How can I prepare my mad horse for the parting of his pair bond friend

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I have an aged TB gelding who is 23 and this year in particular he is looking old and jaded. He can't keep weight on and has been feeling his legs ( he was retired 10 yrs ago due to collapsed contracted heels. He was / is paddock sound )

I feel this may be his last winter
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My main concern is that he is the one who keeps my mad horse sane and they are inseparable. Even when I take the old boy up for his tea the other waits at the gate until he comes back.

Is there a way to prepare him for the loss of his friend in some way ie move them apart for a bit of time and increase it gradually. The mad horse does have another pony in the field who he gets on with but the old one is his special friend.

Never dealt with this before so any advice greatfully received.
 
Hi, first of all I feel for you having to make this horrible decision to let an old friend go...However, I think that I would not change the situation now as I don't think you can really prepare them for a loss as they are not foreward thinking animals. I think once your old boy has passed away your other one will 'know"... and why not give them both the quality time together now?
Just my opinion...
 
I have a friend who was in a very similar situation to you. We decided that the best thing was to have her old boy pts in the field. We let the other one in and it seemed to help. They were completely attached to one another but, however callous this sounds, once he realised the other one had passed away, he just sort of accepted it and moved on. He pined a little bit but is a stressy type and it was nowhere near as bad as we would expected.

I would be interested to hear other experiences though.

I am having a similar problem with M+Z. Monty is in his late 20s and Zoomy is only 12. They are completely devoted to each other so it's such a worry!
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Its a horrible situation to be in but one I knew I would have to face at some point. Its not like the TB is gonna go tom and I will keep him going as long as I can but when the day comes that he is deteriorating I'll have to face it. I think this summer he's looked the worst he ever has and just seems weary of life sometimes.
 
We had this where I used to work, but didn't think to do any preparation work beforehand. When one of the mares died, we left her in the field with her friend for a few hours so she could understand what had happened. It seemed to help her accept it and she barely called for her.
 
I have days like this, when monty looks a bit down, but then he perks up again. It is really hard having to face up to the fact that they are getting old. I'm sure you will do right by him though.

Chin up xxxxxx
 
I had this situation but no warning. I had to make a descion pretty much there and then. Although my other mare was not in sight when the deed was done - she knew something was happening as she was extremely vocal and normally was not (from my point of view this was the worst bit).

We showed her D afterwards, she sniffed the body and then galloped across the field. After that although a little down she was anything like as bad as I expected her to be.

Its awful - but we cope for them.
 
LHS, really feel for you just now.. I had to let my old man go on Friday and was really worried about his pet shetland..... knew for a few weeks that the time would come but didn't want to seperate them or upset the old one by adding a new pony to the field....
I decided that it would be easier on all involved to have max laid to rest in the field.... I waited a while until the shetland {treacle} said her goodbyes and became more interested in max's bucket and moved her to a field across the road where she was introduced to her new friend.. another shetland...
i can see it in her eye that she misses her big mate.... but she's enjoying all the playing and pampering she's getting atm...... i'm more sorry for treacle than i am for myself because they had been together for so long.....
Keep your chin up and remember that he's lucky to have you just now..... keep them happy and together..!
 
I'm not sure that you can prepare him beforehand, other than maybe iintroducing a new companion now, so when your oldie has gone, he still has familiar friends around.
What I will say though is, when your old lad has gone, allow the other to be with the body for an hour or so, as this will very much lessen any distress.
I am sorry to hear you are having to think of this, but well done for putting your oldie first.
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Thank you very much for all your help and kind words, I think from what everyone is saying I will keep them together as long as I can and when the time comes let him have time to see the body and grieve. Oh dear I am so not looking forward to this.

XX
 
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