Giving away beloved horses that are lame on Facebook

[bitranchy]

It is Halloween tonight, after all :winkgrin:

I did read through part of this before realizing it was quite dated. Regardless, I think a lot of good POV have been brought up. It really isn’t black and white. I think there are multiple systems of belief in our modern day society, and they often contradict one another. There are folks who treat anything as though it’s disposable, and there are folks that hang on until the bitter end and expect everyone to do the same. These things can apply to animals.

Not to get into animal rights activists, since I imagine that’s a hot button issue and whole separate can of worms, but I do think that mentality works against the welfare of a lot of animals. Unfortunately, the cost of living is quite high and space is very limited. I’ve watched, even in the past couple years, farm land turn into real estate developments and the housing market skyrocket financially. Board is expensive and space is limited. I do believe animals have to have a job, so to speak, just as humans do. I’d think if everyone could afford a riding sound horse while they also keep their retired buddy until their time to go, they would. I know I would. But it can be tough, emotionally and financially draining, when that predicament arises.

As it stands, I know right now I can afford one horse. I could perhaps do two, but in order to afford a permanently unsound or retired horse, I’d have to find pasture board outside of the city I live in. There’s really no year round turn out here, anyway. The distance comes with it’s own price that’s not necessarily monetary.

There are sometimes alternatives for the unsound or aging horses, so I don’t think there’s anything against putting a feeler out. I do think, though, that that shouldn’t be the back up plan. There shouldn’t be the expectation that person will exist and it’ll just be out your hair. When I see those ads, I just scroll by. The ones that really get me are the ads that have a “love him so much but he needs to be gone by the end of the month” gist. Terrible.

[shiloh]

I wish that I had kept the ad I saw for the very nice looking Appy in his mid-teens that was being given away - again, to “forever” home (also, good home a must) that was moon-blind. I was so upset - basically the horse is BLIND. WTF do you think is going to happen to him? Who in their right mind is going to want a blind horse? What I got out of that was that the owner was too cheap to pay to have him euth’ed, so he wanted to make it someone else’s problem. :mad::mad:

The Craigslist in my area is full of these ads for poor wrecks of horses and their stupid owners. Sometimes I want to make an apt and then go there and smack those folks upside the head. But you can’t…dammit. :winkgrin:

[Malda]

@ChasPonyCat

While I agree that there are a lot of less than desirable give away ads on Facebook (or Craigslist…YIKES), I think part of the problem too is that people are so black and white about what is “acceptable” in situations when the truth is situations can be unique and different. There are people who think it is ALWAYS the wrong thing to not prolong the horse’s life as long as possible, who think it’s ALWAYS wrong to sell a horse, who think it’s ALWAYS wrong to give up any type of animal really. In actuality there are lots of shades of gray.

I agree that the internet is full of scary and anger inducing ads, but I sometimes feel that the actions people take with regard to their animals are because they fear judgement from others or want to feel like they are doing the right thing (even if it ends up being an unwise choice). It depends on the person, of course…the poster above with the three categories probably has it about right.

I think people who insist that the horse find a forever home (even though they aren’t providing one)or insist that whoever buys their horse cannot sell it are doing that because they don’t want to be judged by animal owners who believe in never selling animals and because of the prevalent culture of animals are part of the family/till death do us part kind of thing.

I think requesting “forever homes” is the trendy thing to do, that’s all. I didn’t used to to see this, and it’s usually done by amatures/backyard horse owners.

I’m horse shopping now and requesting “forever homes” really, really annoys me. It’s so hypocritical. It’s just as annoying as demanding that the seller has unlimited visitation rights. Sorry, once you don’t own the horse anymore you can’t say what happens to it.

I hate horse shopping. (Anyone selling a nice trail horse in the So. Cal. area??)

[Foxglove]

Might be that owners are naive? In my younger (and dumber) years, I had a blind mare --perfectly sound, except for the blind part. A neighbor girl loved to brush her and sit on her. I told the parent (siingle mom) that the girl could have the horse for nothing if they had a good fence and would provide vet care. That lasted about two days before the mom’s boyfriend decided to show the girl how to ride, got on the blind mare and became a cowboy. Mare went through the fence in a panic. There was a $50 vet bill they could ill afford. I took the mare home. I learned a lesson --clearly. I dd find the mare the ideal spot at a living history museum where she was “the horse” in the pasture along with “the cow” and “the goat.” It helped that she was a beautiful horse and very gentle. The living history museum was affiliated with a veterinary school --so she also got good care. The second time I happened to mention (about 10 years ago) to my vet that I was going to have to put a perfectly healthy 11 year old gelding down due to ringbone (chronic lameness). The vet’s assistant said she would take him because he was such a good horse and gentle, her kids would like him and there was plenty of room on her parents’ farm (about 10 miles from me). After two years she called and said the horse was lame and couldn’t be ridden. Would I come get him? Geesh --made me feel awful because I wondered what happened to him in those two years --was she riding him? I questioned the vet --she no longer worked for him --and he said she was kind of flakey --and didn’t last long as an assistant. I donated that horse (along with some money) to a horse rescue. They said they found him a home in KY as a pasture mate on a breeding operation farm --but I don’t know if that’s true. About the same time there was a bit of a hay shortage in our area --and a newspaper article said that the horse rescue had put down 19 “chronically unsound” horses. Maybe mine was one of them. And I fault myself for not having that horse put down myself --but at ll and pasture sound, I couldn’t do it. I would now. Live and learn. Oh, I DID check out the horse rescue and it was legit and had a good reputation --so it wasn’t one of those fly-by-night operations –

[TullyMars]

Mine stay with me until the day that they die. I am not rich, I am very average, but those horses all served their use to myself and my daughter. They took her on trail rides, took her to county shows and packed her around and won, they don’t get any say in where they end up. It is a sad lottery for the horse and they can only hope as they change hands as older horses that they have their Black Beauty final moment. I am of course speaking for the lame, sick, aged population of horses.,

[rockymouse]

I’m looking right now at my son’s 18yo gelding sunning himself in the pen with our other horses and donkeys. He’s in great weight, he’s got an adorably wooly winter coat, he gobbles his feed and loves to boss his mares around. He’s happy to get scritched and fussed over. Yet he’s lame in his fronts and he’s not improving.

Despite various treatments and corrective shoeing over the last year, vets have not been able to help him significantly. (He does not limp at the walk, but is markedly short-strided. A trot makes him head-bobbing lame.) We’re trying one more thing - Osphos - and we’re hoping that it is the magic ticket, but thus far I don’t see a change. It is heartbreaking to think about euthanizing this lovely, clear-minded and otherwise quite happy gelding. I don’t see an alternative, though. There is no other “forever home” for him. He’s already here.