Hypothetical question

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Scheherezade

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If you could only afford one (young) horse, and it was unable to be ridden - what would you do?

Would you keep it, try to loan it out, try to keep it cheap on grass. Would you have lessons and hope to have enough money in future to pay for another?
 
Unable to be ridden as in never able to be ridden?, if that was the reason then i would cut my losses and pts
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, sad i know
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I would keep it. I believe that just because a horse isnt capable of doing what i first wanted it for it still deserves a safe and happy life. I believe a horse is a responsibility, even if broken or old and i would sacrifice my personal wants for the horse. Owning horses is not conditional for me.
 
Well, we don't know yet. He is slightly lame on lunge, but very unhappy being ridden - he will throw himself around to avoid trotting.

The lameness is 1/10 RH pelvis - he is having a bone scan next week to find out. But the vet warned we might never know as it's such a 'vague' area, and they can only test him on the lunge whilst his main problem is being ridden.

And it's made him absolutely hate ridden work, so I don't know where to draw the line between tantrum and real pain. Until next week we won't know. If it is something that can be dealt with I am tempted to send him away or have a professional in twice a week.

If not then I don't know what to do
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He's only a young horse, and I had only just started bringing him back into work before he did this (seemingly overnight).

Sorry, thanks for the moan - yard people have heard it all too much!
 
I understand what you are saying, which is why I haven't really considered that option. But does that mean I am never going to be able to ride again for 10 years?!
 
Possibly? But you may find someone that needs a companion. Ultimately though, if i couldnt find a good, permanent home then i would keep the horse and sacrifice my wanting to ride. Not everyone will agree but thats my opinion and what i would do. Unless the horse was dangerous or its welfare was poor i could not put PTS just because it couldnt do what i wanted it to do.

Not saying this is the case with you at all but i was talking to a woman the other day who didnt understand why she couldnt sell her horse with navicular. She wanted to ride, had got another horse, didnt want the navicular horse anymore and couldnt see why someone else wouldnt pay £1500 for it?!!!!!
 
I am lucky in that I (now) have enough land of my own to keep all my oldies at a very low cost. I still have 2 horses I can ride to the level I want to ride at- well, the rest of them except the brood mare could be plodded round the village no bother, but basically they're grass cutters. But you know the old saying - it costs as much to keep a bad horse as a good one. I'm not saying your youngster is "bad" as in evil; he's obviously got problems which aren't his fault, but really, what we usually want to do with our horses is ride them and do things with them, to our mutual benefit, I always feel. It's a very difficult decision to take to put them down at any age, but must be heartbreaking with a youngster, but if he really is not going to be of any use and you can't afford to have him as a lawn mower and a pet, then I would take a deep breath and consider PTS. At least you know what's happened to him.

Is there any way you could turn him away for a year or so in a field, no shoes, no hard feed etc and see if time heals? Well, if it's something that might be amenable to that, of course.

It's easy to advise when it's not your horse, isn't it? Best of luck.
 
If he has a nice temperament and is relatively straightforward to look after i think you would stand a fairly good chance of finding a companion home. A friend of mine has done this with her mare, i have a companion pony for my riding horse, because i keep them at home, and my neighbour has a companion horse on loan to keep her horse happy. So they can still play a valuable purpose even if can't be ridden. Hope things work out for you and his tests next week find something that can be treated x
 
I don't think my OH could stand to have him PTS, he's his first horse...

I didn't think people got companion horses, but he would be ideal. He comes to call and follows you around affectionately, he doesn't wear shoes, rugs or get hard feed, when we got him he hadn't even ever had hay!

Thank you - I can now consider that as a possibility
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BoF - he's a youngster (4) so he had winter off to grow/mature/be brought back into work slowly.
 
I definitely think you should try and find him a companion home. I personally couldn't pts just because I couldn't ride.

Plent of people are looking for companions and he sounds like a perfect candidate.

Hope his tests come back ok and that you can reach a decision.
 
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