I could never dump one of my horses with someone else, then never see them except what, once a month? Once a year? Even once a week is not acceptable to me. 
Over my dead body. When horses are old and frail, that’s when they need you the MOST. You are their owner - the person who knows them intimately, every creak, every squeak, every time their eyes just look tired or stressed - I’m going to know it more than anybody else. I notice every tiny little detail about my herd that nobody else would even give a second glance.
Owning a horse is for LIFE. Unless I am physically incapable of caring for them properly, they will be on this farm until they take their last breath.
Total bullshit if you think a horse doesn’t care if it never sees the owner again. :eek: Wow, the thought that a “horse trainer” would post this is really disturbing.
My main riding mare CALLS for me when she sees me. When I leave my friend holding her so I can go use the porta potty at a trail head, she doesn’t care about the friend - just stares in the direction I went until I come back. She won’t eat while I’m gone. My stallion calls and runs in from the pasture every time he sees me - regardless of time or day, food or no food. My husband can go out there, and he just keeps grazing. Horses definitely bond tight to their owners, and they DO know who you are and feel comfortable with you.
Ocassionally I let someobdy else ride Sweets - either to just try her out, to feel her gaits or whatever. I can see the worry in her face, and she constantly looks for me. She listens to the rider on her back, but she wants to know where I am. When she comes back to me, and they get off, she literally sighs and licks her lips. Her and I have spent hundreds and hundreds of miles and hours together bonding, training, and riding the trails.
You’re nuts if you think that horses don’t recognize their owner as part of their herd. Or you just haven’t spent enough miles and hours with your horse bonding.
Have you ever sold a horse, and then bought it back years later? I did, and let me tell you what, that mare KNEW us as soon as she heard our voices. My mother and I started talking to her, and her ears perked right up, and her face looked so surprised. When we got her home, she started calling for her old granny horse that had raised her. They got together, rubbed noses all over each other, and were inseprable from that first minute. She had NO interest at ALL in the other horses that she did not know. She wanted that granny that has raised her, and she wanted us - and she’d been away from this farm for 6 years.
My mother led her out of the trailer and down the barn aisle, and she literally took a sharp right, and ducked RIGHT into the stall that had always been hers. She pulled the rope through mom’s hand and went right in her stall. Why didn’t she just keep walking down the aisle, or go in a different stall? It was like nothing had ever changed.
It breaks my heart to see that people have never developed a real relationship with their horse. The horse is just a vehicle, a source of income and intertainment. 
I was sitting on the lawn reading on a nice summer day, and Sweets came to the fence as close as she could get, and she laid down and took a nap. And you think that horse doesn’t know who I am? Isn’t bonded? Why wasn’t she out in the field with her buddies who were grazing. She wanted to lay down, and she felt comfortable laying down by me. I sat there for as long as she slept.
It’s really sad to know that people cannot recognize or accept the love of an equine. Wow, the herd dynamic and bond is so strong and powerful, it’s what has kept horses alive for eons, and I am eternally grateful that my horses recognize, respect, and accept me as one of “theirs.”
I could NEVER ever turn my back on any of my horses in their waning years. To think that something happened to them, or that I wasn’t there when I needed them? I can’t even type it without getting choked up. I don’t just own horses so I can “ride them.” Riding is a perk, an extra. I own horses because there’s nothing that makes me happier than looking out the window and seeing them snoozing in the sun or taking a rip around the back pasture. I own them because they give and give and give without any hope of getting back. They are so forgiving and so loyal. The thought of “sending them away” when they can’t be ridden is just awful, as far as I’m concerned.
I guess what you guys do is your choice, but it’s not something I’d do if I could help it.
The horses who are retired here could care less if they ever see their owners again. They have a herd partner and fantastic care. All of their needs - as a horse are satisfied and so there is no longing for a person to show up and gratify them in some way.
