Options please for a very sad Charlie

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charlie55

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I think my poor lad will have to be retired :(

Ive had him for just over a year, he hadnt done alot when i got him as he was classed as a dangerous horse as he bucked everyone off, he had a life of eating for 10 years! Since i have had him he has never been a naughty horse, just abit flighty, miss understood and he hasnt ever bucked with me etc, started off really slow with him to build him up properly etc and after 6 months he went lame on hes right stifle, fixed that problem, started again and he went lame on the left hind, bone spavin, we are still having problems with it now, he has also done a tendon on the front left 5 months ago. Now the vet ca,e out today and he is lame on the front left again, another tendon injury! We are now booked in to go and have it scanned etc.

I think he is breaking down, he has a sports therapy massage every 4 weeks, has very expensive shoes on, has hes massage pas on vertually every day, always has teeth and tack checked every 6 months, hes always warmed up slowly and carefully, and warmed down right, he has magnetic everything, he doesnt jump, only hacked out carefully, booted up etc. Ive always been very careful with him, but now ive got to be realistic, if he cannot stay sound doing walk trot and canter 3 times a week in a school, what is he ever going to be able to do... The vet did mention a word but i cant remember it, basically he said to have a good think about having him as a ridden horse or retire him.

The thing is i have no idea about retirement homes. Has anyone gone done that route before and know of any nice ones? Putting him out as a companion is another option and he will be ideal as he has fab feet so shoes wouldnt be needed and he really does live on fresh air, he wouldnt need much feed at all. But then who would want a 17hh companion.

Im abit shell shocked really and have no idea what to do and where to start first, anyone know of anything useful? :(
 
Awwh what a shame :( At least he has ended up with you to enoy his rest of his working days , And sorry cannot help you with retirement homes, As doont have a clue myself . God luck though x
 
If he has these issues I would not be doing schooling work at all with him to be honest unless it's on a firm grass arena NOT a surface. I would have left the schooling well alone the minute he was diagnosed with bone spavin to be honest and certainly with any tendon injury. IMO there is nothing worse for a horse with leg injuries than working them in arenas. What do you do with him the rest of the time?

I would stay away from the arena and maybe just hack him out - is that possible? Much less strain on the joints and tendons and as far as i am concerned, controlled road work does wonders for tendons.
 
ladyt25 said:
If he has these issues I would not be doing schooling work at all with him to be honest unless it's on a firm grass arena NOT a surface. I would have left the schooling well alone the minute he was diagnosed with bone spavin to be honest and certainly with any tendon injury. IMO there is nothing worse for a horse with leg injuries than working them in arenas. What do you do with him the rest of the time?

I would stay away from the arena and maybe just hack him out - is that possible? Much less strain on the joints and tendons and as far as i am concerned, controlled road work does wonders for tendons.
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Im in Kent hun, as for the schooling, i was told by the vets aslong as i dont do circles etc he will be fine, and the surface is very good, watered alot and harrowed so its very firm, vet also thought that because our woods are very hilly hes tendon wouldnt cope, also we live on a main road and Jack cant be trusted out their atm as hes got far too much energy and he's very spooky. Not alot else i can do with him really. Poor boy :( x
 
Shame you can't do more road work - is he really terrible on the road, can you not go out with anyone else?

I still thing school work does not help - a surface is a surface at the end of the day, it can't be too firm as surely people may want to jump on it etc etc so it'd have to be soft enough for that really. I just think it puts a lot of strain on horse's legs and certainly those legs that are may be no 100%. You try walk/jog in the arena and then do the same on the road and what is easier? Obviously I don't know what your roads are like but personally I'd brave it and go out with others or lead him out and see how he goes.

It is a difficult one but having had a pony with bone spavin and also an ex racer whose tendons of both front legs were shot I have seen what a difference it makes (certainly with tendons) how it helps for the horse to be (a) turned out 24/7 and (b) hacked out on roads. With the bones spavin, once the bones are fused this generally is not as much of an issue. My pony benefitted from physio as he had spavin in just one hock and was therefore compensating with the other side and this caused muscle problems and he was very lame. 2 physio sessions later and he was sounder than he'd ever been.

They do like to try us these horses eh!
 
charlie55 said:
The thing is i have no idea about retirement homes. Has anyone gone done that route before and know of any nice ones? Putting him out as a companion is another option and he will be ideal as he has fab feet so shoes wouldnt be needed and he really does live on fresh air, he wouldnt need much feed at all. But then who would want a 17hh companion.

Im abit shell shocked really and have no idea what to do and where to start first, anyone know of anything useful? :(
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IMHO a companion home will be hard to find but you never know, you might be lucky.......only downside to that is that he might come home at short notice so you would have to find space for him!

Retirement Livery - I have 2 retirees :) If I could have found good grass livery nearer to home I would have kept them there but I couldn't find it so sent them away.

http://www.lydiaharvey.co.uk/index.htm?subj=Retirement+Livery

http://www.essexhorseretirement.co.uk/

PM if you'd life more info on these.
 
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