>>>> There is an older Arab gelding at Creekside right now. He's a retired endurance horse and the owner is having him evaluated to see if he might be able to go onto some sort of light work situation. He's a wonderful horse with some "issues" and is sad and confused. He has been ridden by the same man for over 10 years. It's hard for me to understand why his owner wouldn't reward his sweet horse for 10 years of hard work by retiring him in his home setting.
You said it, Nancy. That sort of thing is my soapbox. I know that EVERYONE can't keep EVERY horse forever, but I just want to puke when some people suddenly come up and want to "donate" a 20+ year-old horse to a 4-H kid or something similar. I was a 4-H leader for a few years and I got very jaded by the "generosity" of some people. One woman had a 27-year-old TB mare that she'd owned and ridden (CTR and for teaching beginner lessons) since the mare was 3 or 4 years old. The mare had navicular, and assorted other old-age afflictions. The woman had the gall to want to be congratulated on her generosity for putting the old mare into the pool of horses looking for 4-H kids to adopt. The previously grand old mare was by then only rideable at a walk due to her many afflictions, and frankly, had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. It was bad enough that her owner wouldn't let her live out her days on the farm she knew. And, they had plenty of acreage, so space wasn't a constraint. But, to put the grim and upcoming responsibility (read: deciding when to "pull the plug") onto a child...Sure, let's just let some kid get attached to the poor old horse, and have their parents pay for the additional feed, farriery, and vet requirements of an old horse, and then let the child go through the heartbreak of losing their first horse. Some generosity...! :( GRRR! I'm sorry, but I wonder if that woman's kids will remember that attitude when it's time for her to go to a nursing home. After all, that's the example she showed them - if you can't use 'em, pawn 'em off on someone else, get 'em out of sight, and don't waste any time or money on 'em. Older horses CAN be useful sometimes...and they can also be happy in their deserved retirement with their buddy/buddies in the home they know. I don't have much respect for people who choose to pawn their old horses off on others. Shame on them; it happens WAY too often. Karen Thomas, NC No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.503 / Virus Database: 269.15.30/1125 - Release Date: 11/11/2007 9:50 PM
