Hello, I'm wondering if anyone can offer me some opinions and advice regards my horse.
To give a bit of history, my mare was abandoned at a yard I used to keep horses at. Its a long story, but I took her on and offered her a home for life. To ensure her safety more than anything else. She is now 22. In the 10 years I have had her she has been a light hack really, she's more a pet than me buying a horse for competitions or to do a job. I'm not sure this is relevant but to set the scene, she doesn't "owe" me anything, it doesn't matter if I ride her or not, I am just happy to look after her and let her have a nice life (she deserves it, she had a rough time before I got her).
Anyhow, over the last 2 years she has been diagnosed with laminitis. It doesn't present itself classically, and I have had the vet out now about 10 times. She goes chronically, hopping lame (rear) and with a few days off the grass, some danilon etc she can then be turned back out, although realistically this needs to be limited turnout. During this diagnosis, many x rays were taken, she had a glucose test for Equine Metabolic Syndrome and blood test for cushings. She was tested negative for cushings, and positive for EMS and nothing concrete was shown on the xrays. The upshot to all this is her diet needs to be strictly managed and turnout limited with a grazing muzzle.
The vet is keen for me to be riding (gentle hacking but regularly) to keep a check on her weight, but I have also noticed over the last 2 years she has started to stumble. I have had a couple of stumbles where she has gone right down (feels like her stomach is going to hit the floor...) and I have gone flying with her and been surprised she's got back up. I used to think it was just tripping over but now I've really thought long and hard about it, it's getting more regular (every ride, but not always that dramatic as I've just described). It's getting to the point that riding is not that comfortable, I am constantly worried she's going to go down on her knees. I have thought about buying knee boots, but in reality I don't think that's the answer.
During the last 3 months of the last year she went lame again which didn't present the same as laminitis - I had her seen by physio, and she had bowen treatment and became sound.
So in between bouts of lameness, laminitis etc there isn't really much time to ride and to be honest I am thinking of retiring her, well, she is virtually retired as my "riding" in reality is an hours walking hack maybe once or twice a week.
So, she has just had another really bad attack of laminitis - I didn't even think there was any grass in the field (!). She is now box rested and hopefully come the weekend may be able to be turned out for a couple of hours. It's very hard for me to see her in so much pain with it.
There is a lot more emotionally to all of this, but I can't ramble on and on. She is an absolute darling, I love her to bits, I worry about her all the time. Timewise and financially its not a burden, however I am beginning to wonder if limited turnout for an older stiff horse is actually very fair?
She's well in herself, she looks well, she's got good teeth, feet etc - however the laminits flare ups are getting more regular despite her not being weighty at the moment.
My question is, when is the right time to start thinking about what to do for her for the best? If she could happily go out all day (or night during the summer) and just have an easy retirement it would be a no brainer. However, the last two years have been an emotional rollercoaster, I have had a whispering voice in my head during this time to start preparing myself for the worst, and I'm seriously beginning to wonder if its best to PTS sooner rather than later.
Any thoughts, and opinions gratefully received.