There are far, far worse outcomes than euthanasia. Last year I saw a retired event horse living at a “retirement” facility that made my blood boil. This horse was early 20’s, but had such horrible knee arthritis he could barely bend the leg, making farrier care nearly impossible. He was also very, very thin. The BO made excuse after excuse as to why she wasn’t feeding him more, and the owners hadn’t come out to visit in months. THAT is far worse than euthanizing him at, say, 18.
I accepted the awful reality that if, for some reason, I had to retire my current horse for chronic lameness issues, he would most likely be euthanized. I feel like the worst person in the world for this, but there is only one farm where I would feel comfortable retiring him, and frankly we couldn’t afford it long term. It makes me sick to think of it. If we owned our own farm then it would be different.
When I was moving away to college I had to make a decision what to do with my 20 year old Arab gelding because I could not afford to take two horses with me. I had owned him for six years and had shown him in nearly every class you can think of at open shows, we showed the Arab circuit, and even played at barrels. He was my trusty steed that I would put friends on for trail rides and helped me teach a young teen how to ride, and helped her win many blue ribbons. I absolutely loved that horse. I could jump on in the field, bareback with a rope, and ride him in. Being a gray horse he had melanomas, something we were aware of when we bought him. He was on Cimetidine for years but it didn’t slow their growth. My vet ended up banding a one tumor on the bottom of his tail dock. He had tumors all over the underside of his dock, under his mane, a couple were starting to grow near an eyelid, a couple around his anus, and then one was growing in his mouth, along the upper gum line. That was the tumor that changed his fate, because it was causing him to drop feed whenever he chewed. If you just looked at him, he was this gorgeous snow-white gelding with dark eyes, dark muzzle, pointy ears with a mischievous expression. We ended up donating him to the Univ. of IL vet program. I bawled from the moment we pulled in, but the attending vet hugged me and said “If he has that many tumors on the outside, there has to be more on the inside”. That phrase saved my sanity, but it broke my heart leaving a “healthy” horse.
I had to retire a 12 year old who was not an easy horse to handle. I guess I was very lucky…I found a retirement farm about 30 minutes away from me that not only takes superior care of him, but the farm itself is very nice, well kept and safe. I pay monthly board on him which also covers his trims. I can go visit anytime and however often I want. I am so grateful for the peace of mind, as boarding is quite expensive where I live and can be anywhere from $400-500 just for field board (not including grain or hay). This was a perfect scenario for me and will allow him to live out his (hopefully) many more years in a safe environment with lots of love and care. Would it have been ideal to have him at home, yes. But I can’t afford property in this area and this was the best solution for me.
At this point in my life every horse is a forever horse. When I was a junior we bought and sold a few so I could move up the levels. My current horse is 9, I bought him as a yearling, he’s travelled the country with me, has been with me longer then my SO, and he doesn’t owe me anything. If he had a career ending injury tomorrow I’d move him to a barn that offers outdoor board, and I’d catch ride and lesson once in awhile.
My parents have a farm a few hours away, but they go away for the winters. My mom’s horse is 14, he’ll stay with her in the summers and with me in the winters until he dies. He’s still sound now, and I’m crossing my fingers that he’ll still have another 5 years of riding left in him.
This fall we bought a nice weanling. If she’s quiet she’ll probably stay with my mom for the rest of her life, if not she’ll be sold when she’s a 4-5yo.
I don’t think I could ever bring myself to sell a horse that’s 15 or older. I can barely stand to lease my horses out, I worry about them too much.
The retirement facility near me uses that model. Their 1 time admission fee is currently $8500. They do other fundraising activities as well. Ryerss Farm - they have a website.
My “plan” is ultimately euthanasia for all my horses. Nothing of mine is going to live until they are decrepit, weak and chronically unsound.
I ride them until they are no longer a match for me for whatever reason. If they are sound they are sold hopefully to good homes. If they are not sound enough for me or they can’t be “useful” here I try to find a free lease situation where they will be useful. I currently have a lovely horse who isn’t sound enough to jump but can be managed for LL dressage on a lease with a young rider in a trainer I trust’s program. (Lease does not allow the horse to be moved to a different trainer.) It would be easier and cheaper to sell/give him to them but, I won’t sell/give him because he will most likely need to be put down because of chronic conditions sooner rather than later.
Quiet frankly, with all the discussions I see about forever homes and emotional ties and emotional dependency on horses I DONT TRUST ANYBODY ELSE TO DO IT. I don’t let animals I care about live with chronic conditions in a field. In my field or anyone else’s. And I especially don’t let prey animals who instinctually know that the weakest in the herd is the first picked off by the predator live with the stress of it. And yes, I’ve seen oldsters (and youngsters for that matter) retired with chronic conditions that most people think are doing “just fine” turned out eaten up with ulcers, likely because of the stress of pain that we don’t see or the emotional impact of being weak. It is so easy to forget that “unsound” in most cases has a direct correlation to “pain.”
For my heart horse, he lived with a friend I trust for a couple years before I got my own place. Once here he had an important job as a turn out companion. (Life here works best with 3 horses, but I don’t ride more than 2.) When he was in his early 20s and healthy I had an extensive discussion with my vet as to what protocols we would (and wouldn’t follow) in an emergency, how much I was willing to spend and body disposal options. I made decisions. Less than a year later he coliced. Having made every single decision when he was happy and healthy I was able to follow through with what was best for him as opposed to what was best for me. I shudder to think how many people would have opted to put him on the table and open him up.
I think too many people are so emotionally invested in their horses that they make decisions as to what to do with their old horses based on what is best emotionally for themselves instead of what is best for the horse. Sometimes doing best for a horse is the hardest thing you’ll ever do.
Well, this is my ultimate goal with my guys, too. It just so happens that my older one is happy, healthy, and, with the exception of a blip to his stifle last year (which he recovered from way faster than we expected) is incredibly sound. I just finished saying to someone that most of the time he looks like I can throw tack on him and pick up where we left off. But he’s 32 (almost) and owes me nothing. But, my vet and I both know that at this age, nothing extraordinary will be done for him. When he seen by the vet last year for his stifle, we discussed very frankly that he needed to be happily comfortable to move around the field. There would be no stall rest and no extraordinary measures taken for him. He took previcox for a couple of weeks, one day spat it out and ran away, sound, from me, and I figured we were fine.
Same will apply to Toby. He’ll be useful as long as he’s happy to be so, and then he can live out his years. But I won’t go to extraordinary measures for him, either. Probably wouldn’t now, to be fair (though, what passes as extraordinary are different from a healthy, sound, working 14 year old horse and a healthy but prehistoric 32 year old horse!).
I love my boys, and these two DO have a lot of emotional baggage tied up with them. Which is why they are forever horses. I don’t plan on having anyone afterward, because I’m just not the rider I once was. But these guys are on the same level as Stella, my dog, at this point, and they are honored to the same life Stella has.
I have had to retire two horses. The first was my first pony. She ended up going blind after a friend of mine took her for her little girl. She was perfectly happy living in a field with a buddy who was her “seeing eye horse.” One night, her buddy was attacked and killed by some sort of wild animal. My old pony was so distraught. We decided to put her down that morning as we knew whatever it was would come back and we didn’t want to force an old blind horse to get in a trailer and try to get used to another facility. It was a hard decision, but it was what was best for her.
My second retired horse was one I had for a decade from a 3 year old. She is my heart horse. She had a career ending injury. Luckily, I found her a wonderful home as a broodmare to make fancy event babies for the rest of her life.
I have seen many old, lame, and thin horses that just live out in a field. It always comes down to quality of life. It is a gift to let an animal go before they are suffering. So many do not get that gift. That is the hardest part about having animals… letting them go while we carry on.
As odd as this sounds, I have always volunteered to go along to scheduled euthanasia calls because I believe it helps for some owners to hear those words. It is heart breaking, but it truly is a gift to give our horses (any pet, really) a safe, peaceful end. If only we could be so lucky sometimes.
I didn’t know you were close to me. I am literally within 5 miles of Ryerss.
You need to really plan ahead for Ryerss. Last I heard the wait list was long and was at least 5 years.
I retired Sonny at a COTH member’s farm. She has a beautiful farm and cuts her own hay. He was handled daily, had a stall and lots of turn-out. Fencing was safe. Great farrier care. Sonny needed to stay in shoes for part of his retirement as added support. He wasn’t sound so he couldn’t have gone to a therapy place. It was about 3 hours or so from me so I really could only get out to see him about twice a year. She gave me regular updates and pictures. He is buried on her property. She communicated to me when it was Sonny’s time and was there when he was euthanized. I am still friends with her on Facebook.
We have probably run into each other at some point.
Ryerss in a neat model. However they have been around a long time, I think over 125 years. My DH used to live next to their old farm in Exton. That farm was sold to become a very large development. My guess is they got a decent nest egg from that sale to build the current facility.
They also do a number of fund raisers per year to make up the difference between the one time fee and what it actually costs to retire a horse there for life. If I recall Ryerss also started with an endowment or trust. I think it would be a hard model to start up from scratch unless the initial one time fees were pretty steep.
My retiree is 26. I cannot imagine anyone doing what I do to keep him comfortable. Monthly polyglcan shots, daily bute. Blankets, in/out stall to manage his allergies. Happy to do it, but I would not trust anyone else to. Would rather euthanize. Most days, he feels good enough to run around with my daughter’s horse, then he acts surprised when he is ouchy the next morning until the bute kicks in.
I work at a farm that has a therapeutic riding program and boards retirees. It’s not “retirement boarding” per se – all our clients are local and come see their horses roughly weekly – but that’s our preferred boarding client. Some of these retirees would be suitable for equine-facilitated psychotherapy. None of them are appropriate for therapeutic riding, for soundness or handling reasons. The whole spectrum of equine-assisted activities and therapies can be a wonderful second career for some horses as they slow down. But it’s not for all personality types, and it’s not the right place for a lame horse.
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of places for unrideable horses to go, and in the research I’ve done recently, “retirement” facilities often cost much more than traditional boarding. Unless the owner is in a position where they are unable to visit regularly, there’s really no incentive to choose the more expensive option, and often it’s completely out of budget anyway.
I am onboard with subk. I retired my old guy last spring after he got to needing extensive maintenance just to be sound w/t/c. He is currently not thriving and I’m wrestling with making the decision of “when is it bad enough” and “how much can/should I do”. But I will never pass him on down the road - chances are bad for him - and I owe him a good end as much as a good life.
I think a lump sum, one-time “donation” would have to be pretty hefty to actually cover the costs of a retiree’s remaining years, let alone make any profit. Around here, $8500 would probably only cover a year or maybe two in costs; most of the retirees I know have lived another 5-10+ years after hanging up the tack.
My retired horse and my barely ridden sound horse lived in fields with ridden-daily horses, in herds.
They were never in a retired-only facility.
Due to escalating costs I had to keep moving them farther from me (eventually 2 hrs away, a state away).
i think that was the best option for me and them.
P.S. My lame horse became pasture sound after 5 years, wtc. I saw him lead the group in full out gallops many years later (when I tried to sneak his buddy out of the pasture). It can happen, I suspect bones fused.
I think that this is a great point. My horse lives at home. Costs for hay, grain and bedding are about $260 a month. Shoeing (cause he cannot stay sound without shoes) is $215. Assume 8 shoeings a year, and the total is $5100. His meds are extra, but according to the Ryer’s contract, I would still have to pay for those. I do not see how they can make it charging a lifetime fee of $8500. I assume that the hay costs are lower, but still. It is not a very sustainable model.
Well, if you event in Area II then I’m sure a ran over you at some point in dressage warm up.
Ryerss used to do paper chases as fundraisers 2x a year, but then someone looking for trouble sued them and that put an end to it. They still do other fundraising activities. And they rely heavily on volunteers and donations. I would imagine they have a decent “endowment”, but I believe they are also very frugal. Horses are well taken care of, but I doubt they feed any grain and would be surprised if they shod any of the horses.
When my prior horse reached 19/20, he was fairly arthritic, but he could still be trail ridden and enjoyed that, walk only. I tried to find a lessee who was interested in trail riding only, but everyone who called wanted to know “if he could be shown.” So I retired him to what was a regular boarding barn that also had pasture board. It was about 90 mins from where I live, so less expensive than local places (I am in the San Francisco Bay Area). I visited him several times a month. They gave wonderful care, kept a close eye on him, shuffled horses around until they had compatible pasture groups, etc. Even the boarders would come up to me when I visited and talk about how he was doing and what a sweet horse he was. I would feel completely comfortable retiring a horse to that facility.
Hi I have my own farm so can retire and care for my horses…I have a deal with them all that when they can’t enjoy moving around in their pastures and the weight won’t stay on then I will let them go. My one horse lived to 35 I owned him for 34 years and it nearly ended me to have him put down but he was suffering so it was time. I see old horses who look like bone skeletons with fur because the owners won’t put them down and I see other horses get sent to auction and we know where most of those poor souls end up. I admire you all for making plans and for putting your horses first. Sometimes putting them down is the kindest act we can do for them…my sister pays around 800 a month for a retirement home for her 32 year old Arab…the care is exceptional
