When to Retire an Older Horse?
I'm facing a tough decision regarding when to retire my horse. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night having a full-fledged panic attack about it. I'm hoping the friendly folks of Reddit might be able to help provide some feedback on my situation, and what has worked for their older horses.
My horse is 24. He's had a lot of show miles and his hocks aren't great, but he's still pretty sound considering. He's currently ridden 6x/week, mostly flatwork. He's on Legend & Equioxx. He seems fit, comfortable, and happy. I have a half-leaser who rides him 2x/week which really helps offset costs.
Here's the problem - the facility he's at doesn't have an indoor arena, and last winter he didn't do so well. The outdoor rings have "all weather" footing, but if it rains hard, or consistently for a few days, you can't use them. The turnouts are also closed if it rains a lot. The round pen is usually open, but it's small. During the rainy months, I was out there every day hand-walking him (often 2x/day), lunging him, and taking him on trail rides when possible. However, he still got pretty stiff, and for a few weeks he barely ate any of his hay. It took a good 4-6 weeks (and the introduction of Equioxx) to get him feeling like himself again. It was an incredibly stressful experience, and consistently going out to the barn twice a day while working a full-time job was pretty draining.
Unfortunately I live in a very expensive major metropolitan area with horrendous traffic, so I'm limited in boarding options. Most barns within a 30-minute radius in my price range (under $1,000/month for board + basic services) don't have an indoor either. There's one potential option, but the facility has a "no half lease" policy, which would really stretch my budget and my time. Also, there is a "rain schedule" for the indoor, so I'm not sure I'd be able to consistently use it anyway. (There's technically one other option, but I've heard some bad reviews of it from ex-boarders.)
There are some barns further away (~1 hour w/o traffic, ~1.5-2 hours w/ traffic) that are more affordable, but I'd only be able to ride on weekends (when I'm not traveling) and would need to pay someone ride him during the week. All things considered, I'd be paying more to ride less.
That leads me to the retirement question. He was at a H/J barn a year ago being leased by an AA, and when the lease ended the trainers all told me that I should retire him because of his age and because "he's earned it." I brought him closer to home (current facility) while I researched retirement places. I found great spot about a few hours away with year-round irrigated pastures. It has trails and arenas, so I'd be able to take him out and ride him when I visited. Realistically I'd only be able to visit once a month or so, though.
I had planned to retire him in October, but lately he's been feeling and looking great and lots of people (including his chiro, saddle fitter, etc.) have encouraged me to keep him in light work as long as he seems comfortable and happy. This is making me panic and rethink my plan to retire him, but at the same time, I remember how stressed I was (and how stiff he was) last winter, and I'm just not sure I can go through that again. There are so many variables - will this winter be worse than last winter? Can I afford to move him and lose my half-leaser? Will retiring him this year vs. next year make that big of a difference in his lifespan and happiness? Is keeping him going another year worth it considering the stress and expense, especially if he's not comfortable through the winter (and the fact that it's already pushing my budget as it is)?
The way I see it, my viable options are: 1) retire him in October to a place a few hours away where I could ride him once a month or so; 2) keep him in his current barn w/ his current half-leaser and hope he makes it through the winter alright without an indoor arena; or 3) move him to another barn with an indoor, but lose his half-leaser and try to deal w/ the limited "rain schedule" for the indoor arena. Option 3 would be the most expensive and may also require that I tap into my savings a bit.
Thank you to anyone who actually made it to the bottom of this post. Would love to hear your thoughts!
Submitted June 15, 2018 at 12:40PM by Mustang_Gold
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/8rdara/when_to_retire_an_older_horse/?utm_source=ifttt
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