So: if no PTS, what should we do with useless valueless horses?

I do think we have a duty to our "useless valueless horses". I don't agree with just putting a horse to sleep because you don't like not being able to ride BUT I do think that is a better option that the horse being sold on with no thought for where it might end up, given that not many people want to buy an elderly and/ or unrideable horse just for the sake of it. But I would never have a horse put to sleep just because I wanted a new one that I could ride. I have a 20 year old mare atm who has been retired for a year or two now due to her arthritis. Every now and then I get on for a gentle potter down the lane, but that is it. I would love to have a riding horse, but I can't afford two. However, I've owned this horse for 12 years and I love the bones of her. She was bought for me when I was 11, so I have grown up with her, and she is wonderful, genuine, kind, and seriously good fun. She deserves a good retirement, and I'm going to give her one, even if it means I don't have a riding horse for another 10 years (though hopefully in a few years I'll be able to afford two). Basically, much as I want to be able to ride, this horse means more to me than riding does, much more. Obviously, to anyone else she is "useless" and "valueless" (my work mate has already asked me why I don't sell her and get something "better". I was not impressed!) but I really don't care. It is a shame that not everyone has the same attitude, but there you go. If you don't want to keep your horse because you can't ride it (or if can't keep it, but that is a bit different) then sadly PTS is often better that passing the horse on, unless you can guarantee it is going to a good home.
 
yup I've used a lot of defibrinated horse blood in my time MotherOfChickens ;) and presumed that (and similar) was what the bloodbanks were most involved in providing, as much as anything because blood itself doesn't transport/last that well for distribution either so cheaper and easier for places to keep their own and yes I agree with you with the term possibly being disingenuous. I'm not anti PTS at all. My lad is now 21 and will probably have the opportunity to retire when the time comes back at mums or I would keep him for a time on livery if that seemed best. He certainly isn't having any change of ownership though.
 
I don't really look on horses as being useless if they can't be ridden. I buy a horse to be a horse and hopefully to do a job, which is mainly competing and hacking. Its a bonus if they are good at it. If I like the horse (and I usually do because I'm careful with what I buy) I will keep it to jump. Once its jumped for a few years, it might sustain an injury (actually never happened with any of mine yet but it might) or go a bit stale or need an easier life.

But its still a horse, still doing the job of being a horse which it was purchased as. Its surely a risk you take when buying something made of flesh and blood that it will not prove suitable for the task intended, and you have it in your mind when directing yourself to the decision to buy. If not, wouldn't you be better buying a mountain bike, or doing triathlon, or motorcycling, or cars, or something?
 
I do agree with the notion of owing something to a horse. However, I don't agree that in every case it is necessarily to keep it and pay for it until it dies of natural causes. In my teens I looked after someone else's horse and she had him PTS - well I would have sold a kidney to keep that horse until he it was best for him to go - but at 16 and not his owner I didnt have that option. If I feel that way about a horse again it would be the same.

But take Harry. Paid a fortune for him aged 6. He was a bit too much for us and I was set to sell him but then we discovered he had bilateral bone spavin - aged 8. Had him operated on and it helped a lot. He is now 12. He is on a bute a day, needs careful farriery, can't live out 24/7 because he has also had laminitis. He is unpredictable to ride and we don't enjoy riding him. He is now 12 and I have kept him at livery, being exercised by the yard staff, and with my daughter and I riding him as much as we can cope with, taking him out where we think its safe, for the last 6 years. He has very frequent saddle checks and physio visits because of his issues.

I can never sell him with his issues, and I can't send him to retirement livery because he cannot live out 24/7. In my book, if he becomes completely unrideable I think we have done right by him and he would be PTS at home even if he is just in his mid teens.
 
To me I think there are 2 types of people. Those that love and respect their animals, whether they feel the need to have their animal put down/or keep too the end of their natural life. I'm one of the lucky ones I own my own land, so yes I can keep them, but I also know when to let go, for the sake of the animal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top