Super outcome!
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This sounds like the best you could have hoped for - so happy for you and your horse!
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Thatâs fantastic news. Sometimes things just work out for the best.
I had to retire my first horse at age 17 and my second horse around the same age. It is tough to spend most of your budget on retirees. My current oldest horse is out on a care lease for light riding. It allows me to focus on my riding horses without worrying that my old horse wonât get any attention. Everyone is happy with this arrangement, and my old horse looks fantastic.
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I think this is often missed in these online discussions. We donât know anyoneâs degree of experience, their feel for horses, or their observational acuity.
I learned long ago to listen to the horse, but if you donât understand the significance of what youâre seeing, you can still miss things. Thatâs probably where some of the spidey sense warning is coming from. You feel thereâs something not right, but havenât got anything to point to.
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No offense, but I wouldnât subject any animal to âresearch and testingâ.
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Admit I tried, but not very hard, to find the post you replied to. 
Just wanted to add the Vet Teaching college that accepts donated horses here gives them a very good life.
The Research/Testing is no way like the testing done on lab animals like mice, rats or rabbits.
I found this out when I had a horse with a very poor prognosis.
Attending vet was completely honest with me.
I still have the email he sent with his clinical findings.
In the end, euthanasia was the choice I preferred, with his complete (& caring) agreement.
@Trekkie Iâm glad you found a solution best for you, your horse & your friend.
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If you click here (whatâs highlighted in yellow) itâll take you right to the post thatâs being replied to 
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I was Today Old when I learned this 
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Itâs the little things, right? 
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This.
Some of you have seen stories about my import from a few years back, and every time I sat on him from the first ride, with only a couple of exceptions, I had this low-level âdanger Will Robinsonâ feel in my gut. Not normal nerves from riding a horse you know has issues, or âOh god itâs cold and the horse hasnât had much turnout and I might die todayâ, but just this weird unease. And when he finally went kaboom, it was the most unending overreaction Iâve ever sat on in my life. He had zero sense of self-preservation and I was incredibly thankful I managed to stay in the middle of him while he reared his way across the arena and didnât fall over on top of me. I have been fortunate enough to never before have a rearer and have never really caused one to stand up, which made this kind of all the more terrifying because it was so out of my wheelhouse of bad behaviors.
We suspected EDM after that because we discovered he also had neuro defects, did all the possible diagnostics to rule everything else out, and then we put him down for his own safety plus the safety of anyone who might handle him. It actually turned out on necropsy the horse had literal brain damage and chronic edema from some kind of vascular event that happened before he came into my possession.
So that is my long-winded way of saying when youâve spent your life around horses and something in your deepest gut tells you something is really and truly off, listen to it.
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Also this!
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When we put the word out (to the right audience, not the whole world), sometimes the answer finds us. Yay !!!
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Iâm giving Trekkie the full benefit of the doubt in her judgment, having been in the place of making both a health and human-safety decision for a horse.
The title âanyone have any answers? Last attemptâ reads to me like someone who needs to be able to say to themselves âno stone unturnedâ. Decision essentially made already, but able to say to herself âin addition to everything else, I even surveyed COTH â this time, the new idea I needed wasnât on offerâ.
I canât speak for Trekkie, other than to presume that there was likely no expectation in either direction, that a solution would or would not be found in this thread. But it helps immensely to at least communicate with people who have dealt with serious equine question-mark issues.
I also give Trekkie the benefit of the doubt on her personal assessment of what is âexplosive buckingâ. âRegularâ bucking, green-horse bucking, even big massive bucks that are really a huge porpoise, are in no way the same as the frantic, lights-out high-altitude twisting bucks, that may be hard to stop, that can easily put even experienced riders and colt-starters in the hospital. As a reaction to sudden intense pain, a disordered spook, or whatever is the trigger.
There can be a giant difference between what most of us think of as ânormalâ horse resistance, or triggering, and the really dangerous horse behavior that we donât frequently encounter. The same term, such as âbuckingâ, may be applied loosely to a wide range of intensity in a behavior. But across the spectrum it isnât the same thing at all.
There is no way to ensure horse or human safety with a horse that continues to be an unpredictable, serious bucker â even âjustâ 3 times a year. There is a greater likelihood that it was thought to be ok for a rider not advanced enough to safely handle the âexplosionâ. And most riders fall into that category.
IMO itâs almost worse that it is so randomly and infrequently spaced, because people arenât as prepared as they need to be.
Is the behavior resolved? When is the next time? These questions end up with assumptions for answers, and that can be dangerous for humans. A less-skilled rider with no experience of this behavior may be on the horse at that moment. Again, that is most riders.
When my horse made his last giant explosion buck from the mounting block, months after the last mild buck and thinking the issue was resolved, the rider getting on him was moderately skilled. She regularly exercised several horses in the barn for their owners and had a reputation as a useful rider.
But, as a rider, she was unable to do the One. Thing. I was calling to her to do after he launched, the One Thing I knew from experience would have stopped the bucking: Change her position in the saddle.
It was immediately apparent that she had one way of sitting on a horse and no balance to sit differently. She could not move her seat to a safer spot, regardless of the situation, and especially not on a bucking horse. I did not know that until that moment. I donât think she realized it either.
So the horse bucked and bucked, trying to get her off that spot on his back â and he succeeded not when she was able to adjust her position in the saddle, which she never did in spite of my urging, but when she went on a high-flying arc through the air. Fortunately she was only slightly bruised and recovered well. Probably from being a very light person, who flew easily but fortunately did not land heavily.
But that was a hugely dangerous moment because of the way the bucks and the riderâs seat were playing out. Even with a helmet, the way she launched mean that she could have landed on her head or neck area â something life-altering. It was pure luck that she landed with only minor injuries.
Most riders do not have the chops to handle that situation. It was not âregular buckingâ. This is not something we teach as part of standard riding instruction.
Anyway â bit of a tangent there. But I fully defer to Trekkieâs assessment that this horse needs to never be ridden again. And applaud her for that very tough decision, and for following through to keep this horse safe from some abusive trainer(s)/rider(s) who think they can punish the bucks out, and for keeping the riding public safe from the possible ramifications of his unpredictable behavior.
Good for you Trekkie for making the hard decision, and I am so sorry for your having to go through all of this. And very happy for you and your horse that the true âsolutionâ finally found you.
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Only tangentially related but heard a new bit of horsey jargon from my racetrack friends this week that kind of dovetails the bucking discussion⊠apparently they refer to this type of shenanigan as âthrowing shapesâ, which I found delightful (as a word nerd) and oh-so descriptive!
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Oh and btw, the rest of the story, of course I immediately took that horse out of all riding until we could assess the situation. Not just because of rider safety, but also because I donât want to be riding a horse that may sometimes be experiencing acute pain. Because this is a very gentle gelding, barn favorite with the care staff, who never behaves like this. So, there was a reason.
Did a half-day at the best vet clinic I knew at the time to assess all-over physical condition. X-rays, etc. It was over $1k.
Conclusion: Kissing spine that had become bad enough to warrant surgery.
Surgery done. Rehab continues, riding is underway, we work around occasional back soreness but the previous problems have not returned. Horse is like a different horse, for the first time he is truly moving through his body.
Nonetheless, no one but me gets on him with just one exception, someone who is fully briefed and skilled, and who follows âthe rulesâ for what to do if there are any sore back symptoms.
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That is a great differentiator of a description, between ordinary porpoising vs âthrowing shapesâ with every shape a unique energetic creation. 
âThrowingâ is right on.
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Sorry to continue the tangent, but the dictionary definition of âthrowing shapesâ (according to the Cambridge English dictionary) is: " to dance, especially in a way that attracts attention." Just an interesting side-note I thought.
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Followed by a picture of me at a wedding after one too many cocktails 
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Me too!
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Any idea when he was gelded? The ones started later are sometimes gelded late and can be a bit studdish. They can definitely test to see if they didnât get everything or if heâs got some extra testosterone floating around there. If thatâs the case, thereâs some hormonal ways that you can work on it.
Youâre also really dealing with the mentality of a 4 or 5 year old in training, if he was started that late. Baby brain. No foundation⊠then basics⊠and now heâs getting the hang of it, so itâs âtest-the-humanâ time. Most things that people either donât deal with because they imported them at 6->8 yrs and some long-legged Euro rode through it, or they got it later after a pro put up with the baby crap and set some boundaries.
As an ammy, you wonât ever see me buying one again younger than 8 or 9. Just too much flakiness and too many âthoughts and ideasâ.
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