is clearly a market for all of these imported sporthorses at $50K+ right off the plane. Is this as someone upthread suggested an echo of the rich getting richer at the expense of a subdued middle class? Kind of feels like it.
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I think the fancy new barns is simply how the above is showing up and showing that squeeze on the middle. If you can afford to buy property and build a new barn, chances are you can afford to do it fancy.
Same with how board between the fancy places and functional older places isn’t much different. I don’t think anyone is building fancy barns with chandeliers based on wanting to appeal to a certain board segment. They’re putting in the chandeliers because they like them and can afford them. Having boarding spots or not is incidental.
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- in Nature, animals don’t retire. their lives get harder and harder until they starve to death or get eaten. We owe our horses a kind end as payment of service. They have no expectations of retirement.
- Not all horses are affordable to retire. They may still need shoes, daily medications, sunscreen…they may cost as much to retire as to full board a riding horse.
- Many retirement homes/boarding situations are cheaper because they are remote. Those horses get to eat grass all day…or round bales…or who knows. They are out in the elements. Their owner may only be able to visit a couple times a year. They don’t get brushed or their hooves picked regularly. It would be a while before someone notices moderate lameness, ticks, or lice. This is a sharp contrast to what this horse was likely to have experienced in its working career. Is that humane? (maybe, maybe not, I am not judging that choice either)
- Many “riding stables” don’t cater to retirement horses: they don’t profit off horses not in lessons/training, and often require extra care, so board for retirement horses isn’t always easy to find. Don’t assume your ability/availability to retire your horse is universal.
Stop anthropomorphizing: human work to retire is a human thing. Horse people owe their horse good care and a good end. Period. Retiring a horse and the amount a person wants to spend on vet care/retirement care is a personal choice.
I had to stop riding at 49. Life is short. pursue your goals/dreams. You never know when time is up and you look back with regret. Don’t let some judgmental, anthropomorphizing keyboard typer make you feel guilty because you are making that hard choice to say goodbye to a friend, or maybe even a recent purchase that turned out to have undisclosed issues. Do the best you can for that horse, and do your best to ensure a humane end.
Are competitive goals worth more than a life? I mean, a chicken died for me today, so I guess my just living a day is worth a life to me.
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People are financing those 50k horses with second mortgages, 401k loans, personal loans using the YOLO reasoning.
Not all, but many.
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I have three horses. Two of them are actually within a whisker of producing income for the business.* Then there is number three. Number three is the companion pony that I had to have five years ago when I only had one horse and he was losing his mind. I bought, at a very good price, one of those companions. Because the owners couldn’t keep coughing up the board for a 16 year old mare with Expensive issues. Or expensive at the time if you wanted to actually ride her. I didn’t, she was cheap, and I needed her. Here is the thing. She has NOT been ridden since 2017. Those expensive issues? IE the expected damage to the bones from a high impact sport (barrel racing)) She is now the most expensive horse on the property by far. And all she does is eat, sleep, and poop. How much of my bank account, how many years do I actually give her? Note, we are that point where Bute a day in advance is required to get her comfy for the farrier. But she still seems happy…I can guarantee I could sell her to some A—hole tomorrow for more than I bought her for. Is that fair to her? I can guarantee that I can keep her going for another decade, technically very happily. Is that fair to me and my husband’s supposed retirement fund? Is it fair to my parents whom I care for and my discretionary money goes towards? Is it fair to her?
I love little Bella. But…When I look at the bank account, I look at my job, I look at my likely (bleak) prospects for twenty or thirty years from now…
- This is weird, draft horses, very well connected to logging, all of the needed credentials/licenses/connections in a very closed industry, all of the other required equipment…so yeah not exactly normal
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Very well said.
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Yep. Someone (actually several people) suggested this to me. Me, a late 20s individual in a menial but not unprofitable job (lowww middle class), with an SO carrying the bills, and a good but new credit score due to my parents being a Cash Only household. “People do it all the time!”, yeah but who is telling people to take out loans for racing cars or sail boats? Or… are they?
Edited for clarity
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And being remote comes with its own set of challenges around care and access to farriers and vets. Sometimes retiring that special needs retiree to an affordable remote location can mean some compromises on special care.
And often they have limited turnout. While that can be managed for a horse in full work I can’t help but wonder at the quality of life for retirees I see at boarding barns with stalls and small, limited turnout. All that endless standing around with limited activity is not at all natural for them.
Anyway I feel like anyone who is going to be judgmental about the very real and difficult choices owners have to make about their horses either hasn’t been in that position yet, or are just projecting their own personal issues/trauma/insecurities.
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Preach. Very well stated.
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Racing cars… no. My dad is involved in racing and all the people we know who race have money and lots of it. No loans happening there.
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The drag racing people I know are broke as heck and have sub 10 cars. Maybe it depends on the scene you’re in.
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Yeah he’s not in the drag racing world so no idea there, although I know some of the bigger time drags are $$$
Would anyone be taking a loan then for a car that you know of?
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I’ve seen this so many times. A retired horse hanging out in a 20x40 dry lot. What kind of life is that for them? If you’re going to do that for retirement, you have to at least go out and groom the horse and take it for walks. Otherwise, I think euthanasia might be kinder, as hard as that is to swallow.
Of course, I’ve never been in this situation, so I don’t really know what I would do in this situation. I do know that I adopted a senior who had been living alone at her previous owner’s house and I suspect they were in financial straits. She was described to me as a “deadhead” with no personality before she came to me. The photos of her were heartbreaking - she had no spirit left. After some time with me and her new partner in crime (i.e., another chestnut mare), she has turned into Ms. Personality. But honestly, I think given the choice between her former life and euthanasia, I’d choose the latter, even though I would cry for days from losing her.
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The question of “when is it ethical to euth” is a tricky one. A few years ago I acquired a $1 horse through my vet who was called to euth a mid-teens, sound healthy mare. For various reasons, the owner was at the end of her rope with this mare — she hadn’t been ridden in years and had become semi-feral. The owner tried repeatedly to sell her but attracted only tire-kickers. She tried to give her away to her horse contacts, but no interest. She tried to give her to a riding school, but the mare (unsurprisingly) did NOT work out. I picked her up and she’s working out with me. I made the mistake of telling her backstory to a couple of people at my barn (not mentioning any names because as we know, the horse community is small and gossipy) but holy moly, some people would have hunted down the previous owner and put her head on a pike. I didn’t feel that way — although I’m happy the mare is mine and is living a good life, she also could very easily have ended up in a very bad place. As we like to say here, there are a lot of things worse than a painless, easy death.
On the other hand, I’ve seen LOTS of owners who have dragged out the show with a sick, struggling animal way longer than what’s in the horse’s best interest because the owner just can’t let go. Although I completely empathize with those distraught owners, they are actually putting their own emotional needs above the needs of the horse.
Aside from the extremes of a well-heeled owner who offs a serviceable animal who still would have a lot of good options just because they can’t be arsed to explore those options, and an owner who is basically torturing a dying animal because they can’t face the inevitable, I don’t judge.
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I admittedly don’t know that much about the standard difference between regular board and retirement board. I do know a couple people that have their horses states away in “retirement barns” that they rarely if ever see and I know that wouldn’t work for me.
If/when the time would come to “retire” my gelding, to me that just means I would NOT do whatever his limitations would be. If I couldn’t ride him, I’d still be out just to hang out with him, do groundwork or take walks with, do enrichment activities, and groom and dote on etc. I would want to make sure he seems happy and comfortable, and to know that you have to still be an active part of their life. For me anyways.
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