HELP! Retirement charities In Ireland

astewart13

astewart13

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Hi there,

Does any one know of any retirement charities in Ireland /Northern Ireland. I have a 5year old horse which has sadly been condemned as unfit for riding although is not in pain when turned out.
It seems such a shame to put a healthy horse down and I was wondering if anyone knew of anywhere that would take him?

Thanks in advance from a very sad horsey owner :(
 
Please don't take this the wrong way but the situation in Ireland both North and South is so dire that charities are beginning to offer to pay PTS costs when they can and this is for healthy potentially useful horses. And to be brutally honest, why would they take on a responsibility that you won't?

Realistically I can't see who would want such a young horse that can't be ridden but you may be able to loan him as a companion with rigorous (really, really detailed checks!) checks and be prepared to have him returned at short or no notice. That leaves two other options - retire him yourself at your cost or PTS.

Neither is the wrong option IMHO but off loading a damaged horse is a bit risk and again JMHO, irresponsible.

I hope you don't read the above as harsh, it's just realistic sadly.
 
If you can fund its retirement for the next 20 years great. If not please dont let someone else take on the responsibility.
 
astewart13 said:
Hi there,

Does any one know of any retirement charities in Ireland /Northern Ireland. I have a 5year old horse which has sadly been condemned as unfit for riding although is not in pain when turned out.
It seems such a shame to put a healthy horse down and I was wondering if anyone knew of anywhere that would take him?

Thanks in advance from a very sad horsey owner :(
Click to expand...

You have 4 choices
a) keep the horse yourself and pay for it's retirement
b) pay for the horse to go on retirement livery
c) advertise for a companion loan (but be very aware these homes are rare and this horse is still ultimately your responsibility)
d) shoot him

All those are reasonable and responsible courses of action.

Dumping him on a charity isn't.
 
Is the horse over 16hh? Is there a blood bank in NI? It might be an option. Although I imagine they'll be pretty full too.
 
Sorry to sound harsh, but your horse, your responsibility. Why on earth should a charity have to take him over? There are stuffed to the rafters with horses already.

I have very little sympathy as I am in exactly the same position with a perfectly lovely horse that turned out he can't be ridden. I have to pay retirement livery for him in dublin (25 euro per week), move to a cheaper yard and then work every hour i can so I can afford another horse I can ride. If he had worked out healthwise I'd no doubt have gotten many years happy riding out of him. But them's the breaks with horses - **** happens and it's not his fault he can't be ridden.

He still deserves a good, safe life where he's not in danger of being moved to worse and worse homes. I got him, so he's my responsibility. I still hope to do inhand or agility with him.

If it ever came to a crunch finance-wise I know morally I would sell the healthy one and keep him as he is more at risk. It costs me 1,300 euro a year, plus wormers, and feed in winter etc to keep him. But I figure, you take a gamble with them and it's like a marriage, for better or worse, sometimes you get the worse!

edited to say, if for any reason I couldn't keep him, unless I got a retirement home (where I knew the people and could check regularly) then the fairest thing would be to PTS and I would have no qualms about doing it.
 
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I do feel for you, I really do, but have to ditto what everyone else has said PTS is actually the kindest thing to do. Not only for him, but for the skinny, neglected suffering horse that the charities need to save :(

I held one for a friend last week, nothing wrong with him, but was going to be tricky to find a home and they were no longer able to keep him. Horrible, but sadly an essential part of horse ownership.

If you found out, years later, that he'd starved to death or gone through a slaughter house, that would be worse wouldn't it?

Sorry :(
 
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