#horses - #I need to make a difficult decision with my horse and I don't really know what to do.

I need to make a difficult decision with my horse and I don't really know what to do.

I have a 19-year-old horse who likely has some arthritis and can be unpredictable under saddle. I have worked on his groundwork and he is much better in that aspect, but becomes pushy to a nearly dangerous level when not consistently handled and worked with, which is one of the many reasons I will NOT consider finding him a companion/retirement home, along with the fact that there aren't many homes like that available and there's a good chance he'd actually end up in a kill pen or misrepresented and flipped, possibly getting someone hurt.

I can no longer afford to keep him, much less put him through training (which has already been done several times and while one trainer years ago that is now out of business liked him, the rest have said he has a bad attitude and will always have a tendency to crowhop, buck, and act up under saddle; we have ruled out all pain and the arthritis is not the issue, he has been like this his entire life and just has zero work ethic). He is great on the ground with consistent handling, but he's never been consistently good under saddle. I have tried multiple trainers with multiple methods and dumped thousands of dollars into training. He has been in my family his entire life and I've been dumping money into him for 3 years now and nothing has changed. Now I won't be able to keep him because my financial situation is changing.

I have been considering having him euthanized because I know his future would likely be a kill pen or worse. I have had people jump onto me about that being "killing him needlessly" and "cruel", but I honestly think it would be selfish to send him to an uncertain future where he'd either end up in a kill pen, neglected, passed from home to home, or getting someone hurt, all for the sake of humans feeling better about it. I don't know of any rescues that aren't full.

The last thing I want is something bad happening to him, but he really doesn't have anything going for him and is an unwanted horse that would be at major risk of going somewhere bad. At his age, I don't think a trainer or experienced rider would be interested in him, especially since he's never really gotten better. I know several of his half-siblings that were very similar as well.

Am I making the right choice to euthanize him?

Submitted May 30, 2019 at 12:56PM by horsethrowawaysad
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Horses/comments/bux0uj/i_need_to_make_a_difficult_decision_with_my_horse/?utm_source=ifttt