Weesielou
Member
I have an 18 year old Mare who has bone Spavin and is on 1 bute per day and has been for 18 months, I retired her last year as she does not hack out in traffic and won't load and travel anymore, she has always been stressy in the horsebox but the refusal to load started about 3 years ago (the vet thinks that could have been the start of the arthritic changes) so decided to turn her away to enjoy just being a horse, I went everyday to give her a feed with bute and realised that she wasn't settling and started to lose a lot of weight so moved her back to the yard with my youngster and vet checked her re weightloss and put it down to stress as nothing in her blood results etc that could be a medical reason. Vet suggested bringing her back into light work after we got her back upto weight as she said a change in their routine etc can affect them and once they stop working they can go downhill however her bone Spavin is in both back legs and she is quite lame so persevered but knowing she was in pain I stopped riding her in October last year. My financial situation has now changed and I can not afford to keep then both stabled so I am viewing a retirement home about half an hour away from me to look at trying to turn her away again (vet said that 24 hour turnout is best to help keep her mobile) however I am worried that she doesn't settle again and it will be difficult to get her there as she will need sedating to travel and will only be able to visit her on weekends due to working full time and looking after my other horse.My parents think think that I should consider the option of keeping her at the yard we are at over the summer and then pts before the winter and then the stress of moving her and trying to get her to settle etc will be unnecessary. I mentioned it to the vet and she said that it is an option as she is a difficult horse to handle. I do not want to sell her or put her out on loan, I have had her 13 years and she hadn't had a very nice life prior and I feel I owe it to her to keep her safe and free from fear or suffering. This is a difficult decision and any advice/similar experiences would be greatly appreciated