Age for retirement

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Agent XXX999

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If you were told your young competition type gelding was unable to be ridden anymore, what would you do. Clearly with mares there is the option of breeding, but would you retire a horse to a field for 20 years? Or would you have the horse PTS?
 
Depends if A) I could afford a field ornament B) the reason he couldnt be ridden didnt cause him any pain/suffering when just turned out!
 
A very good friend of mine had her horse PTS a few years ago. He was only 5
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and he has just become too dangerous to ride, vets had check him out and couldn't find anything. She could never sell him on knowing what he was like and he was too young to go on and spend 20 years living in a field. He wasn't even the type to enjoy living out....

We believe she made the right decision....
 
I agree- a nice summer out in the field lazing around then PTS.Thats what I would do.
Only if the horse would comfortably get through the winter thou. If not- then just pts.After getting a few 2nd opinions thoug first!!
 
If there was nothing wrong with the horse i.e. he wasnt in pain etc then i would retire him as he would still have a nice life munching on grass..that is what horses do after all.
If i couldnt afford to keep a retired horse then i would try and rehome him as a companion as although he may not suit my needs anymore he may be able to do a good job for someone else.
If the horse was going to be in pain and its quality of life would be compremised i would have him PTS.
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Try an put him out on loan as a long term companion. (As long as he wasn't in pain) If I could afford it, I would keep him but otherwise PTS. Or if in pain PTS as well.
 
I would PTS if there was no chance of them ever coming sound !!

My friend has retired her 7yo gelding to the field but even though he is intimitantly lame the vets could not find anything wrong so she has put him in a field and he is nany to my foal !!
 
I would keep them as a field ornament until such time as there problems affected their quality off life, same as I do with the older guys.

If finances dictated I couldn't care for them any longer then I'd have to step up to the mark and have them PTS. The future for big companion animals is very bleak so I could not risk it.
 
PTS, I'm afraid. Unless you are wealthy with your own land, then a long-term retirement might not be such an issue. But otherwise a 10 year 'retirement', which is not all that long if you retire a very young horse, is going to cost what, 25-50k? Financially I could not do it.

And what is retirement about? The horse doesn't know or worry about tomorrow, so a kind end now is surely no different, from their pov, to waiting 10 years to make the decision.

It depends why you have horses, but if it is to ride and compete, you've got to be honest with yourself, will having a retired horse to care for over many years actually make you happy? I was faced with this recently and I realised that to have a long-term retiree in a field, reminding me of what might have been would actually make me very unhappy.

Maybe that is selfish but it was right for me.
 
Difficult really to say for sure. My initial reaction was to say have the horse put to sleep, however I didn't do that with my horse who broke his neck, mind you I did have another job in mind for him, bonking my mares and making babies, which he did very competently. This gave him enough time to recouperate and now, 2 years later, I am starting to back him slowly.

I also have his sister who has severe UFP; her time is limited though. If she doesn't start to recover by next year then she will be put to sleep. I don't have the same attachment to her as I do with him and at least he can still be ridden, she fumbles around a field and although she is a nice nanny-horse, I can see she is in discomfort at times. I would never consider breeding her under these circumstances even though she has a stunning pedigree.

Both the above horses are rising 4 years old.

I also have an 8 year old gelding who has been on/off lame with a splint for almost a year. I am waiting for my vet to return from Europe and then I am going to look into him having surgery - but if the vet says no, then unfortunately he will either go to live with a friend of mine as a companion or he will be put to sleep. He is 8 years old.

I guess for me it all comes down to quality of life and the chance of some sort of recovery.....but it almost definitely also comes down to my emotional attachment to the individual horse. I've been through a lot with the horse who broke his neck therefore my attachment to him is greater than with some of the others.
 
If I had my own land, and the horse was ok to be retired to the field, then I would not put it down - morally I just couldn't justify it.

However, faced with a similar situation earlier this year - I have to say my horse was put down. I don't have my own land, and to run two horses at livery would have broken the bank for me.

Its the hardest thing I've ever done.
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I am amazed at the number of people who pay for literally years for their retired horses.
Some here were retired at aged 6, and have spent ten years living the happiest of lives, wandering round with their mates and never getting stressed.
I do laugh though at a few of my livery owners, they would dearly love their oldie to pop his clogs, but they go on forever..
It depends entirely on the horse's reason for retirement, your financial position and how soft hearted you are.
It's going to cost less of course because you no longer need insure them (P Liability is covered by the livery yard owner), the vet's fees are virtually minimal, we don't bother with annual tet injections once they get old, in theory they would have built up an immunity from years of injections by then.
foot trimming is less too.
The cost varies from having your own land when all you need is a field shelter and plenty of hay, to paying someone like me to add your horse to their herd.
(I no longer take any new horses I'm afraid)
You can expect to pay £12 for a tiny pony to up to £50 a week at some places.
If you can't find the young horse a home where it can be gently hacked or as a companion I would in all honesty have it pts.
I admire my owners but in their position I doubt I would pay for ten years for horses I never see except by email pic... I must say however those horses adore their lives here, ask anyone who has visited!
 
i was once told that the national horse blood bank take horses in as long term donors. i have no further information sorry, but could be worth looking into.
 
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i was once told that the national horse blood bank take horses in as long term donors.

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That would not be an option I would ever consider I'm afraid.
 
I would make every effort to keep as a field ornament, my horses give a lot to me and I like to give it back. Would depend on the circumstances though,
 
My big lad was retired at 8 years with progressive bone disease in both front cannons, he's turned 19 this year and is no worse than the day he was diagnosed. He has been nanny and a field companion to my three others, but I have told myself that if he ever starts to show any signs of going down hill then I would consider putting him to sleep, but at the moment he is happy and looking well.
 
I'm happy for Chex to do nothing in the field
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. I would never consider PTS just because they couldn't be ridden, but as I've said (many times
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), he's a pet rather than a working hobby.
 
PTS. I had to make this decision with my dressage mare when she was only 11, however she was not paddock sound unless on bute in the end and this amount was likely to rise at some point in the future. She may have had years on bute but I could not justify that given that I don't own my own land.
 
I would be interested to hear why people wouldn't consider the national blood bank? On the surface it seems like a good idea..
 
my old boy broke his leg at the age of 10. vet said that he would mend after 8 weeks strapped up in a stable but would probably never canter around again.

the decision was made to PTS....quality of life is more important (for me personally) than a horse that just sits in a field.
 
My competition mare was retired at 8 years old after suffering a total degloving of her hind leg - resulting in 18 months of work... about 9 months of which were on total box rest.

For me, like Tia mentioned, i had a really strong emotional attachment to her. More importantly, she coped amazingly well with the box rest and treatment. She was a complete darling and seemed to remain perky and happy.

When she could finally start moving around again, it became obvious she'd never be 100% sound. She had a lot of diagnostical work done on her, because she wasnt lame on the bad leg, but the opposite fore diagonal.

The general consensus was that she wasnt in pain, but would never be right and was over compensating.

Ive had her in and out of work over the years. Let me stress... never WORK-WORK... pottering around, light hacking, something to do kind of work. She's also had two foals. Shes lived both in and out and shes happy. She's never just been abandoned anywhere. When in foal shes been in a herd environment. When in work shes been out in the day and living it up with the dressage horses at night.

She'll never be right - ever. But shes pain free, she's happy, i love her and im 110% convinced she's still happy to be around.

Much of it of course comes down to finances. Not everyone is in a position to look after a horse for potentially 20 years.

Mines currently on long term loan to a lady in the UK who has her living out in a herd of brood mares. Ive since moved country and am faced with the decision of what to do with my now much older lady (shes 19 now) and whether to bring her over here.

Either way, whilever shes happy and painfree, i cant justify having her PTS.

(Incidently! I think also part of it is because what happened to her wasnt just degenerative... it was human error thanks to some morons at her livery yard. So i kinda think it wasnt her fault you know? :| It always stands with me that if she'd been better looked after, she might still be in work
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)

ETS - I should add that last time she was in work... about 18 months ago, the little grot bad was evil! She was hyper as hell all the time and threw me off twice :P Still not sound but but was like riding a hyper happy pony
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and possibly the highlight of many years for me was my grand prix dressage trainer telling me that my 16 year old ex-show jumper, 15.2hh heinz 52 orange mare "moved incredibly well!"
 
the chestnut in sig is an ornament now.
he is only 10 and was retired this year due to navicular.
he is managed by bute and is checked over by my vet regulary to access if he is getting worse.
he is the most lovable horse ever and canters around the field with his mates as happy as anything.
im sure his time will come and one day i will have to make that awful choice but for now he is as i want him - happy
 
Neither of my horses are ever riden....they are field ornaments...they are happy and healthy ans im happy to pay for them....so until they are no longer happy and healthy....field ornaments they are
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