Hypothetical but serious question

windand rain

windand rain

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What would you do if you had a very naughty small pony that you loved to bits but you couldnt afford to keep her She may be young and an escapologist or older and a ride and drive that hates kids or just a grumpy pony with few redeeming qualities.
Would you sell in the hope someone would love her as much as you
PTS as it is better to know they are gone but not suffering
keep as cheaply as possible and pray nothing goes wrong and you can still feed her even if everything is already cut to the bone.
How would you afford PTS if you had no money
 
Well first of all I'd set about keeping her as cheaply as posible and putting away some money weekly for PTS or vet bills. Even if it was only £1 a week. Everyone can do that. its possible to cut down on meat,diesel eg walk rather than take the car and eat beans on toast for 1 meal a week ,no takeaways no going out etc etc. Always possible to build up a nest egg.
Secondly I would decide whether or not I reaslly wanted to keep her and if not then either sell her to a reliable well known friend or recommended friend of a friend or PTS.
 
Oh dear, what's wrong with said pony? If he's that bad and you want him pts but can't afford it, agree with the above and take to Potters/Turners. If he's not that bad but not your cup of tea but could be of use to someone, sell or loan. Good luck with your decision.
 
You can't always sell to the meat man though. Say I wanted to get rid of mine - I don't but as this is hypothetical - I have signed the section whatever it is in her passport as she has had bute and she has cushings and arthritis. Surely most horses have had bute at some point in their lives (???) and therefore have had that page signed and thus are no good to the meat man?
It is a consideration for me as I am always on the edge of skint with my vets bills, my pony is 23, sound, well schooled, charming, well mannered and lovely at the moment but costs a bomb to run due to cushings and arthritis so I know that if anything happened to me, if I died or had a bad car accident or anything like that it would be completely unfair to pass her on so my horsey friends would come along and have her PTS. And I have a credit card I keep in case of other sorts of worse case scenarios (lost jobs, can't get another one, that sort of thing).
 
I think that there are plenty of daft horse lovers out there to find most naughty ponies a good home but putting a two line ad on Preloved offering him/her as a freebie isn't likely to find a good home.

Sometimes a horse or pony is completely different in another environment or with an owner that offers what was missing before. That isn't a criticism of the current owner but sometimes a pony/horse needs something that is beyond our own resources.

Keeping a pony on a shoestring is possible, but not if the budget is so limited that the smallest untoward event means its needs can't be met.

Putting a healthy animal to sleep is a last resort and if the owner is foresighted enough to make plans before crisis hits, then euthanasia is less likely to be the only option.

Plan ahead, get good photo's, advertise locally in tack shops and via word of mouth through farrier,vets and riding schools and put an ad on internet horse sales sites with a well worded description. Do it sooner rather than later so there is time to wait for the right person.

In the meantime, work on the issues that make it less sellable and/or work on areas that it excels at to give it a better chance of a good, long term home.
 
Would depend on how naughty & age. First thing I'd do would be try to loan to a trusted friend or very locally where I could check it twice a day. Dependent on ponies needs how long I'd try to hold onto. If its generally healthy, & I could afford hay, I'd try to hold on as long as I could. But in the knowledge first time pony needed anything more I'd need to pts. And it would also depend why I suddenly couldn't afford it. If it was something short term I would try to hang on, if long term though it would just be putting off the inevitable.
If I was so skint pony would suffer if not pts, & I didn't have the funds to pts either, I'd sell anything I had. If on benefits I'd lie & get a hardship loan pretending it was cos I'd lost my money or something. Or ring hunt & vets to see if I could pay in installments. And try ringing charities to see if they could pts at a lower cost given my situation.
 
I guess you could argue that my two have few redeeming features

one is 18 months old, an unregistered welshie, hard to keep the weight off, ungelded and wont be of much use to anyone for another few years

The other a registered welshie from a top stud, rising 4 so unbroken and with severe sweet itch

BUT they found a good home with me and if I got in to trouble I would do my very best to keep them on a shoestring or to find them good loan homes but at the end of the day I am realistic and would make the ultimate hard decision if I had to

If I had to PTS I would borrow the money for it
 
I would go down the word of mouth route, local pony club, riding club, hunt to see if a suitable home could be found. In the meantime I would cut costs down to the bone and hope to be able to ride out the storm whilst saving up the money to call the hunt to pts if an emergency rocked up.
 
This is a purely hypothetical question said pony doesnt exist with me but I do know of several that are in this position and was inquiring about peoples opinion. In these days of job losses there will be a lot more too. Many with older owners who are losing jobs with little or no chance of them getting another feed and hay are not cheap and if they are already on low income then it is already a shoe string job. PTS is a very expensive option and there will be a lot who cant afford it and may hang onto animals to the point of suffering as it is impossible to rehome, feed or care for said animal.
Loaning could never be an option as the ponies are temperamentally unsuited to rehoming and will be returned and of course there are dozens if not hundreds of nice ponies who will be more readily taken on
 
I really disagree that PTS is a very expensive option - even if you don't want the body to go for meat a knackerman and group cremation is c.£100-150 for a pony.

If people can't find £100 in an emergancy (savings, credit card, borrow from friend etc.) I'm not so sure they should have a pony in the first place.
 
Yes but some may feel they will keep going with that 100-150 in the hope of being able to keep the pony only to find it doesnt work out, 150 is a lot of money to a lot of people
 
Years ago I remember making a comment in the presence of a very wise old horseman about it not mattering about something another pony did or didn't do, because the owner didn't mind. It was a shetland, & iirc it was something like it needed two adults to pick its feet out or something similar. He told me that every owner had a duty to make sure that if the worst happened, the animal could always find a good home. The way he explained it was basically the better it is, the safer its future. Not just from a comp record pov, but everything from how easy it is to handle to making the best of even limited very average abilities, even if you think you'll never want to sell. Can't remember exact words, but his phrasing was along the lines of every horse should have a purpose for something, & a back up purpose too, no matter what use you have for it, otherwise if you can't keep it, its purpose will be the meat man. It's something I've always kept in mind.
 
Honestly I don't think £150 is that much in horsey terms, it's only a couple of months of hay, triming, worming, grass livery (even at the very basic level) If you look at the thread of 'how much does your horse cost' on here recently the average was £400/500 a month so for lots of people who have a horse £150 is about a weeks worth of costs.

Agree £150 is not a small amount but really peanuts in the grand scheme of having a horse for a few years !!!
 
Actually, I've just calculated my 14.2 & 11.1 average out at 140 per calendar month together. And that's an over estimate, I've allowed for far more hay & straw than I actually use, & more feed. The 140 includes livery, hay, straw, feed & farrier. So just jabs, teeth, insurance, not included. And tbf the majority of that 140 is the 14.2.
 
Oh I do know they can be kept much cheaper (mine are £35 each a month on average over the year, including everything insurance teeth etc.) but I still stand by my belief that £150 is not that huge amount that people shouldn't be able to find it to avoid a pony suffering (if that is the genuine alternative)
As I said above even with your maths it's only a couple of months worth of care - especially over winter.
 
No, I agree entirely you should be able to find the £150, no matter how much of a shoestring you're on. Regardless of what happens, if at some point you've had the income to keep a horse, however cheaply, chances are you'll have belongings in your house that could be sold to raise 150. And really if you've sold everything already you have had time to make plans. Although of course there are probably a minority of extreme cases, such as someones house burning down, doing a moonlight flit to a woman's refuge etc. However I think in those rare extremes, you'd probably get help from an animal charity with pts.
 
windand rain said:
What would you do if you had a very naughty small pony that you loved to bits but you couldnt afford to keep her She may be young and an escapologist or older and a ride and drive that hates kids or just a grumpy pony with few redeeming qualities.
Would you sell in the hope someone would love her as much as you
PTS as it is better to know they are gone but not suffering
keep as cheaply as possible and pray nothing goes wrong and you can still feed her even if everything is already cut to the bone.
How would you afford PTS if you had no money
Click to expand...
To put a different spin on this I would try to find out why the pony was grumpy in the first place... runs for cover.

As I'm getting older and crumblier I am having to think about what will happen if I can't manage anymore and I still don't know what I would do. Mine are all relatively healthy but I have two oldies. The thought of having them pts while they are happy and healthy sends ice through my veins. :(
 
Amandap - interesting question, for cats and dogs there is a form you can sign with the RSPCA (I think) that instructs them to find a home for them in the event you can't. Horses more tricky.
I don't think I could give/ sell on oldies - I wonder what the response would be from a charity if you offered them a large donation/ provision in will to take on an oldie?
I know charities are full to the brim but if you agreed in advance to give them say £5/10k donation would that be worth their while to add an oldie to the collection (happy for charity to loan out as companion) the money should be enough to cover the cost of the oldie and help other horses at the same time.
No idea whether they'd be interested in this type of arrangement but got to be worth asking.
 
Don't know if they still do it, but I knew an older widow who had no close relatives who made a large donation to a sanctuary in exchange for them taking her horse if anything ever happened to her. However she did arrange it what must be 20yrs ago now, when horse was young & would have been very easy to loan out. ( fab, easy to do allrounder). I knew her when horse was in its 20's though, & horse died of old age while lady fit & healthy, so no idea if its possible to still make similar plans.
 
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