No. That is selfish.
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OP, euthanasia in this case is not a bad thing to do. You have given your mare a great life and would be giving her an ending with dignity.
I understand how hard it must be though. But trying to work extra is not fair to your children giving your already busy schedule. They are still close to the beginning of their life for your mare is getting towards the end of hers. And it sounds like it is a life that was well lived and cared for.
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Explain.
If the OP had scads of discretionary income, she could perhaps keep this mare going as a retiree for a few more years.
She doesn’t have scads of money. She is struggling to make ends meet and the money she’s currently spending on the horse needs to go to her family; NOW, not at some future time when the mare ALSO needs senior feed, injections or Previcoxx.
If you would like to start a Go Fund Me for this, there are literally thousands of horses and owners in this exact situation right now. Pick any one, pick a dozen, the question becomes, do I spend my limited resources on maintaining a retired horse, do I spend it on a useful one, or do I spend it someplace else?
This is what life is like for horse owners of modest means.
Suggesting that the OP consider other options is cruel, unless you’re willing to pick up the tab yourself for this mare’s care. Indefinitely. (GoFundMe is great for short term acute needs. But to subsidize a senior horse for the rest of its (un)natural life? Not so much. If you know of a fundraising venue for indefinite ongoing support, let me know. I’ve got three candidates.)
As someone stated above; horses don’t understand past or future, they only understand life in the present. She’s had a good life, she deserves a good, peaceful death without pain.
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So suggestion of any other option other than ending the horses’s life is cruel?
And the butwhatabout defense just doesn’t cut it. Sure, there are likely hundreds of horse owners out there who are struggling financially to support their forever horses. In this case, OP says her horse is living happily. Killing the horse seems a bit like declaring bankruptcy, except that the debt you wipe out is a happily living creature.
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This, all of this. She is older, unsound, has vision problems. I’ll take it further, that a year too early is better than a day too late. I had euthanasias planned for two of my animals this year, a horse and a dog. Neither of them made it to their scheduled time and watching them suffer broke me more than losing them did.
I would not continue to jeopardize your family’s finances for a horse, and in her condition I would also be very uncomfortable rehoming.
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But OP says she just needs Adequan or perhaps hock injections. Nothing specific about vision issue. And she is happy where she is. How did we go so quickly to putting the horse down?
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Because the possible options for an unsound possibly unsafe 21 y/o horse are far, far worse than euthanasia.
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Because the OP can not afford to care for this aging horse with questionable soundness.
The odds that someone else wants to pension this horse are slim to none.
Therefore the humane option is to euthanize.
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Yep, this. I sold a wonderful 12 year old mare that was perfectly sound & safe but she still ended up in a pretty bad situation despite her age and soundness. That’s the last rehoming I’ll do in my life because sometimes things just don’t go the way they should’ve.
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There is another option - I would try posting at a local feed store, tractor supply, and Facebook. Looking for cheap or free board for my older horse as a companion.
I had a friend call me a few months back. She was looking for free or cheap board and wanted to put her horse at my house. I have limited pasture, have to muck, and haul in hay. I told her it would be a minimum of $450 a month- just because of the time I would need to spend caring for him daily. Might be different if I had more pasture.
I have another friend with only one horse, a big barn, and plenty of pasture. He is now at her house - they can ride together, and the horses have separate paddocks but can be buddies without any fighting. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Word of mouth is a really good thing. I’m certain there are people out there searching for a companion and wouldn’t mind having a boarder, provided their horse gains a buddy. I think it is worth trying. If it didn’t work out, then I would consider euthanasia. Even better if they can cover feed. There are many good people out there who don’t mind helping a horse in need, even if that horse is older and unsound.
Around here, most people have horses out on pasture and rarely ever ride. The owners are usually getting too old to ride, but have the room to support the horses and don’t mind throwing grain once a day if needed.
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Adequan and injections are already expensive, sounds like the horse hasn’t been in work for awhile either. There’s no guarantee that the joint maintenance would make the horse comfortable enough to work for someone to lease her. A GoFundMe sounds nice but the funds run out eventually. No one wants to put a horse down but when it’s the most comfortable option for the horse, then it should be considered.
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Spending more than she earns because of horse expenses, is what having a deficit means. Her family is going without things to keep the old horse going. Husband is working nights at poor pay rates to cover their childcare each day. Child care, when available during Covid fears, school closing, or opening with Covid carriers in big groups, does NOT make you want your kids in those public groups! Any kind of surprise major expense, car repair, house upkeep, health problems, will totally wipe out any savings she has covering the deficit expenses each month.
Until or unless you have been in her shoes, have all these “reasons” pulling you apart, do NOT think you know a situation! All horses cannot be saved for “a while longer.” As horse owners we have had to face the brutal truth before. Bad times, bad things happen to good folks, nice horses. You have to let them go, for all the reasons given above. It is the kindest thing FOR THE HORSE at this point in time. Putting them down STILL costs money, but it stops the money hemoraging from their wallets as tIme continues. She can hopefully get back on solid financial ground again. Family ALWAYS has to come first over our beloved horses.
Expecting others to pay your horse expenses is modern thinking. Seems like begging to me, which would be impossible for me to do. And no, I would not contribute to it. They have to make those other hard decisions in getting rid of or putting the horse down lIke this poster, not continuing to spend money they don’t have. Contributions to pay funeral expenses, medical bills, tragic situations like fire, disasters, are what Funding should be for. Horses are luxuries, not essentials needed to live. We know that getting into horses, nothing cheap about them.
LCDR, you are being pretty nasty trying to guilt the OP, not sympathetic to her situation.
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Actually, the OP did mention vision problems in one eye in her original post.
I’m with you to a point. I too say that if a horse is happy and pain-free, let them be. In this case, however, the more is not totally pain-free. More to the point, the OP cannot afford to keep her.
I agree (and I mean no disrespect to the OP) that the financial issues seem to go deeper than the horse, too. But not everyone has the ability to find a great paying job that works with their schedule and let’s them also be there for their kids. This is a young family starting out. Priorities have to be set. The OP is asking the questions that tell me she is wanting to do what’s best for everyone involved, including the horse.
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I have to say… whenever we lose one of our older horses/pets I always have a bit of relief b/c I know how it ended. They lived their life from us to the end cared for to the best of our ability. No hunger, no confusion, no pain. As much as I hate to lose them I have a moment of good, it ended well.
We have put down older horses instead of passing them along and I have absolutely no regrets. They were home eating lots of treats with their friends and then they weren’t. They don’t know what they missed but I do. I love and miss those horses but we absorbed the hard transition from “keeping them alive” to “planning their end” and that was the least that we owed them. One got away from me and he haunts me still. I wish we had just put him down at home.
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People have all kinds of selfish ways to avoid euthanasia, like saying their horse is “happy” and “eating great” and “nickers when they see me.”
Such as a lady I knew whose horse foundered so severely the coffin bone came through the sole, yet she ignored the vet and farrier’s recommendations and insisted the horse was fine, just needed shoes and bute, because even though he was three-legged-lame, he was eating normally.
Or the horse who was so crippled, he had a front fetlock nerved so the owner could feel good about herself for sending him off to a run-down “retirement farm.” Just for him to be euthanized a few years later in pain so severe he could not stand, thanks to an unnoticed abscess (no limp because you know, no feeling in the foot) whose infection spread up the entire leg.
It is absurd to expect someone to go bankrupt for any animal. If you want to, fine, that’s your prerogative, but you don’t get to dictate that anyone else does. It is equally absurd to expect some other random person out there to take on the financial burden of someone else’s horse.
The horse has arthritis and vision issues, so she’s living in some amount of pain 24/7. Horses can’t logic through pain, they live in the moment. Even little things, such as daily Previcoxx or regular Adequan to prolong a horse’s life, are choices that really are for us, not the horse.
A year “too early” is always 1000% better than a day too late. Choosing euthanasia is not immoral.
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To repeat what’s been said previously - there are worse ends for a horse than euthansia. Lots worse. Yes, there are homes for companion only horses, but good ones are few and far between, and there are many, many more horses that need that type of home than there are homes.
I placed two retirees, both suitable for some light riding, in companion type homes and both ended badly. Not because of malice, neglect or lack of funds, but lack of horsekeeping knowledge. If I had it to do over again, I would have kept them myself as long as possible financialy and as long as they had decent quality of life, then I would have euthed. It would have been a better outcome for the horses.
The board is chock full of stories of leased horses and horses given away as companions that ended very, very badly. There are more stories of the horses having a bad ending than a happy retirement.
I always ask myself why someone with NO previous history or experience with the horse would provide better care than the person whose had it for years, maybe decades, when the horse was still useful. In other words, if the horse’s closest connections can’t provide good retirement care, why would a stranger?
I don’t think people at a remove, say, on a message board, can adequately judge a horse’s quality of life or the OP’s financial situation. The person whose best qualified to judge those things are the OP. If she is considering euthanasia, when she is the one feeding and caring for her beloved old mare, then it is not for me, behind a keyboard, to question what she’s seeing and feeling.
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Only you think it went quickly to euthanasia. It sounds like the OP has done their due diligence for this horse.
I am not sure why anyone thinks it makes sense to be so judgmental about this type of decision.
The OP is not talking about euthanizing a young, useful, sound, happy horse so they can buy a new boat and quite work while they sail around the world.
I am thankful I have known more people who understand the true gift of euthanasia than are so narrow minded about life at all costs.
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I have worked for animal control in S. Florida for 20yrs and most of the neglect cases we get are old companion type horses. My horse is only 16 but is full of dangerous quirks if you don’t know him, on top of his kissing spines/suspensory issues. He’s sound and happy in the paddock but if I were to lose my job no way in hell would I pass him along to someone else I wouldn’t think twice about putting him down.
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Exactly.
I acquired a companion type horse for free this year. With some maintenance and an obscene $$$ feed bill, he’s sound for light pleasure riding. I remarked to Mr. LS that I would have likely euthanized the horse before rehoming him if I had been the previous owner. I would have been terrified by the prospect of rehoming an aging horse that needed so much support to stay healthy that couldn’t hold up to any sort of real work.
I had multiple offers for a free companion horse. I think I had six offered to me within a few weeks. The sweet natured, retired ammy friendly A show hunter that trail rides happily with no vices found his soft landing with me. I passed on the multiple offers of horses with little to no resume or vices that were also aging and unsound. I hate to think what happened to those other horses.
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