You aren’t doing any maintenance. It’s an unsolved problem.
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Humans, man.
They are usually the issue, not the horse. This thread is the perfect example.
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Most hate coming to COTH for advice because there are so many truly experienced horsemen here, and excuses aren’t tolerated. It is the nature of the beast when dealing with experienced horsemen. We don’t have a dog in this fight, so you are getting the straight up truth, even if you don’t like it.
If you pull a horse out of a field once a month to do a two hour trail ride, you are no horseman. Especially on an unconditioned horse with a lameness issue. If you see nothing wrong with this, that is on you and again is a problem with both your ethics and horsemanship.
You know what they say about plans? God laughs as we make them. Learn to pivot. Learn to put the needs of the horse over your own. That is the start of a real horseman!
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She is getting this advice from her trainer who also moved on a lame horse that didn’t fit her program to an old guy who “trail rides” 
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I have been in your position. What I did was to keep the horse under my care and control and find.a half-leaser who just wanted to putter around with him a few times a week. Didn’t get him off the payroll completely, or out of my brain , but it meant I knew he was getting fussed over, and I ultimately made all the decisions.
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Reading someone’s post history is a delicate balance because it gives context but also I think it can be crudely weaponized. I looked back for context not to try and do a “gotcha” so I hope it is taken in the spirit intended.
It looks like you got this horse from a trader who got him from auction. Unfortunately, there’s often a reason horses end up in that pipeline. At a minimum, I’d strongly recommend a thorough PPE for any future horses.
It also looks like you purchased land to bring your horses home. I know people’s situations can change dramatically in 18 months so perhaps that isn’t an option but if so, could he be a pasture ornament at the house?
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You don’t sell a horse like this if you care about ethics. If you’re lucky, maybe someone in your network can provide a soft landing for free. If you’re lucky. No-one who knows anything about horses is going to cut you a check for a lame horse that will enable you to buy a horse you want to be competitive with. In any discipline.
I agree that you need to explore maintenance options before he goes to anyone new, that would be minimum due diligence.
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This.
Trying to profit off a lame horse in order to fund a sound one is likely going to be unsuccessful, unless done questionably.
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Genuine question! What is the difference between this horse and horses who are considered serviceably sound? I thought serviceably sound meant lame to some degree but not lame enough to impede their job?
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A horse who is serviceably sound wouldn’t limp for a week after over exerting. Their lameness doesn’t change with regular work.
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See?
To me these 2 statements don’t jibe.
If you know equioxx can keep him sound, why NOT give him that relief all the time?
“Fixing” with the med so you can show & then back to *OUCH * for him is an odd kind of love.
My VSE developed an allergy to ? this summer & generic Zyrtec helped him through it.
I could have just let him cough once my vet ruled out anything more serious.
But for the relatively inexpensive treatment, he got relief.
As for selling your horse, I agree with @endlessclimb & @cutter99, you’ll find a better home if you can provide proof horse will remain usable with maintenance.
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Highlighting this comment because I think it’s such a great point. I think the OP may have a mistaken impression of the ethics/ease of moving on a lame horse because this has what she’s seen at her barn.
We don’t know if this horse is comfortable either. And honestly, we’ve talked ad nauseum on this board that just because a horse isn’t sound doesn’t mean the horse is easier or less costly to care for than one that isn’t. Most ethical trainers, even for an elderly walk-trot trail rider, isn’t going to urge their rider to purchase a lame horse.
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To me serviceably sound is able to do their job comfortably with maintenance and probably at a lower level of activity.
I have a 22 year old Fjord mare who is an awesome teaching horse. I’ve free leased her from a friend for the last 4 years (and she’s never leaving if I have a say lol). Can she go out and gallop and jump? No. Can she comfortably w,t,c, hop over a couple cross rails and trail ride occasionally? Yep. She’s on daily equioxx, cosequin and 24/7 turn out (she hates stalls and gets stiff overnight if inside). I have my vet look over her thoroughly twice a year. This winter we might bump up to some hock injections
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I once care leased a horse who when he was sound was awesome and fun to ride, unfortunately, he also had a history of lameness which wasn’t disclosed to me. I must have spent $3,000 trying to keep him sound. I finally returned him to the owner and was tempted to send them a bill for all the money I put into him.
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Therapeutic places also typically want a horse that is sound at all gaits and will stand up to a decent workload. I think people just picture walking with sidewalkers, but many therapeutic riders do much more than that and some therapeutic barns also offer conventional lessons. Maybe a place that does equine assisted therapy on the ground would have some interest, but those seem much more rare (and they probably also get offered tons of pasture pals all the time.)
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This. A therapeutic program that takes unsound horses is a huge red flag.
The horse is a therapeutic tool. The evenness and quality of their gaits is actually super important for allowing the rider to experience full benefits. This is even more critical for true hippo therapy programs. I sat on the board for one and we did a thorough PPE for any potential horses. Something that was not sound WTC was never considered even if we only needed walk. The belief was that maintaining fluid quality gaits while also balancing a rider who may not be able to fully balance themselves was a huge ask and unfair of a horse that had any known soundness issues.
The bar for a therapeutic only program is much lower and there are a lot of low quality programs happy to take an unsound horse and drag them around the ring for multiple sessions a day to make a quick buck.
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I’ll chime in regarding riding therapy programs. The centers I was familiar with in SoCal and the one near me here in Arizona will take an older, retired horse, but they will not take a lame horse. Besides the need for steady, even gaits, most of these non-profits operate on a budget. Maintenance is one thing, but they don’t want to spend a big chunk of monthly costs trying to make Dobbin sound and comfortable.
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Theraputic Ctr near me offers Driving & Vaulting as well.
Also:
Friend donated her DraftX mare & several years later that place called asking her to take horse back as she was no longer usable in the program.
So a donation may not be final.
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Good point.
The theraputic riding program in my area dumps horses they can no longer use. There was a mare I showed against years ago that needed a step down job and was given to the program with a contract stating she was to return to the prior owner when she needed retirement. I just happened to be going through craigslist one day and saw the mare listed for sale advertised as “no longer useful for our program/heaves” I contact prior owner who had NO IDEA mare was for sale at what amounted to meat man price. She luckily got the mare out of there at mare had a good retirement.
So even with a contract, I wouldn’t send a horse to any Theraputic Center if it was one I cared about.
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What kind of riding, exactly, was being done that made him lame if there was more than 3 days?
Asking because it sounds like a western barn, and a lot of western trainers I know will lope circles forever, do relatively hard stops, turns, spins, etc. if the rides were more along the lines of an hour of loping circles with rollbacks or stops, or other strenuous movements, and is sore after several rides like that, that’s different than a horse being sore after a few low key, walk/trot/maybe a bit of canter mostly along the rail or on big circles, less than 45 min long including warmup type rides.
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