Help for a horse in need! Please...

The bitchiness of some of these replies defies belief. The owner is trying to find the best compromise that she can between the fact that she is entitled to live life to the full and wanting to do the best for her horse when she can only afford to keep one.

I wonder how many of you are very young and do not realise that life is different when you are older and you see your chance of achieving something with your riding disappearing with each passing year as you lose your physical abilities.

Horses are not cats and they are not dogs. This horse is not in the house with her, he's in livery. He doesn't think she loves him, and he likes the people he sees around most and who give him his feed. He may like her, but he'll probably have no trouble at all liking someone else who thinks he's the bees knees. Provided she is careful who he goes to, there is no moral problem at all in finding him a new home. Keeping a horse costing thousands of pounds a year in a livery yard and taking hours a week to manage in no way compares to keeping an old cat or dog for a couple of hundred at home.

Give the woman a break. If you can't help her find a good home for this horse for crying out loud please stop preaching at her. Not everyone agrees with you that we owe every horse we buy a home for life. You are not saints, though many of you write as if you think you are. Your horses are no happier than ours and they may even be less happy. Why would a horse be happier being less than its owner needs, when it can live with someone for whom it is the bee's knees? Why do so many people think that no-one can possibly look after their horse as well as they can?

OP I hope your friend finds the right home for her horse and the right horse for what she needs.





ps noodle you would have a perfectly healthy horse with slightly fuzzy eyesight put to sleep just because you could not afford to keep him? REALLY????? And you think somehow that makes you a better owner than the poster's friend?

Thank god there are some people left on here who aren't judgemental of everyone elses lives all the time!
 
This needs To stop
Earlier on I spoke to the owner of the horse who is a total stranger To me. To speak to some one so upset by the content of this thread is terrible. Hopefully we have sorted this horses future So all of you Can sleep tonight.

Well done Charlie76 - words of sanity! If the pony is going to you we know it's going to a good home judging by your recent gallery of beautiful healthy equines :D
 
No please- every one carry on! This is hilarious! Thankyou cyprates for being realistic about what i was asking for!!!.

Im thankful there are other level headed people out there!

I dont see the problem in what my friend is doing. I have a lawnmower and i love her to bits- but id be lying if i said i wouldnt prefer her if she could be ridden!!

Hhhmmm. i thought this post would just be ignored....not offerthis much exciting reading.

I dont count this as bullying. Its more of a joke. No one knows me (other than one poster) and no one at all knows sarah (Puffins owner). So its not offending really in any way.

People should have posted if they had an idea what to do with him. Thats all i was asking. Wasdnt asking for someone to turn around and actually want to take him on :rolleyes::rolleyes: that was just a bonus!!

Ohh i love the horse world.

In other news, my mare came trotting over to call today and gave me the biggest sloppiest lick in the world. I must be such a monster :rolleyes: Poor horse. I even put a rug on her to keep the rain off!! EVIL!!!!:eek:
 
This needs To stop
Earlier on I spoke to the owner of the horse who is a total stranger To me. To speak to some one so upset by the content of this thread is terrible. Hopefully we have sorted this horses future So all of you Can sleep tonight.

Great news Charlie. Please wish the owner all the best from me in finding a perfect new partner, and give the "blind horse :) " a pat too when you get him.
 
This needs To stop
Earlier on I spoke to the owner of the horse who is a total stranger To me. To speak to some one so upset by the content of this thread is terrible. Hopefully we have sorted this horses future So all of you Can sleep tonight.

Glad to see he's got a nice home :)
 
Thankyou cyprates for being realistic about what i was asking for!!!.

Its C P TRAYES not C Y PRATES lol :) HEHE

I'm glad you don't think people are bullying you or OP, I dont think even some of the more forceful opinions count as bullying, so now cptrayes can stop bandying about the bullying card for anyone other than herself now :) or himself, sorry cptrayes :)
 
Last edited:
This is the meanest bitchiest thread I've ever read on here. I think myself lucky that my parents' have land and I can turn away my oldies... All you who say PTs rather than rehome should remember that when you get to 70 and your eyesight goes fuzzy.., a lot kinder to put you down and cheaper for the tax payer too...
 
Gosh, what a nasty lot of people you are in the main. I joined Horse and Hound forum very recently, but have now decided to leave it alone. Incidentally, I am a Vet, who's been qualified for 24 years, and unlike the vast majority of respondents, I would never pass judgement on this situation without knowing all the facts, clinical and non-clinical. Some people need to enter the real world. All my horses/ponies have a forever home, but that's my choice. I am astounded at the level of sheer uncalled-for nastiness that pervades here. Very unhealthy.

We aren't all like that, but must admit there are some threads on here that are best avoided! Hope you change your mind, sure you have some very valuable advice/opinions to offer and there are quite a few posters about who are a lot more balanced in their opinions and who can be very helpful, so don't give up yet, even if you just come on a Friday and read Hovis's diary! :D
 
oh ............ advertising/not advertising, no money is changing hands so does it matter?? Now if it were for sale for a monetary value then maybe there'd be something to argue about!!

OP please don't place strain on charities/rescues that are already heaving by asking one to take this horse, if they took this one, the flood gates would open having everyone wanting to pass on their old or injured horses!!

I'm not against a new suitable home being sought, in life things change, fact! My only plea would be that as the horse is not healthy (i.e a normal sale) I would ask not to 'gift' a horse to someone unknown to you. Keep control of the horse by retaining ownership, by all means look at working livery at riding schools or colleges, loan, etc, but keep hold of his future. Then when he gets to a point where he can't continue a working life and if there is no where to retire to, she can have him pts with him never ending up suffering.

/\/\/\/\/\/\ this please xx
 
I'm really glad the horse has found a decent home - For what its worth, if anyone can be bothered to read back... I wasn't advocation it was PTS, I just suggested extra caution was taken in rehoming him...

Oh, and Cptrayes... This is the quote I was talking about:

I think a lot of people avoid having horses put to sleep because they can't face their own pain.

I would rather see a perfectly healthy, economically unviable horse put to sleep than I would see a horse who should have been put down days, weeks, months or even years before kept alive because the owner can't face her own emotions.

I am not ashamed to say that I keep my horses to ride. When they cannot be ridden to the standard at which I want to ride, I owe them either to find them a good home, or if that is not possible, to have them humanely killed. I don't feel that I owe them a home for life if they can't do what they were bred to do. They don't know, or care, that they could have lived more years. It is only the owner that knows or cares about that.

For every horse whose owner thinks that they owe them the rest of their natural lives as a paddock ornament, there is another sound horse somewhere being killed for no reason at all.

Is it really anything to congratulate yourself for, and feel superior to those of us who do not think the way you do? You are simply saving one horse that you know and condemning another that you don't to death. Meanwhile you are depriving yourself of the absolute joy of riding a horse that you are at one with. Where is the special merit in any of that?

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=458841&highlight=society

... I appreciate, as already mentioned the "revelling" etc was added for poetic justice - but the content is the same.
 
Last edited:
And relax !!!! I am quite exhausted from reading all of this.

I hope tha the horse has found a good home, if I had the space I defiantly would have offered a forever home, as I always do to any horse or pony that comes my way, that does mean many years of not riding, but I have no big plans, other to enjoy my riding, ad to thank my friend when they can no longer work as hard as I would like, by offering them a safe haven until the end of their days.

I luck to be able to do this, many are not.
 
There was a thread on competition riders where an event rider was looking to sell her horse that she had had for many years and who had brought her through the grades, but due to soundness issues could no longer compete at the level she wanted. She was ambitious and needed a horse capable of doing what she wanted. She had not one word of criticism! What's the difference?
 
There was a thread on competition riders where an event rider was looking to sell her horse that she had had for many years and who had brought her through the grades, but due to soundness issues could no longer compete at the level she wanted. She was ambitious and needed a horse capable of doing what she wanted. She had not one word of criticism! What's the difference?

None.
 
That is what pisses me off. People who think PTS is the answer. People do not generally get critisised on here for shooting a horse because it is a bit stiff and want to trade it in for a newer model. They usually trawl out the old 'he would never be happy not being ridden or just in the field,' chestnut, or 'no one else could possibly control him, he is so quirky'. In fact they are called 'brave', and 'responsible'. However, if someone wants to find a home for their unwanted horse, they are jumped on. They are told 'there are worse things than being PTS'. But yet people are happy for others to sell on horses at the drop of a hat and who knows what fate ANY horse has in store for it once it is sold?
 
Last edited:
There was a thread on competition riders where an event rider was looking to sell her horse that she had had for many years and who had brought her through the grades, but due to soundness issues could no longer compete at the level she wanted. She was ambitious and needed a horse capable of doing what she wanted. She had not one word of criticism! What's the difference?

It was in Competition Riders. :rolleyes: ;) FWIW, I generally prefer the perspectives in here, before anyone thinks I'm saying I agree with the lack of criticism of all things rider ambition based in there.
 
Last edited:
So she should put her ambitions aside and keep this horse, who could quite happily downgrade and give another rider years of pleasure. Ooops - yes that was what was being suggested about the horse in this thread.
 
That is what pisses me off. People who think PTS is the answer. People do not generally get critisised on here for shooting a horse because it is a bit stiff and want to trade it in for a newer model. They usually trawl out the old 'he would never be happy not being ridden or just in the field,' chestnut, or 'no one else could possibly control him, he is so quirky'. In fact they are called 'brave', and 'responsible'. However, if someone wants to find a home for their unwanted horse, they are jumped on. They are told 'there are worse things than being PTS'. But yet people are happy for others to sell on horses at the drop of a hat and who knows what fate ANY horse has in store for it once it is sold?

Not read all replies (in fact, just this last page ;) ) but Like this please!

We have a free horse, we've had him 8 years now. He used to be ridden occasionnally, and did a little SJ with me (which he loved, the little b*gger!) but now at 27 is pretty much a field ornament and a nanny horse. He is a TB, and required plenty of looking after (and feeding!), we have no long history with this horse, we don't 'owe' him a retirement as such. However, we are lucky in that we have our own land, and are a bunch of mugs who are a sucker for a sob story (he was going to be PTS as she couldn't find a home for him)

Glad the horse has found a new home, hopefully it will be exactly the one he needs :)
 
So she should put her ambitions aside and keep this horse, who could quite happily downgrade and give another rider years of pleasure. Ooops - yes that was what was being suggested about the horse in this thread.

Well I tend to be of that mindset, yes, although a loan would be the ideal scenario. If I had a horse work for me through its best years and then start breaking down, I wouldn't get rid permanently, move on to the next one and assume someone else would look after its future. Personally, I would either live with reducing the workload or loan out to a home with a reduced workload. If the horse became unfit to work at all I would retire or PTS.
 
Well one of our much loved horses is an eventer who needed an easier life and who gave my daughter great experience round novice tracks so I'm glad not everyone agrees with you.
 
Yes :(

and I agree with Flame, I too am of the mindset that if your horse after years of service starts to break down, you don't get rid for a newer model.

It's entirely different to outgrowing or whatever a healthy, sound horse.

Why not if it can still give someone else pleasure at the level it is capable of working. Why is that wrong!!
 
Top