^^and that it was a true horseman does.
Aw, I figured I owed it to horses in general to make up for the ones I regretfully sold on when they were still sound, healthy and going well (to very good homes) knowing I could not keep them until the end and continue to ride seriously. Maybe not even keep them at all in that stage of my life.
I knew this would be my last one anyway so it seemed appropriate. And Ive had to scrimp a bit to keep it, only now financially recovering from a big pay cut and drastic benefit reductions when employer went bankrupt, my HVAC blew and I tripped over a dog and broke my wrist (couldn’t work for 8 weeks and the disability check was late and pathetic. ) all in a two year span.
Lost a couple of cats around then too, one with 650 vet bill and the car needed expensive work plus routine tires, battery and brakes after it passed 125k miles and 12 years of benign neglect, including new catalytic converter. But I never thought about dumpi…errr…giving horse away. Not once.
Things are much better now, we got through it thanks to savings and good credit. Paid off all but one of the CCs last year and that ones modest. Looking at updating the now 17 year old car.
So not rolling in dough here or never ending good luck. Just finally old enough to understand you have to hope for the best and be prepared for the worst when you take on horse ownership…,or any other commitment in life, particularly those involving other living things.
You can all read this story told to me by a former friend and decide for yourselves.
She told me that her sister’s horse went lame and that she wanted to buy another horse but couldn’t afford to keep 2. Then she told me that her sister did the “right thing” by donating the horse to a rescue and not euthanizing or selling at auction. Now that lame horse went to a rescue she believes so she could get a new horse to ride.
My former friend thought that her sister did the right thing.
I bought my first horse at age 23 and he had heaves. He turned out to be a great schoolmaster. He was kind but not perfect, darn close. As he aged I bought another horse but was concerned about his retirement. We bought some land to retire him and took both horses there where he died at age 36. I named my farm after him. If I couldn’t afford to buy land I would have boarded him at a reasonable retirement farm but not have gotten another horse. I currently have 3 horses at my farm.
[QUOTE=DogIsMyCopilot;8998208]
It always amazes me that this is something people don’t have a plan for when they BUY horses. Chances are if you intend to keep a horse longer-term, you will be faced with (permanent) unsoundness at some point. Sure, there are a few stories of people who have owned their horses for 20 years “without taking one lame step” until horse one day drops dead in paddock or dies from colic, but realistically there will most likely be long periods where you’re just paying board/feed/farrier/vet bills and not riding.
That shouldn’t be a surprise. If you don’t want to deal with that, free lease a horse that you can return when it becomes unsound.[/QUOTE]
YES! After a few horseless years, I recently bought one with the retirement scenario in mind. I am lucky to have found a good situation, where if my boy becomes a pasture puff I can afford to keep him there in a happy retirement, and still afford to buy another rideable horse. If I wind up with 2 pasture puffs, then so be it. I find the daily care of horses as satisfying, if not more so, than riding.
If I had not found this boarding situation, I simply would not have bought a horse in the first place.
The title of this ad drew me in and I wanted to pop on and comment with a “success story”.
A year and a half ago, one of my horses came up lame, as in, AWFULLY LAME. We took him into a veterinary hospital and he was definitely laminitic in both fronts.
It has been a long haul with him. I went from taping the pads provided by the hospital to his feet and removing them twice a day to cold hose his legs, to rubber shoes removed and checked twice daily, to corrective shoes and pads, to a year and a half of no riding. Recently he gave me a pretty strong hint that he was ready again…I started walking him with me on long walks, saddled him last weekend to walk on the longe, and then last week had his shoes and pads reset with this being the second trimming now where all the old abcess material/pockets are clear. We now believe it has all finally grown out.
Today I rode him for the first time in over a year and a half! 
I hope to do so again tomorrow, we’ll see then how well he tolerated the work, we didn’t go faster than a trot. Wish us good weather for the near future so I can get him fit!
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While I agree with the OP in spirit, it’s sometimes not as black and white as we might think.
An older, unsound, unhappy horse is a no-brainer: euthanasia is probably kindest. What about a young, unsound horse who is bad in turnout, but not in pain? What about a young, unsound horse who’s pretty good in turnout, and not in pain? Good luck getting a vet to euthanize a horse like that: they won’t. Which is understandable.
My horse is in the last category. He is 8, and I pay for his retirement board. I am ok with this, although it means I cannot afford another horse for the 10-20 years he is alive. I didn’t try to rehome him, because honestly he can be kind of a jerk on the ground, and no-one is going to want a 17hh doofus of a pet lamb. But what if I had? What if I lost my job, and couldn’t afford him? What then? No vet would euthanize a horse like that, as long as he’s not ridden, he’s quite comfortable.
I notice that many (not all) of the Forever Home brigade have their own land. Not all of us are that lucky. Remember that.
I think we’ve all seen the FB posts that make us want to reach through the interwebs and slap someone upside the head. But there are many shades of grey beyond that. The poster a few pages back had it right (can’t quote): Should those of us with young, crippled horses be condemned for wanting to ever have another riding horse?
I’m sorry maybe I’m not reading for comprehension tonight, but where does an unsound horse equal not in pain?? If it limps even a 1 out of 5… It hurts…
Sound at the walk means the pain isn’t bad enough yet to make the horse limp. You can mask with drugs until something heals or drugs don’t work; but if your horse is lame at canter or trot, but is sound enough at the walk, do not delude yourself into thinking he’s not in pain. Pain is why they are not mechanically sound, it’s just not severe enough to show up yet in walk.
[QUOTE=Gumby80;9011006]
While I agree with the OP in spirit, it’s sometimes not as black and white as we might think.
An older, unsound, unhappy horse is a no-brainer: euthanasia is probably kindest. What about a young, unsound horse who is bad in turnout, but not in pain? What about a young, unsound horse who’s pretty good in turnout, and not in pain? Good luck getting a vet to euthanize a horse like that: they won’t. Which is understandable.
My horse is in the last category. He is 8, and I pay for his retirement board. I am ok with this, although it means I cannot afford another horse for the 10-20 years he is alive. I didn’t try to rehome him, because honestly he can be kind of a jerk on the ground, and no-one is going to want a 17hh doofus of a pet lamb. But what if I had? What if I lost my job, and couldn’t afford him? What then? No vet would euthanize a horse like that, as long as he’s not ridden, he’s quite comfortable.
I notice that many (not all) of the Forever Home brigade have their own land. Not all of us are that lucky. Remember that.
I think we’ve all seen the FB posts that make us want to reach through the interwebs and slap someone upside the head. But there are many shades of grey beyond that. The poster a few pages back had it right (can’t quote): Should those of us with young, crippled horses be condemned for wanting to ever have another riding horse?[/QUOTE]
I disagree. You leave out a lot of details…but either the horse can’t be ridden because it has an untreatable health issue or a behaviour issue. There are certainly vets who WOULD be willing to euthanize in either case.
Can’t understand why you think a lame horse would work for someone else…
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I do not disagree with the idea that trying to sell or pass on an aged or lame horse is pretty much shirking your own responsibility and perhaps a bit of fantasy indulgence that it will all work out okay, but …
Many years ago, someone passed along to me a very fine, upper level dressage horse who had become “useless” due to an injury. It often bothered me to think of how she could leave him like that … but there were extenuating circumstances and Elijah and I both came to terms that she had done the best she could for him. He was never fully sound for competition riding, but he was fine to teach me ever-so-much about riding here at home, in a grass ring on soft ground, in short bits. And he filled my farm and my heart with great joy. He lived with us for 10 years before passing suddenly last spring from colic. My heart still aches for missing him in ways I have no words to describe.
In those ten years, he was never cold or hungry, forgotten or unloved for one moment.
So, I guess, it is the exception that proves the rule. I am forever grateful for the gift of that horse. He meant the world to me and to all of us. He might have had a bad leg, but he was never useless.
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I have one of these young pasture-puffs - my mare was retired at 7 years. Or, as I say, we finally stopped hitting our heads against a brick wall after two years of attempting to get her ridable again.
On the flat, you have to know what you are looking for. On the hills, it is glaringly obvious.
I have vets state adamantly that she has laminitis 'cause she does carry very very very good condition - usually. X-rays show nothing. Feet are not hot- or even luke warm :D. This isn’t helped by the hard ground - we are just coming out of a multi-year drought as well as living in an area where we have a “dry” from (usually) late December to March.
Turns out that, when she was 2.5 years old and opened up her left back leg almost to the bone, she also wrenched all of the muscles/ligaments in front of her right hip. Poor mare tried her heart out for me as a riding horse. She is a really kind mare.
So, yes, she gets a home for as long as she needs one. (And, with vet advice, we are trying for a foal. This is not a congenital issue.)
The vets and I have discussed euthanasia - as she will not be a long-lifed horse.
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I have one of these young pasture-puffs - my mare was retired at 7 years. Or, as I say, we finally stopped hitting our heads against a brick wall after two years of attempting to get her ridable again.
On the flat, you have to know what you are looking for. On the hills, it is glaringly obvious.
I have vets state adamantly that she has laminitis 'cause she does carry very very very good condition - usually. X-rays show nothing. Feet are not hot- or even luke warm :D. This isn’t helped by the hard ground - we are just coming out of a multi-year drought as well as living in an area where we have a “dry” from (usually) late December to March.
Turns out that, when she was 2.5 years old and opened up her left back leg almost to the bone, she also wrenched all of the muscles/ligaments in front of her right hip. Poor mare tried her heart out for me as a riding horse. She is a really kind mare.
So, yes, she gets a home for as long as she needs one. (And, with vet advice, we are trying for a foal. This is not a congenital issue.)
The vets and I have discussed euthanasia - as she will not be a long-lifed horse.
I have one of these young pasture-puffs - my mare was retired at 7 years. Or, as I say, we finally stopped hitting our heads against a brick wall after two years of attempting to get her ridable again.
On the flat, you have to know what you are looking for. On the hills, it is glaringly obvious.
I have vets state adamantly that she has laminitis 'cause she does carry very very very good condition - usually. X-rays show nothing. Feet are not hot- or even luke warm :D. This isn’t helped by the hard ground - we are just coming out of a multi-year drought as well as living in an area where we have a “dry” from (usually) late December to March.
Turns out that, when she was 2.5 years old and opened up her left back leg almost to the bone, she also wrenched all of the muscles/ligaments in front of her right hip. Poor mare tried her heart out for me as a riding horse. She is a really kind mare.
So, yes, she gets a home for as long as she needs one. (And, with vet advice, we are trying for a foal. This is not a congenital issue.)
The vets and I have discussed euthanasia - as she will not be a long-lifed horse.
[QUOTE=Guyot;9011035]
I’m sorry maybe I’m not reading for comprehension tonight, but where does an unsound horse equal not in pain?? If it limps even a 1 out of 5… It hurts… [/QUOTE]
Usually not not always.
A tendon or muscle injury can heal with a shorter range of motion in one limb. They’ll limp, but they aren’t necessarily in pain.
Same with neurological issues. The horse may be weak or uncordinated and the gait may reflect that, but from the (admittedly) little I know, not all neurological issues cause pain.
And yes, the ones who are in some degree of pain far outnumber the ones who aren’t. But that doesn’t mean every lame horse is in pain.
Concern over being able to keep my sweet gelding until the end of his life is one of the things that drove me to buy my own farm. I bought him at age 15, so I knew old age was coming sooner rather than later. Having a retired horse and a riding horse in boarding in my area is not very doable, at least not for me, so I got serious about moving to a place with some land. It’s worked out great for all of us, but I realize I am lucky to be able to afford my own place.
It is surprising how many people don’t seem to think about the future when they buy a horse. We all know they are very expensive to keep, and I understand people’s financial circumstances can change drastically, but lots of people who buy horses can hardly afford to take care of themselves. These are often the horses who end up in a bad place.
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(Needless to say, the forum will not let me quote other posters)
Guyot: “I’m sorry maybe I’m not reading for comprehension tonight, but where does an unsound horse equal not in pain?? If it limps even a 1 out of 5… It hurts…”
In plenty of cases. Kissing spine, mild-moderate neck arthritis, weak SI joint/chronic SI problems, chronic hind suspensory desmitis, and other conditions where the horse just doesn’t quite hold up to the strain of being ridden. Some of these horses are marketed as “trail sound”, which I suppose can be fine if you never ride up or down hills, through uneven footing etc. But many horses with these types of conditions are perfectly comfortable if turned out on good ground, with good supervision.
Hobbs: "I disagree. You leave out a lot of details…but either the horse can’t be ridden because it has an untreatable health issue or a behaviour issue. There are certainly vets who WOULD be willing to euthanize in either case. "
No. In this case, there are not.
Always Funny RIP was the exception rather than the rule.
There are not that many K.S.s out there with pastures for Old chestnut mares or syndicates to find and organize a rescue.
I don’t know how to correct this problem without stepping on horse ownership rights.
Perhaps the breed assoiations could raise the initial registration fee to include enough to cover the cost of putting a horse down and disposal? The initial registration is the time when hopes are high and owners are willing to pay extra for their potential star, they already paid the breeding fee and the mare care for a year the cost of a dignified death is a drop in the bucket.
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Just asking, does kissing spine keep them from being driven also?
Zombie thread- but here goes anyway.
Vets who are human and actually listen to owners are precious, and they will not refuse euthanasia for an incurably unsound horse that an owner cannot keep for financial reasons. It’s far better than sending horse to auction or “free to a good home” giveaways to who knows who. One more reason to get to know your vet well, and vice versa
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Zombie thread . . . and depressing. Right now I have a place to retire my horses. If at some point I don’t, I’ll think very hard about leasing rather than buying. I would have no issue selling a horse to someone who is a better match than me, but I don’t know that I’d want to let go of an old horse or one with issues.
at the same time, I’m glad some people do. I have a companion horse for my own retiree that was free. He is lame, but I’ve discussed the situation with my vet and farrier and neither think euthanasia is necessary. Frankly, I didn’t want a horse as a companion that would make me feel guilty for not riding!
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