What do I do with a horse I can't ride?

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Berkeley

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Ok - I need your thoughts on this one.

21yr old ex racer. Bloody nightmare to ride. She was never retrained and so whenever you go out you have to either walk or gallop. There is no inbetween. No one wants to ride with us as she is crazy. Last week I rode her for the first time in 4 weeks. She was full of it. Dancing, springing and eventually bolted off with me.

I have had lessons - people say I need to bring her inline but I don't have the time and I don't particularly want to spend the time doing that. I don't have the nerve. She frightens me.

Could I sell her? No - tried that and couldn't bare anyone abusing her - not necessarily physically.

Could I Loan her - possibly.

Could I PTS? ......?

What does one do in this situation? She is clearly not the horse for me.
 
How about sending her away to be professionally re-schooled and go from there? After, if all goes well you could try working with her again, or then put her on loan :) If she's fit and healthy in all other respects I would be very reluctant to have her pts.
 
How long have you owned her, and did you deliberately buy an unschool ex racer?
I know she's 21 but this may not be too old for her to go away and have some basic training, if anything just to make her a more straightforward hack?
 
If you really feel this is not the horse for you and you cannot do anything with it, I honestly think the kindest thing to do would be PTS instead of passing on the problems to someone else. 21 is a good age.......
 
Her age is slightly against her on this.
too old to start a career as a broodmare, loan wise most people only take a horse on loan at that age if they are schoolmasters.
I would look at getting some reschooling done, enough that you can both enjoy your time together.
With pts being the final option
 
I am totally against the suggestion of using her as a brood mare. There is enough "just because" breeding going on, and we need to discourage it, not encourage it.
If she is a genuine sweetheart, then maybe a companion home would be suitable, if it was to someone you know personally, and trust. However, there is always the possibility that she would come winging her way back. It seems harsh, but really "companion" in this case could become "cop out". If she frightens you, and is patently unsafe to ride (albeit not entirely her fault) I think it wouyld be irresponsible to pass her to someone else, who may well decide to try and ride, then be seriously injured or worse.
I am sure there will be lots of other details we are not party to, but on what we have been told, I would say Lead Poultice.
We seem to have had about three similar posts in as many days, and the general consensus has been the same.
 
amymay said:
At 21???
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Yes at 21. There is no reason why an older horse can not learn if she's put in the right hands. My tb had stood in a stable since she was approx 4/5yo until her late teens which is when i bought her. She hadn't been ridden in years, would be vicious (biting, kicking, rearing, napping) and now very successfully competes in showjumping/XC and needless to say she hasn't bitten, kicked, reared or napped in years. Yes it took a long time but she got there. With patience and perseverance I think she could be turned around.
 
Reading your post I would have say PTS, finding her a good future home is unlikely and will require a lot of hard work and effort.
At least with PTs nothing bad can happen to her, a 21 year old unradeable TB has a very doubtful future if not owned by someone 100% comitted to her care to the very end.
 
PonyFeet10 said:
Yes at 21. There is no reason why an older horse can not learn if she's put in the right hands. My tb had stood in a stable since she was approx 4/5yo until her late teens which is when i bought her. She hadn't been ridden in years, would be vicious (biting, kicking, rearing, napping) and now very successfully competes in showjumping/XC and needless to say she hasn't bitten, kicked, reared or napped in years. Yes it took a long time but she got there. With patience and perseverance I think she could be turned around.
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Agreed.

I have a 21yo almost 22yo TB mare who is still full of beans and loving her work. She was a rescue and total nut nut. It has taken us years and we are now working on ridden work. She is loving it and so am I. I don't see why she wouldn't be able to be gently reschooled for light work. Having said that if I couldn't ride her tomorrow I would be retiring her and keeping her.
 
Have you had any expert advice about whether she could have some reschooling. Your mare has had a long break during which time you have been feeding for weight gain (I think) so I would have expected her to be a nutter tbh.

Some 21 year olds are perfectly able to have some basic reschooling to make them more civilised. Some are too set in their ways or are scatty because of underlying pain. If you are confident that this is the case with your mare, then in your shoes I would PTS if I couldn't afford to retire her. You've given her a few lovely years, she won't have come to a bad end.
 
Berkeley said:
people say I need to bring her inline but I don't have the time and I don't particularly want to spend the time doing that. I don't have the nerve. She frightens me.
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imo you have to spend time with any horse be it a school master or a nutter, you could try re-schooling her but you dont want to spend the time ?? send her away but will you have the time to ride her once she has been reschooled ?

All horse need time........

You could sell her being honest on project horse, loan her as a companion but you may never see her again... or have her pts in the comfort of her own field.
 
Retire her gracefully, if necessary seek out someone else with a retired horse who needs company. Obviously it needs done carefully. But then I'm not a big believed in just shooting something because it no longer does the job. Maybe why my fields are still full of happy fat retirees that give me a lot of pleasure by being there.
 
What have you done with her over the last 4 years?
I think if you're not willing or able to retire her, and don't think some basic re schooling is an option then I guess there's no other option but to PTS, that or she may well end up being passed around, and ending up in unsuitable hands.
Not a nice situation for you :(
 
Here's another solution-offer free riding to someone in the local area, who is decent enough to do a bit of schooling. you might not get a world class rider but you might find a local lass/lad who is just glad to have a horse to play with. Seems a bit unfair that becaus eno-one has ever bothered to put a bit of schoooling in she is thrown on the dump heap.
 
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