WWYD...

[sherry90]

Just looking back at your post, is the issue only with mounting? Is he fine when you are on/riding away (sorry may have missed a thread on this!) I only say as I wonder (is he an ex racer?) if you are nervous getting on and holding him, that may be encouraging him to go up? Racers commonly are mounted by jockeys in walk/trot, sometimes even canter ??‍♀ Could it be that he just wants to go and you are (quite rightly! asking him to stand but he just doesn’t quite understand it. Sorry I have likely missed a thread that describes his behaviour and I wouldn’t want to assume either way but worth a thought. Appreciate it’s hard to help over the internet too without actually seeing the horse in person!

 

[dorsetladette]

What would I do?

I would take the advert down
Get him scoped for ulcers and get his KS checked. If his KS was deteriorating I would PTS. If it was ulcers I would treat and potentially turn away for the winter, give him a few months off and see where you are in the spring.

In the spring I would check him again and send him to a professional yard to bring him back into work with full disclosure. Starting with groundwork to slowly progress to ridden. I'd also be requesting they teach him to stand quietly at the mounting block. If at anytime he started to show dangerous behaviour again in this process I would PTS. But I think this would be giving him a fair chance at a useful life with you.

I would not sell this pony on under any circumstances.

 

[AlDestoor]

Thank you everyone for your input. I've made it clear that selling is not sitting well with me and the only reason it is being considered as he is perfect in every other way other than mounting, albeit too forward for me.

I'm waiting on the vet to call me back to get him scoped and his osteo is due this PM. I think if this shows as clear and it's behavioural, I'm leaving him with our trainer for a short while to see how this progresses. I'm lucky that I'm on a yard that people recommend as the trainer deals with this every day and people send their horses to him (thats how I ended up here in the first place, as I sent him here to be restarted after rehab).

If he's still not showing any improvement, then I'll do the right thing by him and pts; it's just so hard when I see him in the stable being all cute and loving, and see some of the work he can do but you're post is right in that I just needed the validation. The trainer has ridden him today and told me he mounted fine, he seems to throw a paddy every other day. Thursday, kicked off, Saturday, kicked off, Sunday was perfect, Yesterday kicked off, Today perfect again...

This horse has been my entire world and I've spend every day in tears thinking about it but I couldn't live with myself. I've always said since his diagnosis he would end his life with me but that was when things were going well. Now I'm faced with it, it's the hardest decision ending an animals life when they're not showing any other signs I've ever had to make.

 

[Baywonder]

This horse has been my entire world and I've spend every day in tears thinking about it but I couldn't live with myself. I've always said since his diagnosis he would end his life with me but that was when things were going well. Now I'm faced with it, it's the hardest decision ending an animals life when they're not showing any other signs I've ever had to make.

It certainly is the hardest, heart breaking decision you will ever have to make. It doesn't matter the size or breed of our pets, PTS is such a difficult decision.

I am glad you are trying the scope route with your vet, and your osteo too. At least you will be clear if there is / isn't an underlying issue potentially causing this behaviour. If you did not do this, you would always be wondering 'what if'.

When I had to have my old boy PTS, once the very strong painkillers took effect, he was 'normal' - and I had to keep reminding myself that the drugs were masking the problem, and yes, I really was making the kindest decision for him.

 

[ester]

Just to through this out there having known a horse in a similar situation do you do anything before mounting,
heat pad/massage pad/walked around etc?

 

[Winters100]

Out of interest what is the reason that you think he would not cope well with retirement? My experience is that horses are not desperate to be ridden and can be happy retired in the right environment.

 

[IrishMilo]

If he's still not showing any improvement, then I'll do the right thing by him and pts; it's just so hard when I see him in the stable being all cute and loving

This horse has been my entire world and I've spend every day in tears thinking about it but I couldn't live with myself. I've always said since his diagnosis he would end his life with me but that was when things were going well. Now I'm faced with it, it's the hardest decision ending an animals life when they're not showing any other signs I've ever had to make.

It's gut wrenching but that doesn't mean it's the wrong thing. No one feels good about putting an animal they love to sleep. My horse looked SO well on the outside - this was him a few weeks before he went:

When they're skin and bone struggling to eat, or unable to get up, or wobbling along, the decision becomes easier. But when the pain is on the inside and it's not a life or death situation, it's a VERY tough call. One question that helped me was 'With every day passing, is he getting better, or worse?' - if it's the latter you will have your answer. It might not be a severe and obvious deterioration but KS will never get better - at least not on it's own and certainly not by being chucked out to retire.

 

[Micropony]

For what it's worth, I think the course of action you've outlined is really sensible. Making the decision to PTS in a situation like this might be the right decision, but is incredibly hard. At worst the choices you are making will enable you to be confident you've done all you reasonably could before reaching that decision. At best, it's possible he will come right for you.

 

[CJoe]

having had one PTS due to KS who was never going to be a field ornament and became downright dangerous due to sudden pain with no warning, I'd PTS, you dont know that he wont get worse. Do the right thing by him unless you home somewhere where you still have control of his future.

How would you feel if in a years' time you saw him being pushed to the point of pain, abused and could do nothing about it??

 

[Winters100]

having had one PTS due to KS who was never going to be a field ornament and became downright dangerous due to sudden pain with no warning, I'd PTS, you dont know that he wont get worse. Do the right thing by him unless you home somewhere where you still have control of his future.

How would you feel if in a years' time you saw him being pushed to the point of pain, abused and could do nothing about it??

Of course in the case that the horse becomes dangerous to handle or is not possible to keep pain free in retirement pts is the only option. However in this case OP says that she adores the horse, so the other option is to retire him, keep him mentally well by giving whatever in hand work he can do. If he deteriorates of course he will need to be put to sleep, but I know several KS horses who are living happily doing non ridden exercise to keep them moving and having wonderful lives. If you really do love a horse then this is a wonderful thing to do for it, of course it may mean that you go some years without something to ride, but if you love them so be it.

 

[Trouper]

I think animals need us to be the grown-up and being a grown-up can be very, very hard.
I think you have a good plan for him in the immediate future so I hope it can produce results for you.

 

[Michen]

No I wouldn't sell a horse like this.

Personally I think if he's even slightly sellable then he's most definitely loanable, and if you adore him then perhaps you need to just deal with or at least try to with the potential stress of loaning? Fair enough if you can't find someone suitable but it's worth a try surely.

 

[Micropony]

I get why loaning is difficult though, if you're just not in a position to take the horse back if it doesn't work out. I am fortunate to be pretty comfortable financially at this point in my life, but absorbing an additional grand a month in livery and other costs would be a worry, and not an expense I could carry for long. And there have definitely been times in the past when that sort of additional expense would have been disastrous for me.

 

[IrishMilo]

It's just occurred to me that I think I may have enquired about this horse OP when he was up for sale. Was he on Preloved?