For those who have given up horses...would you go back?

Interesting question. I have just made the decision to retire mine due to injury/arthritis. I haven’t ridden for quite a few years (due partly to a back injury and partly due to a loss of confidence- I have a lovely sharer who has been riding) so from a practical perspective not much will change for me. I hope to keep her comfortable and let her live out her life.

However it has raised the question what I will do once her time has come. I love looking after her, so the option is there to maybe get a rescue non ridden pony or something. But I am in my mid 50s now - I believe in keeping horses for life (if possible) and I’m not sure for how many more years I will want to be getting up at the crack of dawn in the winter months to battle through wind/rain/snow to muck out etc.

I have tried to give up before and didn’t last very long, but that was 25 years ago so was much younger then. And I now have dogs which I didn’t when I first had my horse (have had her for almost 20 years) and would love to do more on the dog side of things.

Obviously don’t need to make a decision now, but it has set my mind thinking
 
I stopped for ten years when younger but then went back and eventually bought own place with land and a few horses. I'm now retired and don't bounce as well as I used to and am starting to think at some point it may be too much for us. Would really miss it though.
 
Well........ I TRIED giving up, I really did, I lost my old boy who had to be PTS after a fall and was so upset about it I didn't really want to look at a horse ever again.

Also there wasn't anywhere decent around here to keep a horse anyway, finding anywhere half decent around here has always been a total nightmare, and I was working in a demanding job and just hadn't got the heart for it anymore.

I survived for eight years - just!, I rode a friend's little NF/Welsh X occasionally as daughter had lost interest, and that was nice, and I was very grateful for the opportunity, but it wasn't like having your own.

Then we moved, to a little smallholding, and it suddenly became possible to keep a horse at home! The dream come true! We advertised for livery, and a lovely girl and her horse turned up. Her OH did a bit of dealing on the side, and one day had obviously "forgotten" to ask if it was OK to put a horse in the top field, coz I went up there and hey presto there was this simply gorgeous strange bay horse standing there looking at me! To cut a long story short, he was my Forever Friend, I bought him, and he was the loveliest sweetest boy that ever existed. Not a day goes by when I don't think of him, bless him.

I've always said I'd have just the one horse, and that'd be it, only the one, never more. I've got three now LOL, one of whom is a youngster, so I'm not exactly thinking of giving up for a while yet............. :)
 
I havnt given up completely but currently doing the least amount of riding I have ever done.

I started riding at 13 and got my first horse on my 16th birthday. Kept horses mostly on working livery for the next 17 or so years. I lost my first horses in 2006 followed by his replacement two years later at the age of 7. I had had enough of horse ownership at that point. I vowed I would never get another. For the next few years I got my fix by having weekly lessons at the yard where I had kept my horse then once a week I would go to a different riding school for a hack (a couple of different ones over the years). Once or twice a year I would go on a riding holiday abroad. As the years went by I slowly began to think maybe I would like another horse of my own as I do still miss it but although I have been tempted a couple of times I have never got my own again, earlier this year I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. It has spread to the bones so I really can’t risk falling off. Have had to restrict my riding to just lessons now and no horses I don’t know well. Not happy about it especially no more riding holidays but not much I can do. Can’t see me ever getting another now.
 
elisebev said:
I havnt given up completely but currently doing the least amount of riding I have ever done.

I started riding at 13 and got my first horse on my 16th birthday. Kept horses mostly on working livery for the next 17 or so years. I lost my first horses in 2006 followed by his replacement two years later at the age of 7. I had had enough of horse ownership at that point. I vowed I would never get another. For the next few years I got my fix by having weekly lessons at the yard where I had kept my horse then once a week I would go to a different riding school for a hack (a couple of different ones over the years). Once or twice a year I would go on a riding holiday abroad. As the years went by I slowly began to think maybe I would like another horse of my own as I do still miss it but although I have been tempted a couple of times I have never got my own again, earlier this year I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer. It has spread to the bones so I really can’t risk falling off. Have had to restrict my riding to just lessons now and no horses I don’t know well. Not happy about it especially no more riding holidays but not much I can do. Can’t see me ever getting another now.
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I am sorry to read this. I'm glad you are able to do a bit of riding as I'm sure that you need to be able to still do things you enjoy.
 
V sorry to hear, Elisebev. Hope you manage to keep your horsey fix.

I have had a complex history re horses. My grandad was a farmer, so I had a pony from the age of 3. Got my own, was competing heavily BD & BD in my 20s & 30s, used to get sooooo eaten up if a day went past without riding or a w'end without competing/lessons, then the best horse I ever had, Catembi, got sick and died. That was in 2007. Next horse had EPSM, next was Trev who was a permanent sicknote, then I got divorced *, remarried, started a doctorate, got divorced AGAIN (don't ask), remarried... I had to sell my lorry at this * point. I was riding less and less. My arena turned into a nightmare (www.cheapmanege.weebly.com). I was wondering & wondering about giving up. Thinking how much it costs, mud, heartache, permanent round of chores, worry, etc etc. How do you 'quantify' how much 'enjoyment' you get from £x expenditure? Sold my equestrian property in December 2017, moved in with o/h, Shetland in livery, Trev in retirement livery. I am 47 & was wondering whether this was the point at which I'd give up.

But then I finished my doctorate, made a v unwise horse purchase and OMG straight back in as if I've never stopped. Should exchange on my next equestrian property this week, plans are in the early stages for another lorry & yeah! Back in the game. I feel like myself again for the first time in a long while.
 
I’m currently having an enforced break due to losing mine in April. I’m not currently in a position to get another but hope to at least get weekly lessons in from Oct / nov time. I’ve really noticed the loss of (moderate) fitness and strength I had, and I haven’t been feeling any more flush money wise. Altho had a big Vets bill with my boy and my dog got sick too so it’s been one thing after another. I’ve felt a bit claustrophobic/ weirdly stressed / cabin fevered at times, particularly at weekends which I obviously would NEVER have experienced before. I’m really worried that I haven’t properly grieved my boy so I am nervous about getting back into it. Plus I know it will make me miss him more than I already do if that’s even possible. I honestly think that once you have horses in your blood it never leaves!
 
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