I own this horse. I posted about him before, years ago, and haven’t really updated on him since. I am not sure what the answer is for him or his future. It is a really tough question for me, because he is so lovely on the ground. I think, if I owned him without DH, I would euthanize. But since DH is happy to support him, we will keep trucking on.
He will certainly never, ever be moved along to another home.
I have a friend in Europe whose family has a small breeding program, and she told me that her dad will sometimes put an older broodmare down after they are done breeding her. Because the horse is viewed as livestock and not a pet and it doesn’t make financial sense otherwise. Sometimes friend convinces him to keep the mare, and mare serves as a babysitter for some time. But they don’t have a huge property, and at some point they have to stop collecting horses I suppose. I wouldn’t call that convenience thinking so much as business thinking. As well as a culture where it makes no sense to them to expect someone else to provide that horse with a home.
I also personally can’t think of anyone who has put their horse down strictly for convenience. I do know some who have kept their horse alive and suffering a bit too long, though.
It makes me anxious to share this, but it’s relevant to this topic… so here it is.
I had a mare that was diagnosed with kissing spines. She became dangerous and unpredictable under saddle, but was happy enough hanging out in the pasture with her buddies. I only owned her for a couple of years, but of course I became very attached to her. I tried to do everything I could to help with the kissing spines (worked with an equine lameness specialist, diet specifically recommended by vet to promote topline strength, long and low exercise on the lunge, time off from riding, injections, saddles fitted to her by professional fitters, bodywork, etc etc), but stopped short of surgery because it just wasn’t in the budget.
This mare was special to me, but nothing special otherwise. She was registered but with unremarkable bloodlines, and very quirky and sensitive both on the ground and in the saddle. Not an easy horse to manage or handle. She had very little value overall, looking at her from an objective point of few.
So, what to do?! She was somewhat young - early teens. I don’t make a tremendous amount of money and I just really couldn’t justify keeping an incredibly expensive pasture ornament for 10+ years that was difficult to handle and dangerous to ride. I reached out to her breeder and offered to give the mare to her with full disclosure of all the issues and where things stood, and the breeder said she couldn’t take on another horse. I offered to give her to people within my network that I knew would give her a good home, but all declined (understandably). She had a uterus and she was registered… but I did not consider her to be broodmare quality. She was pretty squirrely and who knows if that was innate, or due to past experiences. And she just wasn’t all that special in terms of bloodlines. She was built well enough and moved well enough, but she was nothing remarkable.
I decided to spend a few months trying to find her a home, and was prepared to euthanize if I couldn’t. I was not going to give this mare away to anybody and risk her ending up on a truck to Mexico, or stuck in a backyard situation with subpar care. I made the mistake of telling some folks that euthanasia was potentially on the table, and things got messy. Lesson learned.
Thankfully, I was able to find her a home with a family that had acreage and loved horses, but they didn’t ride. I was able to visit their property beforehand and see their animals, the property was safe and well maintained, the animals all looked great, and I had a good gut feeling about the people. Of course I was completely honest about everything and handed over all vet records, and I was very clear that this mare was dangerous when ridden, and if for some reason they couldn’t keep her, they could reach out to me and I would figure something out. It worked out well - she is now a pasture ornament with buddies, living a happy life.
I do think I would have probably euthanized if I could not have found a home. I guess some would see this as convenience since the mare was pasture sound. I hope that doesn’t make me a bad person. It is just SO much money to keep a horse these days when you don’t have your own property and you have to pay for boarding. Quality care and facilities do not come cheap. Even for pasture board - if you want quality pasture with good hay and shelter and safe fencing, you will pay for it. Self care was not an option since at the time I lived in the middle of a major metropolitan area and all horse facilities were a significant drive.
She was my last riding horse, and I don’t know that I will ever buy another. With the state of our economy and the insane cost to own and maintain a horse, I just don’t know what the future holds. I think the only way I would buy again would be if I had my own property and could guarantee that I could keep and retire if I was faced with a similar situation. I never want to go through that again… it was gut-wrenching and an absolute nightmare.
Back in the day, people would send them to auction. Some would sell them directly to killer buyers. There were more than a handful of auctions in my area, now there are none. I don’t know what people do now.
Just my $0.02 but if the only two options for a horse are euthanasia or auction… I think I’d opt for euthanasia in almost any case. There are far worse fates for a horse than a peaceful end when the alternative is being bounced around, potentially neglected or abused, or outright shipped off to slaughter.
A long time ago, maybe 35 years ago, I bought my first horse, a beautiful gray thoroughbred gelding. He was not long off the track and maybe 5 or 6 years old. I was a pony clubber and college student whose parents were not at all horsey, and I probably bit off way more than I could chew. I didn’t do a PPE, just rode the horse once before buying. My summer job was on a Morgan breeding farm, and I had the horse there with me. It soon became apparent that something was not quite right. The horse could be unpredictable, but he was super sweet on the ground. He looked far less mature than he should have—one vet who was visiting to attend to other horses asked who the nice 2-year-old was. I ended up having three different vets perform lameness exams, and the results were conflicting. One well-respected vet who happened to be visiting from the University of Pennsylvania believed he had Wobbler Syndrome. I was way over my head and opted to euthanize. It was a terribly difficult decision, and today I think I would have a lot more support and resources (not just monetary) to actually try to figure out what was going on before making that decision that arose not from convenience but from being overwhelmed.
Many years later I had a Saddlebred who was not the horse for me. He needed to be in work 6 days a week to be rideable, he cribbed (not a dealbreaker for me), and he had a terrible time keeping weight on. I had him scoped for ulcers but none were present. I ended up giving him a way to a girl who knew him from before I owned him. She loved him and took him with her when she moved 3000 miles away, but he was always a challenge to keep weight on. Turned out he had gastric cancer and she had to put him down relatively young.
Two different stories, two different outcomes. None of it is convenient, especially in the emotional toll it takes.
FWIW, my former boss at the horse farm would euthanize old broodmares from time to time when the farm just couldn’t handle any more population. She believed it was kinder than sending them out into the world with an unknown fate.
I totally respect someone who euthanizes after exhausting all reasonable alternatives. For example, tracking down old owners who might have a soft spot for the horse, finding cheaper (but good!) retirement boarding, really beating the bushes to find that incredibly rare home that is good, and wants a pasture ornament.
I also totally understand the poster who said they’d be more inclined to fund their old man’s retirement than a new, young horse’s. The old guy has done much more for you.
Tangent: It is pretty much disqualifying for me if someone wants to board a young (like, under 17 or 18 years old) retiree. I think the odds are high that the owner will get tired of paying board for such a long time.
Well said. Absolutely agree with you.
This plus
This
Really gets me. What is a person supposed to do?? Not aimed specifically at you, SMF, but… that would make it really hard for someone to “exhaust all options” if boarding barns start screening out younger retirees. I do get it, but darn. Talk about rock and a hard place.
I do, once in recent memory. The vet was NOT happy to do it, he and the barn manager and the trainer all offered to take the horse instead. The owner just couldn’t be bothered anymore, wanted to focus on her other horse and euthanize this one. The horse wasn’t young nor old, maybe early to mid teens, had the starts of arthritis that you’d expect at that age for a riding horse but wasn’t useless by any stretch.
This is definitely still a thing. Just look through the lower end auctions. It may not be a morally accepted practice for, say, a lesson barn these days, but plenty of horse owners still dump off their throwaways and make a few bucks.
Sort of related…Many moons ago, the barn I was at was moving. They decided to put one of their oldies but still sound lesson horses down instead of move him to the new farm because they thought he would be too stressed by the move. This was a horse who when they did try to rehome him when he was younger busted out of the new owner’s property, which was down the street, and ran back to our barn numerous times. Every time they thought they had him secure, they would wake up the next morning and he would be back with us. The new owners gave up and he stayed with us until the move. This decision was solely based on preventing mental stress, and in my opinion is a justifiable reason to euthanize.
Not everyone has the same parameters as me! Just because I don’t take younger retirees doesn’t mean all retirement farms don’t.
I could be persuaded to take a younger horse if the owner made me comfortable tat five years in they wouldn’t change their mind. Lots of references, who were personally known to me, could help.
My opinion would be to euthanize but I’m a livestock owner not mommy to a fur baby. Honestly, I think euthanasia should be utilized much more often especially when it comes to degenerative conditions in broodmares i.e. my mare is unsound so I’ll breed her. I do wonder if the culling practices in Europe has led to better stock? Course, recent breeding practices don’t necessarily emphasize longevity and soundness.
Absolutely it has. People DO breed questionable animals over there, but it seems like the bigger studs and registry standards encourage better breeding practices.
In the modern thoroughbred is not bred for longevity and soundness. Debatable if it ever WAS, but we certainly can see the effects of sending 3YOs to the breeding shed for early speed. OTTBs that make it to mid/high levels of demanding sports are few and far between for many reasons IMO.
That’s what I remember more often growing up. It’s still happens although I think it’s considered a lot more taboo (And I personally don’t agree with that myself)
I’ve seen some horses passed around here under some sketchy conditions. Such as a horse with kissing spine that’s not being disclosed or something like that. As in, a former owner comes forward and says that the horse that’s being advertised as a 3-ft jumper was deemed not rideable by multiple vets and put the owner in the hospital or something and the owner has given the horse away as a companion,all missing from the ad.
I had a very, very similar situation and have so much empathy for you. Mare didn’t have KS, but some type of hormonal issue that left her dangerous and unpredictable under saddle. She was 5, I’d had her a little over a year but was very attached. I worked with two lameness vets and 3 repro specialists to try to pinpoint an issue, did numerous testing, and did eventually do surgery. She was also quirky/sensitive on the ground and I did not consider her broodmare quality. One of the repro vets who had seen the escalating symptoms had quietly made it known she would be comfortable euthanizing.
I reached out to a bunch of bigger breeding operations and one was interested in her as a tease or recip mare. It is a large, well-known facility and I have a close (vet) friend who knew the vet in charge. Both my friend and one of my mare’s vets vouched for the facility and the care there. I’ve gotten updates, and will get a call if they no longer need her anymore.
Like you, I think I probably would have opted to PTS if I could not have found a home. I dreaded even considering the possibility, and equally dreaded the thought of being judged for it.
I did get another horse a few months after. He has been incredible but every bump, every little scrape - my heart leaps into my throat and I feel nauseated. I definitely live in fear of being in that position again.
There might be a plethora of homes ready and willing to take, care for and enjoy lightly riding these horses if they weren’t financially strapped paying for retirement on a horse they can’t do anything with.
So if there are two horses that both need the same one home then we are still at square one. What to do with the horse.
Yes, some people here are suggesting that is best to euthanize a horse out of convenience/ cost to keep horse as a pasture pet. They don’t word it like that but that is what it is. That is what it means to think of an animal as disposable…hence “a thing”.
I don’t believe it is legitimately that hard to determine whether or not a horse has quality of life in the field. Many issues that prevent a sport career are very minor or irrelevant to a horse that just has to be a horse.
The OP did not ask what you do with a horse that is suffering or a horse that couldn’t have quality of life as a pasture pet. In those cases there is nothing to debate and no ethical dilemma.
Its definitely a question I have more questions on than answers to. But idk, maybe I’m a soulless witch, but I’ll always value a humans right to make decisions based on a maybe hard financial situation over an animals right to a long retirement. I guess that’s speciesism - but still how I feel.
And someone further back referenced Europe and GB who did mass culls of their breeding stock. They did it for a reason. Ideally you create a long term healthier and sounder animal. Horses (cows, dogs, pigs etc for that matter) are so far from being wild that they are entirely reliant on human intervention to maintain healthy population numbers and quality breeding stock.
I don’t think all non-ridden but sound horse are realistically getting this long luxury retirement on the back 40. A lot more than we want to admit are pawned off, sold to auction, sold under false pretenses. And for every single one of those cases I’d argue euth was the kinder option. Sure we could argue these owners shouldn’t have had the horse to begin with, but that’s sort of a sunk cost at this point.
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