Tough decisions regarding my injured horse :(

charleysummer

charleysummer

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I have decided its about time to start thinking about my ponies future realistically- Here is the brief background history...

she is a 14.2hh stunning looking buckskin mare, 8 years old and was imported from holland as a youngster, i bought her as a 5 year old and brought her on- and noticed a 'poll evil' on her poll (like a capped hock) .. despite being advertised as no lumps or bumps, the dealer admitted having seen this before but we never took it any further.
She went lame about 6 months ago now and was diagnosed with a small hole in the deep digital flexor tendon, she has been on very careful rehab and is now walking and trotting for up to an hour on a hack and 20 minutes in the school with large circles, and has had no further problems.
So unfortunatly despite her exceptional temperment and loving nature, willingness to please (she leg yields on her own or does turns on haunches/forehand when she thinks you want to and your not paying attention! a real tryer bless her). She has blemishes which are not her own fault.

Now i would love to keep her until the end of her days and let her live happily munching all her life, BUT as i am going to uni quite shortly i need to think about what i am going to do with her, originally the plan was simply sell her and go to uni- but of course with her injuries this is now much more complicated!

So what should i do, please dont tell me i am irresponsible by selling an injured horse on- i am not stupid and i love my pony, it will break my heart but i want to think about letting her move on asap so i dont sell her or leave her for sale when i go to uni- also my parents havent got the time or money (when i have uni fees!) to look after her.

Is there anywhere she could go? or would it be kinder to just simply pts, the vet says he believes she will come sound again to jump by october but although it sounds horrid i want her gone asap- PURELY because i want to be around to monitor how she is doing in her new home! and not be panicking near uni time with the consequence of having to put a lovely kind hearted life down that has only ever tried her best.

i dread to thiink how long this post it, so thanks for reading. it is an awful thing to think about but i want to do what is best for my pony.
 
If she is currently being reintroduced to work (so presumably 'sound') and it's just a lump and not true 'poll evil' (a nasty and troublesome condition) I don't see what the problem is? She sounds like she's not done with yet - is she a substantial type of horse/pony? Would she suit an older person who just wants to hack?

I'm afraid ASAP doesn't just happen and it sounds like you simply want out. Well, that's how it reads. You owe her more than that, so you should be prepared for a wait and to see it through to her finding a good home. Adertise her carefully and good luck finding her a new home.
 
I am a sucker for duns/buckskins, and my dream would be to have a yard full of them if I could!
But seriously, she doesn't sound like she is at at the end of her days, so don't pts. Just because of a few injuries doesn't mean she can't be sold, you just have to be honest and reflect her price because of them.
Try to see if anyone would like her sort, would spend 6-12 months getting a partnership and maybe become more serious next year when the mare is physically fit to do any job. In other words someone who is patient! People like that are out there, and many people can and do provide excellent homes.
From your point of view, be prepared to vet homes, and do 'homework' about future families, no-one usually minds - unless they have something to hide of course!
Good luck.
 
brighteyes said:
If she is currently being reintroduced to work (so presumably 'sound') and it's just a lump and not true 'poll evil' (a nasty and troublesome condition) I don't see what the problem is? She sounds like she's not done with yet - is she a substantial type of horse/pony? Would she suit an older person who just wants to hack?

I'm afraid ASAP doesn't just happen and it sounds like you simply want out. Well, that's how it reads. You owe her more than that, so you should be prepared for a wait and to see it through to her finding a good home. Adertise her carefully and good luck finding her a new home.
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no i do not simply want out at all, i have kept her as long as possible and have been thinking today about her future. i have been carefully monitoring her and love her a lot so its a very heartbreaking decision, i genuinely doing this for her own benefit so i dont have to have her shot at the last minute. I love jumping but i would happily never jump again to keep her but this isnt practical for me now :( it is fluid filled sack- i was told it was called a poll evil, but its just fluid. causes her no problems. she is a good dooer and cheap to keep, maintains a good stable weight easily and is medium/native built.

I thought i might sound like im trying to offload a problem horse but it really isnt at all like that, and i only used the term asap knowing that this could be a long time i.e months and months- i just wanted to get the ball rolling so i can make sure she has the best home possible by spending the most time possible looking for one for her. thankyou
 
as above, really. i'm sure if you carry on with the gradual rehab and look for another home for her through summer, you'll find one, if she's such a nice willing mare then someone will be delighted with her, especially if you are putting a good home and her future welfare higher than what you can get for her ££s wise. i applaud your farsightedness, you're obv not going to be one of these teens who goes off to college leaving parents to sell their horse, BUT it's a long time till Sept/Oct, plenty of time to find the right home for her. with her history you'd prob be better looking for a small adult owner rather than a kid, as she'll need patience and time and careful management to get/keep that leg right, i imagine.
very best of luck with her, i hope you'll find her a super home.
would i consider pts? an absolute definite No.
 
KI would say start looking for a good loan home soon. I would be hesitant to sell her, and doubt you would get much interest given the tendon injury. I certainly would not be PTS but look for a new home now.
 
what a difficult decision for you. if she is well behaved, traffic proof etc, you could perhaps find her a loan home for hacking as quite a lot of people only want to hack. you may find it difficult to sell as there are lots of horses for sale who dont have health problems. if you cannot find a good home then pts isnt the worst that could happen. hugs for you and well done for thinking of her wellbeing:)
 
If you want to do the best by your pony, as you say, then advertise it honestly and make the price reflect it. If the vet thinks pony will be sound, then I don't think you can justify PTS. In fact to be honest, I can't even believe you are thinking about it. I have an ex-racer which has severely damaged tendons in both front legs. He is 21, and although a bit old and stiff sometimes, the tendon damage has never caused any problems. You don't totally destroy something just because it is a little bit damaged.
 
Poor you - please do not feel guilty though as you have obviously put a lot of thought into the issue which only proves you a caring and responsible owner!

Having had a horse with a tendon injury I have every sympathy. However, assuming she is now sound as is allowed controlled excercise, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Has your vet given you a prognosis eg is she going to make a full recovery and able to lead a useful life at some stage, or will she only be able to do light work in the future? If you have an answer to this it will be then easier to make a decision.

As with any tendon issue time is the best healer so could you maybe turn her away or look for a loan home as a companion, or if finances allow, keep her at grass livery until she is fully healed? Have you get friends or family who could look after her whilst you start uni?
Once she is sound, and remains so, again it will make it easier to sell her.

My lad was diagnosed with 2 holes and a tear after a hunting injury in Jan 2005. By the autumn of 2006 he had finished his box rest and controlled excercise programme and spent the winter hacking and hill work. In Jan 2007 he returned to full work, sj and hunting and continued these activities sucessfully until last oct when I sold him. I got reasonable money for him and did tell the purchaser his history and she had no issues as she had seen him out at events and could see his former injury did not affect him.

Good luck with whatever you decide - having her pts is not the worst thing you could do for her, but if it was my horse I would want to give her every chance of making a full recovery before making that decision.
 
If she is sound and handling increasing work load then I wouldn't be worried. Temperament wise would she suit a quieter hacking type home as this would widen your options in terms of customers! I have known horses do their ddft and return to full work and compete at top level with no issues so while you may have to take a hit on her price there is every chance she will fulfill all her potential and more. Is it a true poll evil causing her pain or just a random lump?
 
brighteyes said:
If she is currently being reintroduced to work (so presumably 'sound') and it's just a lump and not true 'poll evil' (a nasty and troublesome condition) I don't see what the problem is? She sounds like she's not done with yet - is she a substantial type of horse/pony? Would she suit an older person who just wants to hack?

I'm afraid ASAP doesn't just happen and it sounds like you simply want out. Well, that's how it reads. You owe her more than that, so you should be prepared for a wait and to see it through to her finding a good home. Adertise her carefully and good luck finding her a new home.
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Whilst I agree with your perception on 'how' it sounds, I think the asap aspect is that the seller does not want to be at uni and trying to sell, I think she is trying to get it all done before she goes, and that is responsible, in this case 'asap' is a responsible act in my opinion.

OP I hope you manage to find the right home for your horse :)
 
thanks for all the replies,

i wouldnt put to sleep simply because of the tendon injury- if that was the case i would have done it months ago! it is because of the quality of life she would have, and if she was going to be sold in an instant to someone who didnt know anything about horses and would mess her around thinking she was sound because she wasnt limping, not feed her right or give her the love she deserves- then i would go and put her to sleep right now! that is no life for her.

I really hope there is a future for her, the 'poll evil' i mentioned is just a fluid filled bursa, the same as a capped hock or the bursas people get on their elbows. The vet said he could drain it but it caused her no issues and i wasnt going to put her through unessessary stress and risk of infection if it didnt bother her. She is bombproof and will hack for miles (she will snort and have a moment if there is something reallllly scary like a deer or a flowerpot....but never bolt or do anything silly, always goes forward after a good look at it) she is easy to stop and has never bucked reared bolted bitten kicked or anything, just a generally lovely pony. home is an absolute top priority over price, but i dont want to put her on ridiculously cheap to attract the wrong sort of buyer (if i do advertise- its just a thought at the moment). so how much would you put her on at?

I will gladly keep her to help her recover from her injury as long as possible, but like i said- i'm against time now and i want as long as possible to find the best possible future for my girl
 
I would write a very honest ad outlining her issues and would market her at around the £500 mark - if she was a couple of years down the line and remained sound you could ask more, but appreciate time is of the issue...

Good luck and hope you find her a good home.
 
There will always be people out there that want a life-long laid back hack and if your horse is suitable for this then not only will you know that your horse will be just excercised at a gentle pace but also that it will not aggrovate it's condition. It will also ensure that your horse is kept physically and mentally fit.

I would also suggest that you put it's medical condition on www.nedonline.co.uk to ensure that it is ever sold on it's past medical condition is documented. (With the best of intentions you never know what may happen in the future).

It may be that some time in the future that you may want to find your horse again so my advice would be to have your horse freezemarked so that it can always be identified and also take photos of it from it's front back and both sides.
 
her injury wouldn't put me off so long as i could speak to your vet for a full history on her.

i bought my big lad while he was on box rest, i took a chance on him and it paid off, he had tendon injury (for the second time) and was honestly advertised, because he was such a chilled out horse i felt it was worth the risk. he hasn't had any problems from that tendon/leg in the 5yrs i've had him. yes he is just a happy hack now but that's fine, it suits me.

what i'm saying is that there are people out there who would be willing to take a horse on like yours provided you were completely honest and allowed the contact with your vet.

also i paid less than £1000 for my horse, would have preferred him to be on loan as it was a risk but loan wasn't an option for his owner. don't pts as she still has a good chance of having a purpose in life for someone.
 
If I was in a position to buy, I would bite your hand off for her :D and probably pay up to 1k as long as i had seen her full vet history.....

The only word of warning I'd give you is that at such a young age, she is liable to be sold on (just a fact of life sadly) so if you want to guarantee her future it would be safer to put her on long term loan. RDA maybe?Or get a part time job and/or sharer and bring her to uni with you?
 
If she were mine I'd spend the time trying to find a knowledgable long term loan home. OR if you need to sell them advertise her honestly on Project Horses (sound like I work for the place but I found it a really good site when looking for a loan home for my TB).
 
I am very skeptical about loans, it seems few and far between are sucsess stories .
Mine and my mums biggest worry is that because of her age and her good looks she would be sold on and get reinjured- i mean selling on might be ok, the vet has predicted a full recovery to return to full work, which is why it is so awful to sell her. What i am aiming to do, because of my uni commitment is spend as long as need be to find a perfect home for her, i was thinking maybe advertise ad about £800? does this sound about right? i dont want to go too cheap and attract the wrong sort of buyer, i am in year 12 at the moment, so uni isnt too close- which is why i want to sell her now as if it was close then i'd be panicking that i wouldnt have time to find her a perfect home. Hopefully i will find her somewhere really nice with a knowledgeable and sympathetic owner. thankyou so much for all the advice and comments, as i was really unsure about the decision but now i think it is the right one and shall be advertising her next week probably. :( its just heartbreaking it really is...she is just such a good girl and hasnt got a nasty bone in her body, never misbehaves and is the type to just do whatever you ask- from walking up and down with 10 young children wanting pony rides calmly while they scream excited, to jumping a 3ft course (well she was). really will miss her

ETA, thanks for giving me some hope :) i didnt think would be people out there that would want a pony like her
 
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From your first post it sounded like you were going to Uni in September and that you didn't have the time to get her sorted yourself. The fact that you have another year and a half I would actually keep on with the rehab, whilst casually looking for the perfect person and getting some feelers out there.

Whilst I understand that you want to distance yourself from her, I think to sell her so quickly, you will regret it and things may well go wrong. The more desperate you are for something to happen the worse it will be.

Loans are often a really good way to check people out. I did 2 loans, the first loan the horse was looked after but I wasn't happy with what the girl was doing with him and her training practices, she got bolshy with me, I brought him home. I was then very much put off loaning again until I spoke to someone on here. She came and tried him, got on brilliantly and then took him miles away - I'm in Cambridge and she is in Oldham lol. I had to trust them both together and they have made the most fantastic team. He is worth a lot of money but the home was in fact the most important thing to me. He kept pulling shoes and going lame but she stuck with it and in the end I gave him to her for her wedding present!

So there are some good people out there, just try and use word of mouth and a lot of your gut instinct.

Good luck and try and enjoy her for as long as you can.
 
lochpearl said:
From your first post it sounded like you were going to Uni in September and that you didn't have the time to get her sorted yourself. The fact that you have another year and a half I would actually keep on with the rehab, whilst casually looking for the perfect person and getting some feelers out there.
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this is exactly what i am doing really, i will rehab her whilst keeping her available for rehoming, i have one and a half years but that can quickly go as i understand fully how long it can take to sell a horse, and especially one with her complications so this is why i am starting to look now for a new home so i can be really picky. she needs to go to a very special home
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