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Retiring a show horse

Horse Care
#1

Hi everyone,

Long time lurker here of COTH. My apologies for the word vomit to come.

I’m looking for some feedback and suggestions to equip me with the proper knowledge on how to retire a show horse properly (I am surrounded by wonderful equestrians- but it comes with strong bias!)

I have a 22 year old thoroughbred who is still in very good shape in terms of weight/limited maintenance required etc. I have owned her for 15 years and she absolutely will be under my care until the very end.

The past couple years I have retired her from the jumper ring and worked her schedule down from being worked 6 days a week to a leisurely 3, but we remain at the show barn where she is only turned out an hour a day.

I want her to enjoy her retirement and I have an opportunity to retire her to a beautiful place with excellent care (Set farrier schedule, unlimited blanketing, grain/supplement feeding/unlimited hay/)- but the horses are turned out 24/7 -though do have access to well built run in shelters. (3 horses per shelter).

I should also note we are on the Eastern seaboard so get 4 seasons- including a cold snowy winter.

I guess my question is- how do I go about offering pasture retirement to my mare after so many years of micro managing? Should I maybe be looking at an option somewhere in the middle?

  • How do they adapt?
  • Is spring the ideal time to introduce this change?
  • what other things should I be considering when making this decision?

Feel free to tell me I am an overprotective mom and need to let go a little :slight_smile:

Thanks all!
Cheers.

#2

As long as she has access to a run-in, I think she’ll be fine. I don’t think you will know how she adapts until you try it. Some horses are fence pacers and fret, some love their stalls and barn, others seem to be perfectly happy outside in a herd.

6 Likes
#3

I love when I hear about people looking for good retirement options for their show horses.

My ideal, of course, would be Madden Mountain but alas my horses are not in the US and who knows what their cost is!

I retired my old guy a while back. He’s gone from 2 hours (not my choice and unbeknownst to me) a day turn out to 24/7 turn out. Once he was retired I moved him to a place where he got about 8-10 hours and amazing care. The barn owner loved him as her own. When I moved him later to my current place he went to 24/7 turn out. I live in eastern Ontario, so our winters are cold and hard, and our summers are humid and hot. He adapted too well. He’s pretty feral and does not enjoy coming into the barn except for the farrier. -40c doesn’t want to come in. +40c and a cloud of bugs doesn’t want to come in.

For cold winters I blanket appropriately. I find the summers are harder than the winters due to the heat and the bugs.

I do keep an eye out on his weight as he’s moving a lot more and the weather change can affect their weight. I honestly would rather them with a few extra pounds going into the winter as it’s so tough.

Turning him out 24/7 has been the best thing for him. He’s now sounder than he was at retirement and definitely happier.

(Disclaimer- I know some horses may not adapt as well as mine did.)

3 Likes
#4

Horses are instinctually herd animals who love to browse and to wander and to be in a herd. They adapt to stalls and micromanagement but all their instincts point to being most satisfied in a good herd on a field.

I would move the horse in early summer so they can acclimatize over the warm months. Get a couple high quality waterproof turnout blankets for mid winter

Give horse a month to adapt to the new situation before you make any assumptions about how he’s settling in. They all run around alot the first week.

11 Likes
#5

I retired my horse to a farm in VA that takes mostly show horses. Many of the horses they take in have NEVER lived out 24/7. What happens it seems is for the first couple days the horses look like they’ve landed on mars. Then it happens. They realize its AWESOME to be out side and they fully thrive in their new environment. My horse loved it. He went from all sorts of supplements, soaked cubes etc to being barefoot, a bit of grain am/pm and hay as needed.

15 Likes
#6
  1. Most adapt very well, if you give them the time and set them up to succeed. Is there a stall available, but they just stay out most of the time? It’s a lot easier to ease them into full time turnout, than cold turkey. It’s just a shock when they’ve been stalled for so many years. I did the same thing when we moved to our farm, and I brought my TB out of his 20-ish hours stall time, to a place I could have both a stall and turnout. I started by turning him out very first thing, and after getting ready for work, brought them in for breakfast. After work I turned out, and after my dinner, brought them in for their dinner and the night in the stall. We live close enough to work that I could expand how many hours they were out in the morning, and just worked our way up to all day for a bit, and then full time. At first, he would be by the gate waiting, then he’d come when he saw me, then I had to call him.

If it’s stall, OR pasture, but not both, then cold turkey it is, and just know he may be stressed, run around, not eat well, just out of sorts. If you really think he’ll be all anxious and colic or develop ulcers, it’s not a bad idea to ask your vet about getting trazadone on board before you move him, and wean off after a some period of time

  1. the start of when the grass is minimal and hay is being put out is best, since he’s already used to hay, and not used to grass. Plus, bugs are few to non-existent

  2. It will take more blanketing changes this Winter than subsequent ones, since the trigger for what/how much Winter coat was fully pulled weeks ago. I’d have a medium weight (200-280-ish gm, it varies by brand), and a sheet or 80gm/100gm “sheet”. Either can be used on their own, and the sheet can be added on top of the blanket for extra warmth, Don’t put the blanket on top of the sheet, that crushes the air space. A high neck model is great for extra protection

I’d also want a stall option available if there’s a need for stall rest.

3 Likes
#7

I am on the East Coast as well however, I keep my horses at home. My previous show horse was retired four years ago. I kicked him out of the stall and 'let him down" He handled it very well. In fact. he bangs to get out of the feed stall after he finishes eating. My current show horse will be retired in the next two years. He will stall be stalled 1/2 the day. He absolutely hates, bugs, heat, rain etc…He came from a situation where he was turned out very little. It took me over a year to get him to 1/2 a day. It is really horse dependent. I would try it and see how he tolerates it.

5 Likes
#8

Others have excellent suggestions! Hugh Jackman was a race horse until age 6 when he began his 3-Day career. He had only the finest care! Blankets, stall, best food, solo turn out, daily brushing, riding, jumping --well, everything a fancy-bred show horse could dream of!

And then he retired due to arthritic changes that precluded any future of hard work or jumping.

At my place (he was my daughter’s horse), we turned Hugh out in November 2021 when she came home for Thanksgiving. He was blanketed and unblanketed depending on the weather. He stayed in when it rained. Gradually, he began to prefer nudity and his horsey friends. By the next fall, 2022, he’d grown a heavy winter coat --and blankets hung unused. He has a 10 acre pasture and 3 sided shed and a buddy.

I think it took him about a week to adjust --his old routine had horses in the barn all the time --at my place we do 24/7 turn out, coming in to eat, be brushed, and ridden if that’s on the horse’s program. The day he came, it began to rain --Hugh raced to the gate to be let into the barn. In a few months, like the others, he just stayed in his 3 sided shed. Like the others, he prefers outside to inside.

Hugh seems happy.

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8 Likes
#9

My TB Show Hunter was bred for the track, failed his 2yo Speed Test, then ponied for the track trainer (Arlington, Gulfstream) until I bought him as a 6yo.
So zero turnout for the greater part of his Life
I boarded him for 15yrs at barns with varying amounts of turnout. Tops was a place that had them out from ~8A-4P, stalled overnight, turned out in groups of ~10 geldings or mares.
I brought him home @ 22, along with my other horse & gave them both 24/7 turnout with free access to stalls if they wanted.
They rarely wanted In, no matter how lousy the weather. I’m in the Midwest, so Winter can mean subzero temps & Polar Vortex windchills.
I rarely blanketed, both grew coats like yaks & tested toasty: ears, flanks, brisket…
He was 27 when I lost him to a trailering accident & probably had a good 10yrs left in him.

3 Likes
#10

we had the space so built our very longtime show/competition horse her own barn with a stall and a tack room, it is in a separated paddock

She was a middle of the herd horse, never any where near to top of the rule. She just enjoyed being on her own ground. Stall was left open for her to come and go as she pleased. Otherwise it was pretty much set up as a show stall.

At age 28 she went into her freshly bedded stall, lay down and went to sleep. There was no sign of distress, I thought she was just napping.

Today that barn is used for the miniatures.

8 Likes
#11

You really never know how they will act until you try.

My 3 were not retired and were out on a 3 acre parcel that was basically a " dry lot " with access to the barn/ stalls as they wished.

We eventually fenced in the smaller 4.5 acre hayfield that was on the other side of our driveway and I had visions of watching them grazing happily out my kitchen window all day long.

What happened was as soon as it got hot and the bugs appeared all 3 were at the gate wanting out! I think if we had the run in shed/ barn access that my current horses have it may have gone better.

As long as the barn will work with your horse as he acclimates to a new way of life, I think he will be really happy.

I had another older horse who had only known turn out as a weanling-4 year old. We moved and the very urban area stable had stalls only. He adjusted better than I thought he would but I did ride faithfully( or arena turn out) 6 days a week. He was 15 when I married, we moved and bought our own place.

He and my young mare( never knew turnout) went immediately from 24/7 stalls to 7 acres and 2 free choice stalls year round. They never looked back and spent all their time out by choice ( unless weather was awful and they put themselves in)…

You just never know but more often then not they love it.

4 Likes
#12

My horse moved to the retirement farm with another horse from his original barn/pasture and they went in quarantine together for 3 weeks, then joined the big boy herd of about 4 other horses. I think having a horse he knew helped him through the whole transition. If you could ease your horse into gradually more turnout at the new place with the company of one other horse, that could be a nice route.

I moved him in May when the grass was in so he’d be happy staying out 24/7 to graze and not have to tussle with anyone over access to hay. The original barn also had 10 hours of turnout on pasture so I didn’t need to acclimate to grass gradually.

It took me a few years to decide to move barns for retirement as I was just going to let him retire at the boarding barn where he was but he had a lot of anxiety and was herd-bound when in his stall and wasn’t relaxing into retirement. I knew the retirement farm owner a bit and ended up farm sitting for her over a weekend and saw how happy all the horses were. If the retirement farm is experienced at transitioning horses, they usually have a really good system.

3 Likes
#13

I’m a firm believer that the best set-up is for them to be able to choose if they want to be in or out. My horses have always been happiest when they’ve had 24/7 access to turnout AND to a comfy stall (with a fan since it’s like living on the sun right now). If they want to bake themselves to a crisp, that’s their choice. If they want to stand in the driving rain, again, their choice. If they want to snooze in their stalls, their choice. I will feed in the stalls whenever the weather isn’t great (including if it’s muggy and buggy), but when the weather is nice I put hay and feed outside. The horses move around all day picking at the pasture. They nap inside and out. They watch whatever goings-on are happening at the farm. Basically, they get to be horses. They are very content with this set-up, and I like it because I never have to worry about them being caught out in bad weather or cooped up in a stall. No turning anyone out or bringing them in. Stall cleaning is a breeze. In fact, when the weather is really nice, I’ll close the stall doors and let them just use the overhang if they need it. Keep that pooping and peeing outside, please, LOL.

5 Likes
#14

I retired a mare a bunch of years ago after show career and limited turnout. Fortunately for me, a friend took her. Stabled the first night, turned out in AM with some other mares. By noon my maresy was back at gate, ready to come in. so brought in, Did a rinse, repeat, and after about a week, her requests to come in were later and later in the day. Then she just quit coming back altogether. This was in Tennessee so winters were to bad. She was also easy keeper.

5 Likes
#15

While horses may differ and older horses may feel more vulnerable in a new herd, the thing to keep in mind is that living outside in a huge field (or loose on the range) with ample grazing and congenial small herd is the basic physiological instinctual need of horses. And horses don’t lose that by being kept in a barn their working lives. Horses are much less domesticated than cats or dogs. They don’t live with us, and ultimately they prefer their own kind. I suppose a gelding wouldn’t fit into the feral hierarchy but most mares I know would likely be “off with the raggle raggle gyspys, oh!” if a wild band with a stallion came calling.

Now horses on a boring dry lot, horses that can’t move around to escape flies or heat, horses waiting for feed to drop in their stalls, horses in incompatible herds or track systems that aren’t quite functional etc, are not going to be as happy as horses in a large good grazing area with natural and constructed shelter, room to gallop around, mud to roll in, etc.

8 Likes
#16

Thank you all for sharing your advice, suggestions and personal stories. I’ve decided to put the deposit down to secure her a spot at the retirement farm for late spring. If after a couple months it’s not working out- we’re leaving our current spot in good terms and can always return to re-strategize.

Thanks again everyone. You certainly put my worries to rest.

10 Likes
#17

Do it! I’m late to the party but I’ll add that you should certainly give your horse a solid MONTH, if not 6 weeks, before deciding if it’s going to work or not.

My gelding was an absolute nutcase (pacing, refusing to leave the dry lot for the pasture, backing into the shelter, etc) for a month when we first put him out. There’s actually a thread about it - my BO thought he might be neuro! Then one day the lights came on upstairs and suddenly he’s as happy as a clam.

I’ll add that he was at the PERFECT place: 24/7 turnout in a small gelding group, with stalls for layup. Big dry lot and access to acres of good grass pasture. His run-in was large enough for all of the horses, and it had hay, bug spray system, and fans. He got his supps and hands on him daily, and the BO would groom or bathe them all as needed. I only moved him to be closer to me cause I need pony snuggles for MY mental health - he will go back if at any time his needs change. Literally horsey paradise.

You’ll be SO happy that he’s happy outside being a horse, and I guarantee he will remember you - I didn’t see mine for months at a time and he still whinnied at me when I got out of the truck.

3 Likes
#18

I couldn’t visit mine for 2 years. he absolutely remembered me.

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#19

I had a wonderful grade mare that I gave to a friend of a friend when I couldn’t keep all of my horses. About 15 years later it turned out a client of my now ex knew who I’d given her to, and called her parents while we were at their farm. Yes they had Summer at their place and yes we could go see her! When we got out of the truck at their farm (the parents of the woman I’d given her to) I saw a palomino out in the field and called SUMMER! She came running up the field bellowing for me. My now ex said it was like a Disney movie. He’d never seen anything like it.

Yes they do remember.

7 Likes
#20

It probably doesn’t make a whole lot of difference, but , for a horse that is not used to pasture, spring is the WORST time to make the transition. The grass is typically “richest” (and with high fructans) in the spring, and therefore more likely to trigger digestive problems, or show up existing (but unknown) Insulin Resistance.
Other things being equal, I would choose mid fall, when the grass is starting to go dormant, but the weather is still mild.

7 Likes

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