My vote is with jaime lynn and sleepy. We just
had a horse die at the barn (old age, colic) and
they buried her on the proprty. We do have a
pet cemetary nearby (about 30 min drive). It’s
HUGE. Looks like a people cemetary…headstones,
and everything (although some graves just have
a cross made of 2 pices of wood.) I’ve not had
to ck and see what it costs to bury a pet there,
but I’m sure it’s not cheap. They even have
perpetual care!!! People that have the gravestones or brass plates often have their pets
history (i.e a wonerful dog, etc). Neat huh?
Hi Worthy:
Your story brought back memories for me of my own pony.
I bury mine at home on the farm and when it came time for Maggie to go, my friend and neighbour kindly offered to meet my vet and then help the man who does the actual backhoe burial. When all was done, the man turned to my friend and said he didn’t think she looked “comfortable” and lowered my friend into the hole to arrange her a little better.
I always felt a great deal of gratitude for that. A very caring and compassionate man. IMHO, I can’t imagine “shipping” a horse who has unselfishly given of himself.
I have a friend who “shipped” her last horse for meat because in her words, “she needed the dollars to put toward the purchase of her current horse.” IMHO, that speaks volumes of the value she put on him. I understand fully when someone needs to euthanize the horse and then send it to the rendering plant but I can’t understand the above thought process.
I have a wonderful vet who has a horsey burial site on his farm. It’s strictly BYOT (bring your own tombstone) He even performs a short service for free.
Gosh - rereading this - sounds a bit gruesome 
Erin, save your pennies for that cremation. I looked into it 2 years ago and the cost was $400. I was told this was primarily transport cost from Morven Park to Frederick. It would have cost $90 to have my dog cremated.
Margaret, if you could check with the owner of your former stable and find out if they had a deal, I’d love to know. You would think if VP was going to cut a deal they’d cut it with an org. that, unfortunately, can guarantee sizeable annual repeat business. 
My e-mail is on my profile.
I buried my mare here at home in November of '99. It cost $75 for a 10:00 p.m. emergency farm call to put her down and $75 for a neighbor to come with a back hoe and bury her. Around here we alwyas line the grave with straw so their final resting spot is comfortable.
A rendering service will pick up a deceased horse for $150.
Long story made short- a friend of mine took a horse from a lady who wanted it to have a good home, RED FLAG. He was a 12 year old Morgan/Saddlebred gelding. He was off and on again lame though the reason given for giving him away was that he was a kind horse but not working out for her 13 year old daughters jumping plans, he tended to bolt. Well, funny how things come back around. A few months later she was at another area farm and talking to a former trainer of the horse when he said “How is his navicular doing?”. That was the first she had heard of navicular with this horse. To make a long story short, she had xrays done and started dealing with the navicular, meanwhile his bolting became much worse. Was it due to the pain? He was on bute and lightly ridden. Was it an old habit he used to avoid work? Who knows. The final straw was a terrible runaway down the road with her, and she is an experienced rider. She tried to give him away with all kinds of warnings- he is not to be ridden, companion horse only!! No takers. After 3 months of trying to give him away he went to the sale barn in my area where the “meat” buyers go and he was run through the sale at the end when the “meat only” horses go through. He brought $1,100. Around here the “meat” horses sold on Monday nights go to Nebraska where they butcher on Tuesday and Thursday so the horse had little, if any layover and he was in good health with the exception of his navicular, and mind. It was the only way she could insure he would not hurt a person. At the age of 12 he had another 15 years of living and she could not keep a pasture puff on her place that long- unlike her other personal mounts which she has owned for years and are buried on her place. Also, had she known up front the horse had navicular she would NOT have taken him. The owner she took him from is was new into horses and not equipped to deal with the reality of horse problems. For the record, I know she spent close to $600 on xrays, farrier work and training on the horse during the 14 months she had him.
i just had my horse of 33 yrs. put down last fall. i was fortunate to have a great local vet who did the cremation for 50.00; although i didnt get to keep the ashes. but another altenative which i am so surprised nobody has mentioned is your local hunt club. i know that most hunts in the nova area take horses and will have them put down and they feed them directly to the hounds. this is a nice alternative especially when its too frozen to dig, which is my first option. i know this sounds gross but its better than mushing them up and putting them into a can with all that other nasty messy smelly stuff and sitting on the shelf for months or years!!!
Now, we had a gelding of ours completely sever his tendons bout 4 years ago, no hope for recovery, and my husband called around to all the hunts and at that time they all said they no longer took horses–no staff skilled enough or comfortable enough to shoot and then butcher the horse.
Now I’ll be honest–for some reason I was really bothered by this solution. Somewhere in the pit of my stomach it just made me quesy. I can’t explain it logically, since sending the body to the rendering plant didn’t bother me at all. But I was THRILLED to learn we could put him down ourselves, with euthanasia solution. I guess mayb its ecause I have seen someone try to use a gun and miss before–very horrifying. Anyway, just curious who found someone to do it for the hunt?
This only works if you have a vet school in your area, but we have donated two of the last three crippled horses that have had to be euthanized to Cornell. These are our personal riding horses that have been bred by us or bought young, so not riding school horses. There was an emotional attachment and we felt it was the best way for them to have a use. One was used in a tredmill study(He was not in significant pain but would never be a riding horse again, was 10 years old and significantly “unsound” in the brain) then put down and had a necropsy down with results going towards studies in OCDs. The other was only used for a necropsy as he was so crippled it was unfair to make him work at all.
I know Ag schools look for 2 or 3 horses per semester that can be used in equine health classes for necropsys also.
