"Value" of your horse

Great question -- mostly my horses have been livestock and as such, there was undeniably a line that I wouldn't cross in terms of treatment.
E, on the other hand, is just about like my sister (sometimes I would say my child but I am pretty convinced that she sees our relationship in more egalitarian terms. LOL!) I'd have to say that as long as her life is pain-free, pleasant, and interesting for her, I would do whatever (within my power) is necessary to keep it so whether or not she would would remain usable.
 
I'd give my right arm for Ozzie. Hey, I'd give anything for him, but then it's my parents money, so I can't really say that. But I love him so much, praying nothing like that ever happens. Oh, Jayjay's had a lot of vet money spent on him. We wouldn't spend quite so much on him though, simply because he's so old and operations pose such a risk to him.
 
We bought Shadow for £300 as a foal and I don't know what she's worth now, but we've had her 10 years and to me she's priceless. I think my mum would pay as much as she could afford. We bought Destiny for £900 in January and she will probably be sold within the next year, as much as I love her she isn't as special to me as Shad and I don't think my mum would pay more than her market value. I think it depends on the individual horse and situation - the pain the horse would have to go through, how likely it is to be successful and the likely quality of life afterwards.
 
It would depend on what was wrong with the horse. I wouldn't try to keep him alive for my sake, or if his quality of life subseqently would/might be poor. Mine is insured for vet fees up to a certain limit. If treatment required was going to go over this I would need to consider how good his quality of life afterwards would be, how much more expensive it was going to be, that sort of thing. I also wouldn't want to keep something on box rest for months when the chance of recovery might still be slim afterwards, and if it was a young horse who would only be able to be a companion either.
 
I take your point, but I too have always earned my living in the equine industry, so it isn't as simple as professional/amateur views.
I have to say though, that before I agreed to any treatment, any horse of mine would have to have a reasonable working life in front of it....if the horse wouldn't make a decent recovery/would be an invalid I would have it PTS.
I'm sure you're not 'an abysmal rider' but we've all seen them - crap riders who buy and sell endless horses whose performance declines as soon as they are bought and improves as soon as someone else rides them he he he!
I spend a lot of time handling mine..so it amuses me when people tell me how 'lucky' I am that they're well behaved, snort!
S
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I spend a lot of time handling mine..so it amuses me when people tell me how 'lucky' I am that they're well behaved, snort!


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Oh excellent!! Someone else who suffers from being "lucky"!!
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Does make you laugh though.
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I put a limit of £500 for every year we'd had Polly when she got a massive guttural pouch infection last year. We took her to Leahurst to find the whole thing had disappeared
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so lengthy treatment was not required
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However, although she is still very much here and back to her old self, her age did concern me and I wouldn't have considered any treatment likely to cause her to suffer any longer than absolutely necessary or than would be acceptable. I wanted her to go while she was still having a fair quality of life but at the time she was diagnosed, there looked to be pretty much nothing wrong with her, so I had to give it a go. And it was a day by day job. I hate to think what the outcome (financially as well as actually) had the vet been right with his prognosis and her condition followed the usual course.
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It dragged on and through the consultation at Leahurst we were alerted to her having signs of Cushing's (which we are treating) but overall we escaped lightly in all respects. Phew!

The rest of them are insured up to their eyeballs for the dreaded colic op. And I also cross my fingers and pray to the fairies on a daily basis.
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I have a 5k vet bill for dermot but if he'd made it I think that would been cheaper then buying a new horse however it was covered my death insurance and just left me with no money to get another horse. Dermot was priceless to me tho. My next horse will be insured to the last hair. I was so greatful I had some insurance when the vet said could we afford the surgory.
 
I am not sentimental, i pay livery for each of mine, so they have to have a 'job', I accept though that the situation will change as they reach retirement.

The amount I would pay for treatment would depend very much on individual circumstances, length of treatment, stress to the horse, likely outcome, ongoing long term costs. I can't put a figure on any of them but it is extemely unlikely that I would spend well into the thousands on any horse unless the recovery period was short and relatively pain free, and they had a guarantee of a useful life at the conclusion of treatment. That is based on the stress to the horse as much as the cost to myself.
 
I'm with you on this one Tierra. When my horse had to be put to sleep last year, we would have spent quite a large amount if there was anything we could have done for him, but there wasn't. We have vets bills upto 5000 bt i think most of that was gone after Xrays and so on. he was priceless to me and my family, like one of the family so for us with him it's like putting a price on a close relative...i know that sounds abit over the top but it was for us.
He fractured his elbow, so almost impossible to heal meaning alot of pain over a very long period of box rest and a large chance that it wouldn't heal anyway, it wasnt fair to him at all so he was PTS.
 
I think it would depend on the condition and/or horse really. One in which there is no hope, I would not spend the money.

With Gypsy for example, as much as she means to me (had her 17 years) I'd rather have her PTS than have her quality of life impared at 27.

Septre and Amber up to the insurence limit if it was a treatable condition. Septre cost £1.5K last year (though mum didnt have her insured) for vets fees and although she might not be ridden again, it seems a reasonable amount to pay for her.

Amber's bill will probably be around £4.5K and thankfully she is insured. We did have the option of leaving it until it got too bad, but as she is young and the condition is a curable one to a certain extent, we decided to give it a bash.

Jethro would prob set a lower limit on him, as really he is just a field ornament. Although I dont like to sound so harsh about him.

With Sirrus sadly the amount of money didnt come into it- the vets said there was nothing that could be done, no matter how much money was offered (and they did the first lot of treatment half costs). I would have paid pretty much anything if he could have been saved.
 
I am intrigued, not that I think anything is wrong but what about horses doing tendons and having 6months off? It's obviously not that expensive but I don't know that you'd get a vet to PTS due to excessive box rest?
 
Vets will put horses to sleep if the owner doesn't agree with months and months of box rest. And the huntsman certainly doesn't have any issue with it.
 
I must say that if my old mare did, say, a tendon, and the only option was a long period of box rest, then I would almost certainly have her put to sleep. She absolutely hates being stabled and would be most distressed to be confined for that long, plus at her age she could go through all that trauma only to live another year or so.

My other two would cope fine with a box rest situation so in their case it would not be an issue.
 
Have thought a lot about this and really don't know until I was faced with the situation. We have 14 year old horse, 19 yer old pony, 14 year old pony with Cushings and 29 year old donkey. All insured except donkey. I think how much I would spend would all depend on prognosis. Realistically the pony with Cushings has a limited life so would have to think long and hard about expensive treatment for her, ditto the donkey, tho have had him for 21 years so is part of the family. The other 2 I would be prepared to spend a lot (probably far more than is sensible) as long as there was a good chance of a successful outcome. The pony has already done 3 months box rest after a leg fracture, and coped brilliantly.
 

We paid £1,300 for Murph. In the 6 years we had him, he ran up over £12,000 of vets bills!!! Thankfully, the insurance paid off most of them. Still cost us a fortune in extra hay, bedding, stable toys, farrier fees (heartbars at £95 per set every 4 weeks) etc. Oh, and he went on full livery for a while too.

I could never live with myself if i had to have a horse pts because i couldnt afford its treatment. Hence why ours are all insured for everything! If there was a good-enough chance that it could pull through...even if it was only to live as a field companion for the rest of its life, i'd go ahead and get it treated. I couldnt care less what its market value would be, because mine are all bought to be kept, not sold on.
 
My 11yo is sentimentally priceless to me, he is the only horse I have ever had that I would do so much for. He has cost thousands in vets bills (thankfully through insurance) and is now uninsurable. I have now taken the decision that any major accident/injury he may now suffer will be his last, I cannot bankrupt myself on this horse, I have done my best for him. Saying that I will save £600 in insurance premiums annually, so will put that towards any minor injuries he may pick up.

My 3yo I am not emotionally attached to. he is insured for a small sum and has only £3000 of vets cover. I would probably be prepared to find an additional £2000 should he need it but any more than that or the high likelihood he would not stay sound then he would be PTS.
 
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