Need some advice on retirement livery

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Marigold4

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I have a 16 year old mare who is causing some bother in the field. She is turned out with two others. I've written about her weird behaviour before - spooking at nothing and then galloping round like a racehorse, taking the others with her, standing and staring in an anxious way in a particular direction, rounding up the others so they can't be caught. THe other two in the field with her are her offspring and I think her maternal instincts perhaps make her more stressy. I've had her eyes thoroughly checked twice and she's had a test for Cushings and this was negative, also a general blood panel done and nothing abnormal. She has lame in front last year and xrays showed navicular could be the cause. Treated with Cartophen - took a long time to work, but she is now sound.

Would it be a terrible decision to send her to retirement livery? She might settle in a different place and away from her offspring?
 
If she is now sound, is she in any work or is she effectively retired anyway? And do the others come and go? Retirement livery may offer a more stable herd but really no way to tell unless you try it. Older mares might reassure her. As an example I have a pair of retired mares and know I can put anything with them, they seem to calm everyone else down.
 
Abacus said:
If she is now sound, is she in any work or is she effectively retired anyway? And do the others come and go? Retirement livery may offer a more stable herd but really no way to tell unless you try it. Older mares might reassure her. As an example I have a pair of retired mares and know I can put anything with them, they seem to calm everyone else down.
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She's retired.
 
Got to be worth a try, I remember reading about her before because she was very similar sounding to mine at home. I moved him to another place and he was turned out 24/7 with a horse who never did anything. It really helped. He's home now and hasn't started it up again give or take the occasional day. It turned him into a horse some days I just hated having around to one I love having round.
Give it a try, If it doesnt work then you've not lost anything.
 
poiuytrewq said:
Got to be worth a try, I remember reading about her before because she was very similar sounding to mine at home. I moved him to another place and he was turned out 24/7 with a horse who never did anything. It really helped. He's home now and hasn't started it up again give or take the occasional day. It turned him into a horse some days I just hated having around to one I love having round.
Give it a try, If it doesnt work then you've not lost anything.
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Thanks. Yes, I think I will try it out, if only I can find somewhere! I do worry about her - and about my safety when she's galloping around - and about the effect she has on my other two making them anxious over nothing. I think it would have to be retirement livery rather than as a companion unless, as you say, the other horse didn't do anything.
 
I put my stressy horse out on retirement livery when I retired him. He never coped well with 'normal' livery yard life and thrived in a retirement herd. He knew his herd was completely stable and nobody every came or went, so he never had to worry about where everyone was or if they would leave. He also settled much better into a herd dynamic where he could find his place and understood the rules. He's always been a bit 'feral' and I think one that just had a strong natural instinct to need to 'be a horse' in full if that makes sense.
 
KikiDee said:
I put my stressy horse out on retirement livery when I retired him. He never coped well with 'normal' livery yard life and thrived in a retirement herd. He knew his herd was completely stable and nobody every came or went, so he never had to worry about where everyone was or if they would leave. He also settled much better into a herd dynamic where he could find his place and understood the rules. He's always been a bit 'feral' and I think one that just had a strong natural instinct to need to 'be a horse' in full if that makes sense.
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Thanks, that's encouraging to know. I think I should give it a go. I've got an appointment to see somewhere that sounds suitable next Saturday. It's further away than I wanted though. I think her anxiousness is down to the fact that she's busy "helicopter parenting" her two offspring even though one of them is 10! She can always come back if she hates it.
 
Which one are you going go see? 2 of mine are on retirement livery. It's everything Kikidee says above. Mine are in a 50 acre field and they just love it. I've seen new horses arrive and it's always interesting. A couple have taken over a year to fully chill, many take a few weeks but most take to it straight away.
 
PoppyAnderson said:
Which one are you going go see? 2 of mine are on retirement livery. It's everything Kikidee says above. Mine are in a 50 acre field and they just love it. I've seen new horses arrive and it's always interesting. A couple have taken over a year to fully chill, many take a few weeks but most take to it straight away.
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In the end, I think my mare needs to be stabled at night in winter so I don't think a 24/7 field livery will work. I can't bear the thought of her being out in all weathers. She's always the first to stand by the gate to come in in bad weather. I'm looking at options where she can at least have a barn to go into in bad weather. The search goes on!
 
PoppyAnderson said:
She stands at the gate because it's routine and she associates it with food. That's all. Not because she is nesh or doesn't want to be outside. Almost all horses will choose to be outside in the wind, rain and cold, even when they have free access to a barn.
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I wish ours would come in but they refuse! Always have free access to stables with beds in and hay in there, but don’t step foot in them. I bring them in at night to feed and if I’m slow letting them back out again they let me know about it :rolleyes: We’ve had some terrible storms this winter but as soon as I open the stable doors again they stick 2 fingers up at me and head off up the field in the wind and the rain. These are horses that lived ‘pampered’ lives before retirement and always came in at night and during bad weather.
 
PoppyAnderson said:
She stands at the gate because it's routine and she associates it with food. That's all. Not because she is nesh or doesn't want to be outside. Almost all horses will choose to be outside in the wind, rain and cold, even when they have free access to a barn.
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I would say some horses choose to be outside in wind, rain and cold. Mine does not. She stands by the gate after 2 hours out if the weather is foul, not at feed time, so pretty confident it's not about routine, more about weather. Where she is going, she'll be in out of the flies during the day in the summer and in out of the weather at night during the winter and that will be perfect for her. She likes a stable. She's mostly thoroughbred with not much of a coat during winter. She also needs to have a few hours inside to dry out her feet in winter. She had a history of hoof abcesses before I got her - out 24/7 standing in mud by the gate all day. It would be a lot cheaper to send her somewhere where she is out 24/7 but think this is best for her - and it's nearer for keeping an eye on her.
 
Mine got evicted from a livery yard once because she was such a nightmare demanding to come in at night, I worked FT and couldn't get there early enough to bring her in before the others so paid for her to be brought in but apparently the yard staff found her too difficult to handle when she was in a rush to get to her stable, I would definitely of said she wanted to come in at night. She's now out 24/7 all year round and is a lunatic if I try to stable her, it takes a few days for that to be her new routine and her to relax so I would definitely say it's worth trying to leave out if in a stable herd who don't expect to come in.
 
Marigold4 said:
I would say some horses choose to be outside in wind, rain and cold. Mine does not. She stands by the gate after 2 hours out if the weather is foul, not at feed time, so pretty confident it's not about routine, more about weather. Where she is going, she'll be in out of the flies during the day in the summer and in out of the weather at night during the winter and that will be perfect for her. She likes a stable. She's mostly thoroughbred with not much of a coat during winter. She also needs to have a few hours inside to dry out her feet in winter. She had a history of hoof abcesses before I got her - out 24/7 standing in mud by the gate all day. It would be a lot cheaper to send her somewhere where she is out 24/7 but think this is best for her - and it's nearer for keeping an eye on her.
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I'm not sure you will get the change you are looking for by moving to another yard where horses are in and out. The thing that usually settles them about retirement livery is being out 24/7 in very stable groups. Nothing changes and they know it and relax. It wont hurt to try but I'm not sure Id be expecting miracles given shes been like it for a long time even with settled companions. But good luck, horses are always surprising us 🤞🤞
 
We have retirement livery at our yard and the horses are in at night or in during the day in summer and out at night…they all seem absolutely fine with this routine. None haven’t settled with it and many have been there for years and years
 
Traks said:
We have retirement livery at our yard and the horses are in at night or in during the day in summer and out at night…they all seem absolutely fine with this routine. None haven’t settled with it and many have been there for years and years
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Thanks for that feedback. I'll give it a go and have paid a deposit. When she went away for 5 months for weaning her foal, she was in a night. Where she is going is a small, quiet yard of 10 horses with all year turn out. I would say half the horses there are hardly ever ridden and the fields are divided into those for competition horses who come in and work and then separate fields further from the stable for the others. We'll give it a go - I am hoping she will stop being on high alert once she realises she's not now in charge of her two offspring. She can always come back and we can think again if it doesn't work.
 
Marigold4 said:
Thanks for that feedback. I'll give it a go and have paid a deposit. When she went away for 5 months for weaning her foal, she was in a night. Where she is going is a small, quiet yard of 10 horses with all year turn out. I would say half the horses there are hardly ever ridden and the fields are divided into those for competition horses who come in and work and then separate fields further from the stable for the others. We'll give it a go - I am hoping she will stop being on high alert once she realises she's not now in charge of her two offspring. She can always come back and we can think again if it doesn't work.
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That sounds good, they aren’t separated at our yard retirement horses next to ridden and they all go out/come in at the same time and are all fine with that. I hope your mare settles into her new home soon xx
 
Traks said:
That sounds good, they aren’t separated at our yard retirement horses next to ridden and they all go out/come in at the same time and are all fine with that. I hope your mare settles into her new home soon xx
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Thanks. She goes off in a couple of weeks.
 
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