I think I'm putting down my difficult horse

[whattodowheretogo]

I've posted about my horse on here before but I'd just like some last minute opinions.

I bought him a year ago from a TB breeder and trainer as she felt that she was too old for a horse like him and she couldn't sit his spooks.

No ground manners, didn't know where to put his feet, didn't respond to pressure.

I wanted a project and he was one in every sense of the word. I fell in love with him as soon as I saw him.

When I tried him out he was good, but at the end, he took off with me across the field and didn't stop until he physically couldn't go any further. I wasn't concerned about that, I just figured he was green and overwhelmed and these things would come with time.

When we got him home he needed a chifney to be taken anywhere or he would just set his neck and try to canter off (my ex was looking after him for a lot of the time - he's a racehorse trainer and rehab yard owner so he knows what he's doing!) and even he would struggle with him.

Through the months his ground manners improved but to this day he can suddenly try to drag you somewhere and canter off.

His biggest issues are ridden. I've had many rides on him when he's simply decided to take off and nothing can stop him until he's done himself in. One lesson I had we were cantering for so long with him screeching round the corners and bucking that I was getting lightheaded. My trainer couldn't do anything but stand and watch.

He will do things like take off, then screech to a halt in front of the fence, then shoot off again.

I've taken everything right back to basics, over the winter I worked solely on the ground with him, teaching him the saddle and bridle is a positive thing, we learnt to stand stock still at the mountain block, yield to pressure etc.

But he is so unpredictable - he'll do a nasty spook at "nothing", just completely drop his shoulder.

I've spent months just walking and trotting in the school to make it a nice calm experience for him. I've honestly tried everything.

He's just messed up his only saving grace - to hack he is brilliant and super calm. But this weekend he took one look at something on the floor, bolted for home and ran into the main road. I came off, got concussion and fractured my foot.

I've been riding for 17 years, I'll ride literally anything. I ride friend's difficult horses for them if they've come off and had accidents and have a great time. But there's just something about this horse that I just think.. what is it going to take?

I'm so thankful that this wasn't a worse injury for either me or him.

I'm pretty certain that I'm going to put him down. It's something I've discussed with my vet before after he remarked what a difficult git he was.

I feel like it would be unfair on him to pass him on, I'd worry about how he'd be treated given all his quirks, whether he'd be passed on again etc but also I'd worry that he may seriously injure himself or someone else.

Thoughts/suggestions?

Screepy, why don't you go and look after the horse then.

Moanranger. What sort of personality was your horse that you say he would have been bullied?

We had a youngish unshod unbroken pony with laminitis & sweet itch dumped in our garden last year by someone who didn’t have the guts to have it PTS when they no longer wanted it. I rang all the horse protection charities, the RSPCA etc I could find and none of them would take it as they were full. Luckily someone horsey who is a friend of a friend found someone to take it, i don’t know what happened to it but I wasn’t going to pay for a pony’s care for 25 years. This is the sort of thing that happens to ponies & horses when unscrupulous people get their hands on them. OP is being responsible in looking after this horse.

Im obviously thick as shit but I did ask how many hours exercise he is getting per week out of approximately 126 hours of daylight?

It's OK for non-horsey people to not know what is involved in caring for a horse or how much damage they can cause but it's not OK to be rude and judgemental when ignorant.

It is not easy to retire a horse. Firstly the horse must want to be retired. Some are too young and too energetic to settle in retirement. Some are too unsettled and worried to relax in retirement. Horses don't just live in a field, they need companions (alone they stress, two may bond to each other too much, so you could easily be looking at three), they need shelter and they need regular handling or they may become too difficult to handle. Retired horses have many costs. Livery costs or even if you have a field you need to pay for field and fence maintenance, have access to water and electricity and some kind of shelter for vet/farrier visits and emergencies. Retired horses still need vaccinations, dental visits and the farrier. Elderly horses are more likely to need veterinary treatment but less likely to be covered by insurance. They also have more chronic medical needs like laminitis that require careful and intensive management.

This is all without considering horses that are difficult to dangerous to handle. Difficult horses may not be accepted by livery yards or even field owners because they break fences and set all the other horses off. They maybe be dangerous to handle for routine stuff like the farrier, and like everyone else farriers should be able to work in a reasonably safe environment. And they may endanger others than their owner, e.g. people who enter their field to handle other horses and the public if they break loose.

For anyone interested in horse welfare, putting an animal to sleep is a kindness. It makes sure they don't have an unsecured and inappropriate future and don't get passed on from one home to another which is what happens to most problem horses. If you are I terested in animal welfare then live animal transport laws are one of the most problematic areas to look to. What we do to many horses while they are alive is far for worrying that what one, responsible owner does when they PTS a dangerous horse.

I'm not a horse person and stumbled onto this thread by accident.

I have a 6kg dog who is somewhat reactive (nowhere near as bad as Tabulah's) but he can be managed and occasionally manhandled due to his size. If he was 60kg I would be unable to cope because he could (and would) overpower me and drag me into traffic and he would have to be rehomed to someone bigger, stronger and experienced in dog training and behaviour (or, if as reactive as Tabulah's, PTS)

With a 600kg animal, regretfully, I don't see that you've got any alternatives to PTS. The sheer size of the animal gives you far less leeway before it becomes dangerous.

Why does he have to be ridden? Can he not just be kept as a pet? Seems so sad to kill an innocent horse because he's not useful. Or horse behaviourist, if such a thing exists.

It never occured to me that someone that lived in a city would own a horse but thats because I dont think outside the box live in a rural area.

“Can he not just be kept as a pet?”

How can you look after a half ton pet that’s dangerous to handle?

I see he is exercised at least 4 times a week. That could be a total of 4 hours?

Like I say - we have approx 126 daylight hours a week at present.

OP has had all the experts out and there's nothing physically wrong.

The problem often comes with TBs raving youths. For some horses it totally messed their minds up, they don't cope and never adapt to life afterwards.

I worked in racing and at a student farm, and have seen it first hand.

If a horse is dangerous to people and other horses, and everything has been tried to help it, there is little alternative. It'll break out of a field, set the other horses off, become even harder to catch and receive the regular vet and farrier attention it needs and it's a matter of time before someone is badly hurt.

If this was a 4 year old colt, I'd be recommending getting him gelded and chucking him fieldward for a year before coming back to him once the testosterone has gone. But this isn't the case.

This horse, sadly, is mentally very damaged. If it was a small animal, it might be dealable with. But horses are not small, and they can and do present risks.

Yes. He won't do as he's told so let's kill him. Sounds fair. If you did this with humans the population would be a lot smaller.

Sorry no. Send him to a sanctuary where he doesn't have to be ridden. They didn't evolve to be ridden. They're wild animals at heart. Completely cruel to put him down just because you can't break him. There's probably an underlying reason why he won't take to it. Depending on where you are, the horse livery at Moorewood (might be bad spelling but is in Gloucestershire) would be an option. Led by world leading experts in a very natural way with horses. Contact them. They will help.

Haha stud farm. Not students

Potato how are supposing this horse can be handled for routine checks?

It is the poor horse that is the victim here

The horse is the victim of unscrupulous breeders and handlers. The OP has been left with this problem Her ex is experienced with racehorses and he found the horse dangerous. The OP has hired an array of professionals. The horse is still dangerous. I agree the horse is the victim but, as has been explained repeatedly, at the moment he could very well injure himself and several humans. Instead of shying away from this, the OP is trying to tackle the problem. Putting the horse to sleep may be the only safe option left. It is still possible the horse could have a contented life somewhere but the problem is how many people could be seriously injured, or killed, before you find that out.

I see he is exercised at least 4 times a week. That could be a total of 4 hours?

I'm assuming he's also turned out, which is the most natural way for a horse to exercise itself. My retired horse is currently out 14/24 so 98 hours a week (although that's overnight, so it's in the dark, not sure of the obsession with daylight hours here). If you think the OP could be exercising him more, I suspect that isn't possible because she's earning money to keep him. If she's made a mistake getting a horse she can't exercise more, that's arguable, but doesn't help with the current situation. It would mean selling him to someone who could ride him more but that could mean him getting past from pillar to post and beaten into submission.

People don't seem able to read.... it's not safe to handle. Would you like to be the vet called to deal with an illness?

I live next to 4 retired ponies. They're all as soft as butter and my children often feed them a wee carrot (with owners permission) but they are still incredibly strong and a swing of the head would easily injure you. I had to go in to help the smallest pony recently as her leg was caught in her winter coat. Even though she knew me and is a lovely placid thing she was struggling and spinning a bit. I got her free and she sped off but I was aware that I was so much weaker and smaller than her. She'd be half the size and weight of this boy so there's no way I would want to be on the ground handling something so unpredictable.

pengwwwn I completely agree with you and see where you're coming from.

Somebody asked "Has he been scoped for ulcers"?

Sanctuaries are full to bursting and only take on abandoned and neglected horses. You cannot drive your horse up to the gates and drop it off.

The OP has, rather patiently, confirmed multiple times that the horse is dangerous to handle when handled by experienced people. It is not going to turn into a lamb when it is rehomed to a rescue centre or anywhere else. A horse that needs a chiffney to be handled is a seriously strong horse. A horse that bolts across roads is a seriously dangerous horse. This horse is an accident waiting to happen, What if he breaks away from his handler the next time he's being led in for the farrier and causes a major traffic accident?

Potato2242 horses are domesticated animals and domestication is a symbiotic relationship - they offer us things we need and we offer them things they need. Horses are a species are well suited to working in agriculture, as pack animals and doing a variety of ridden work from the army, to sports and leisure, to rehab for vulnerable humans, to being pets. But this horse is not suited to any of this. He is unhappy and dangerous and the OP is unhappy and in danger.

I keep horses at home and I have one unridable horse in our field as a companion. She had a testosterone secreting tumour and has put people on the floor more times than we care to think about. Even after removing it she is still not safe to ride. However, not ridden she is both safe and kind. But I wouldn't keep a 500kg animal that could easily injure me. Based on what the OP has said I would recommend PTS as the safest option here

Somebody asked "Has he been scoped for ulcers"?

And the OP said yes. Nothing was seen. But she would see if they could look again.

@tabulahrasa

Makes sense about the dog it sounds like you've actually got quite a good set up for him. If he was aggressive with you at home then i guess it would be a different story. He's fallen on his feet with you!

I used to work for a large equine charity. We would absolutely have advised the op to PTS and would absolutely not have been able to take the horse. Did you know that between all the equine welfare charities in the whole country, there are generally fewer than 10% of their spaces available at any one time? That capacity has to go for the welfare cases - the neglected, beaten horses, the ones that were set on fire (colleagues have seen), shoved onto railway tracks (colleagues have seen), thrown into water to drown (yep - a foal), starved (obviously have seen), or overfed into utter agony (yep), the ones with fractured skulls (yep) or hooves so long they curled up (of course). That's what the charities deal with and that's what they're for.

One horse I'll remember always was a beautiful tb. He was stunning. He was also an absolute gent to handle, and just a generally nice guy. But he couldn't be ridden, so someone, somewhere in his past, had obviously decided to pass him on. And he'd gone on, and on. Home to home. And ended up on James Gray's yard, at Amersham. And there he'd starved until he could barely stand, his ribs all visible, filthy from being kept in filth, rotting corpses around him in the barn, utter, unnatural silence from the living horses he was with.

He was rescued - he was loved by the staff, but he wasn't able to live comfortably or without pain and eventually, although it broke hearts to do it, he was put to sleep. If someone had been braver, they would have done that rather than passing him on and he wouldn't have had to suffer as he did.

And that's why the equine charities will advise PTS. Because they know what the alternatives are.

is it a worry with a TB horse?
are they ex racers?
are they too interbred? like some pedigree dogs?
or is there always a 1% chance of a TB horse being unmanageable?

we have horses opposite us and they get ridden on the roads. That's as far as my experience goes. They have to be so manageable to do this. one reared up near me which put the fear into me.

that is a terrible story spudlet