Retiring Working Horses

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rockysmum

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Just wondered what everyones thoughts on this are.

Once again it has popped up on my Facebook that working horses are being retired to charities. Every time I see it I feel it is somehow wrong.

If your organisation uses horses in the line of its business, surely it is one of the costs of this to provide a decent retirement. If you dont then the general public are very likely not going to be happy at stories of horses being PTS.

The rest of us have to have exit plans for our old horses. Either we spend a fortune giving them a happy retirement or we have them PTS. If we tried to palm them off onto a charity we would be called irresponsible.

Most charities would not take retirements from us. But along comes a brewery or the police and its different. So how come organisations which use horses for business get away with it.

Please dont think I begrudge the horses a good retirement, it just seems irresponsible of the organisations involved.
 
I do agree with you but do you know if the brewery/police forces maybe do support the charities financially or pay for the horse's keep? I imagine there was some agreement made and I would sincerely hope the charity doesn't have to fund the horse. I am sure they don't.
 
I may be mistaken but I understood that if the x-working horses were placed in charities, they were usually accompanied by a sizeable donation. I wonder how many people looking to off-load their old horse would be willing to donate.

In the Netherlands the government set up a charitable organisation to take the retiring working horses. It was also available to the public. However, the waiting list for the public was becoming rediculously long so I believe they wrote to the unfortunate 600 people waiting for a place to explain it was not likely to happen in the lifetime of their horse.:eek:

Personally I don't believe that a horse should be PTS because it is retiring, regardless of its history. As owners we have a responsibility for that horse for its lifetime.
 
Thanks, that explains it, if they give a donation I dont have a problem with it.

I wasn't being mean, just think that the money donated to charities should go to horses who are really in need.
 
I know someone who had a horse in semi retirement, suited to hacking, they did not want to sell or loan so he was given to a charity. I believe the donation was generous and the charity also expected to get more money by rehoming him as a hack.

They started riding him and discovered a well schooled horse, overdid the work and he went lame again so was never rehomed, he is still there.The original donation will be long gone.

I know the charities need income but I feel this is not the right way to go about it, it costs a fair amount to keep a horse in retirement and any donation is unlikely to reflect the true cost over several years.

If a horse has earned its keep, its retirement or the cost of pts should be provided for by the business. Charities could then concentrate on rescuing those in real need, possibly a little earlier than they seem to.
 
I always said Mildred had paid into her pension ;) and I would look after her and her foal till the very end otherwise I would have never bred a horse unfortunately she didn't survive long after foaling and as I scroll through horsemart seeing all the old horses being sold as companions it makes my blood boil they've had the good years then they want rid disgusts me
Obviously that it a very biased opinion from me and I'm sure some genuine people genuinely have illness or financial reasons but it would be a very small percentage
I would imagine the police did give a donation though and a good one they are very well looked after horses
 
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