Retiring a lame horse

[Shammey]

Hi, I'm after people's opinions on the above.
My 20 year old is lame through navicular, I haven't exhausted all options as yet but my vet is away on holiday so I thought I would use it as some time to gather my thoughts on what to do. He's a happy boy, not lame in walk, moves about freely enough and seems bright and keeping weight on etc.
I'm happy to keep him at grass and in during the night in winter for aslong as he seems happy enough, he's given me 10 years of his life to ride so I'm happy to return that. He's not fussed about not being ridden, I know some struggle to cope. My other boy is 26 but he is still in ridden work so they keep eachother company.
I just wanted people's thoughts and experiences on keeping a horse that is lame in trot retired rather than the alternative decision. When is it not fair etc.
Thank you.

 

[CazD]

I guess it becomes unfair when the horse is in pain and not happy. Hubby's cob is now retired with arthritis. She's lame on odd days but not often, and has been much improved since she started on turmeric. She seems quite bright and happy at the moment but we have already made the decision that once she is unhappy then she will be pts.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

It can depend on your set up. It could be difficult for a horse to be kept in a large herd because, the horse would find it hard to move away fast enough or to be able to keep up with the herd. If your horse has a similar aged companion or a small herd, it is less likely to be moved around. I had a mare which was lame in trot becasue of arthritis, I managed it with magnet boots and she was comfortable trotting in them. She was kept with 3 other mares who had been with her a long time and looked after her.

 

[HashRouge]

We have two retired ponies and neither of them are completely sound. My mare is 22 and was an excellent riding horse for the whole family for 12 years before she was retired at 20. Her problems started with arthritis in her RF and cushings, neither of which put an end to her ridden career though obviously meant she needed more careful management. It was only when it became clear that she had some sort of sacroiliac injury, which it would be very difficult to treat her for due to her other issues, that I decided to retire her. She had some intensive physio for the SI problem, and has pretty much been in the field ever since. It has been the best decision I could have made - she is field sound as far as I can see (though has the odd stiff day) and the physio has confirmed today that there is no soreness is the muscles around her sacroiliac (in contrast to two years ago). She is completely incapable of staying united in canter, so I know that this area is still a problem for her, but left to her own devices she seems to be managing it very well. As the physio said today, sometimes the best thing for them is to live as nature intended, and Doctor Green can be as effective as expensive veterinary treatments. So you might find that retirement actually helps your horse to recover some of his soundness

 

[Zuzzie]

You don't say how lame your horse is. If it is mild lameness then I would continue gentle hacking with maybe some help from Bute. I have had two horses (now sadly long gone due to other causes) who were both diagnosed with Navicular over the years. At the time I thought it was the end of the world. Both horses were retired from dressage but continued gentle hacking. BOTH horses eventually came sound and I am convinced their navicular was due to foot imbalance. If you research the subject you will find that in X-rays there will be some changes to the navicular bone which some horses will be totally sound with but others not. It is called a syndrome for a reason - in other words they can't pin down what the exact cause of lameness is. The other thing is horses condemned with the diagnosis of navicular can come back sound when they are taken barefoot. Look at the Rockley Farm website to see for yourself. Unless your horse is hopping lame then I would look very carefully at foot balance and I certainly would not be looking at retirement. Both my old horses went to almost 30 years of age quite happily.