How many of you keep your loan horses for life?

Cazza525

Cazza525

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My story is I needed a companion 2 years ago,asked a couple of friends and small elderly pony located. She is a sweety,has oldie ailments like stiffness and arthritis and a bout of seedy toe periodically,but is quiet enough for me to stick cub saddle on and tow my 2 year old round the yard!!

I've got terribly attached to her....she's 28 this year. I'm in the process of selling my land and stables,so my head is saying send her home....my heart is saying,keep her!!

I only have one other pony atm,and she is being produced this year and will be spending the summer on/off at a big yard about 40 miles away. It would be hell of a lot cheaper to get rid of her oldie 'friend' rather than pay livery costs for her somewhere,but I will be sending her too........I'm just a softie really. Then hopefuly,they will both come home to me and live outside my back door!!

Any other stories?
 
Yes - sounds a familiar story! We also have on oldish loan companion pony (who actually ended up costing me £500 on vets bills in the summer with an eye infection..) - and I am sure we will keep her forever. She gets a bit laminitic, needs a bit of TLC - but she is a sweetie to handle, great travelling companion and very useful in the yard if we want to leave one horse and take the others out. So I am sure we will keep her forever - as like you I'd hate not to know where she ends up. Good luck with yours - sounds adorable
 
I am even more soppy! We got a companion for the companion when my horse went to livery so now we have two geriatrics roaming about the place. There is something about the little ones that you just get so attached to..
 
I have had Roz, from Ada Cole/Redwings for 20 years now! She was 7 when she came to live here and will be 28 in May. I sincerely hope she won't be going anywhere else now!
 
Mine is from HAPPA, had her for coming up to 6 years now and I fully intend to keep her until the end of her days. :) I never really think of her as a loan horse tbh, but it's a different situation to loaning from a private owner I suppose.
 
My loan horse has been with me for 10 years, he retired about 3 years ago but I couldn't bear to send him back - he's too precious!
 
Yes, a few years ago I got an elderly connemara mare on loan as a companion. She was 27 when she arrived and was a wonderful fiesty old thing. She was in good health until she was 32 and then she started to get stiffer and had to be helped up a few times. She still looked well and enjoyed life though. By this time I had a total of 4 horses and logically (and financially) I should have sent her home. But I couldn't, by that time I was too attached to her. So in the end I paid the vets bills and then finally when one day she couldn't be got back on her feet, she was PTS and I paid for her to be cremated. Daft really, but she got well and truly under my skin and I couldn't have done anything different!
 
Yes, my 22 year old loan horse will end his days with me hopefully. He's still active & healthy & although I've only had him 5 years, we've had some great times together & I feel I owe it to him.
 
Mum got our (now 30!) year old Thoroughbred on loan when he was 24. She became really attached to him and ended up asking if we could buy him. He is now happily retired after five years of light hacking and we will be keeping him for the rest of his life. :)
 
We have 4 old loan ponies on our yard, all are kept by their loaners even though they are well past riding age.

I will keep mine until he goes (a long time away yet hopefully!!) although he isnt on loan anymore really as he was given to me :)
 
Barney is on loan from a rescue centre - my first horse after getting back to horses after 10 years away. I didn't ever expect to get another TB, I thought those days were over after my teenage years competing, but he is such a special boy and means the world to me.

He's taught my OH to ride, happily hacks out alone and is willing to tackle the odd log or hedge out and about. Yes, I'd like to have something I could sanely hunt with and sometimes his "jump-jet" style spooks are a little unnerving at times... but Barney is going nowhere; he's my boy.
 
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