On Aging Horses and Choosing Euthanasia

I want you to imagine with me our "average" client. She/he lives in an urban area and they board their horses at very well managed stables. However because of land prices turnout at these stables is limited. After years of competing he/she feels her horse has earned the right to live out their days being a horse, free to move around with his friends on large, well managed pastures preferably in a temperate climate. The client contacts us, comes to visit, falls in love with the farm and our program and sends their horse to us. Years go by and when they visit they see just how much their horse is enjoying retirement. The horse looks a bit older at each visit but aside from minor changes the horse's physical condition never seems to really change. We all get used to the idea that this situation is going to continue indefinitely. Unfortunately years of experience tell us that this is seldom the case.

One day nearly all of our clients are going to hear from us. What we're going to say to them is that we've begun to notice some subtle changes in their horse's overall condition. This may be the beginning of an end of life situation but a much more likely outcome is that this is the manifestation of one or more of the clinical signs of aging. Perhaps the situation is easy to diagnose. The horse's teeth are mostly worn out and his body condition score is beginning to drop. Perhaps it's more difficult to diagnose and we'll need to call the veterinarian to begin doing some diagnostics to figure out what's going on.  Possibly the horse has Cushings/PPID. Either way, something is almost certainly going to need to change with regards to their horse's care and the cost of providing the care is going to go up.

As you might imagine when our clients are already spending thousands of dollars to retire their horse in comfort these are not words that they want to hear. Everybody, us included, wants the situation to go back to what it was before. Unfortunately that's not the way it works. Sometimes the client gets off relatively easy and a dose of daily medicine does the trick and the horse goes back to normal for at least a little while. More often some daily changes in management are needed, such as stalling to allow a horse with poor dentition to eat a hay cube mash each day. Sometimes both daily medication and a management change are needed. Typically several relatively minor interventions are required over a short time frame which, when added together, equal a not insubstantial increase in cost to our clients. The horse goes back to a new normal and quite often they are able to maintain this new normal for several years.

Eventually we reach a point where even more interventions are called for. We again consult with the client...this is, after all, still their horse. It's often the case that we all reach a point where we have to measure the horse's quality of life against the mounting pressures of time and costs associated with additional interventions and treatments. There is truth to the statement that if you throw enough money at the problem you can sometimes extend life for a long while, However eventually the time comes when all the money in the world is not going to provide the horse with a reasonable quality of life.

When we can see that this is where the situation is headed we work with our clients to set some criteria for a planned euthanasia. Our goal at this point is to end things before an acute crisis takes place. Whenever you can spare a horse a true end of life crisis it is a very kind thing to do. Sometimes a crisis happens with no warning, but other times you have advance notice that the situation is building to a critical point.  Sometimes the horse in question rallies and the conditions for euthanasia aren't met for months or even sometimes upwards of a year. More often the conditions for euthanasia are met relatively quickly. We set a date, the vet comes, and the horse is quietly put to sleep either in or very near his pasture with his friends and us standing close by.

Just as people age and require more interventions and medicines to maintain their quality of life so do horses.  I wish they could all be so lucky as to drop dead in their tracks one day after a long, full life but this rarely happens. It is our job to help them die with dignity and in peace before their quality of life drops to crisis levels whenever possible.

For the great majority of our clients this represents an accurate progression of events from the time their horse comes to live with us through the end of their life.  We are contacted several times per week by people who are interested in having a retirement farm. They have very unrealistic expectations as they daydream about petting the pretty horses. Realistically there are a lot of decisions that need to be made, many of which require a deep base of knowledge, and some of which are very hard to make.

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Trigger and Moe

Baby

Bruno and O'Reilly

Rip and Hemi

Thomas and Apollo

Remmy and Fabrizzio

Duesy and Walden

Norman and Cuffie

Elfin and Leo

Benign Neglect

Benign neglect is one of many terms that many people use to describe the decision to turn a horse out for a period of time in the hopes that the end result is soundness.  Usually this decision is made only after exhaustive attempts have been made to return the horse to soundness. Usually some combination of the following has been done to unsuccessfully rehab a horse: stall rest, surgery of some type, joint injections, shockwave, PRP or IRAP, tildren, chiropractic care, therapeutic shoeing, use of a treadmill or aqua treadmill, very controlled under saddle work, every supplement under the sun, or any other of a number of things.  Eventually you run out of things to try, or maybe run out of hope, or are just plain tired of racking up large vet bills to continually be frustrated.  

Most vets recommend a year of turnout if all else has failed.  Some vets feel that certain aspects of the horse's program needs to be maintained during this time, usually the specific shoeing protocol, and other vets don't.  However for all of them the 12 month mark seems to be the magic time frame.  

Typically we first meet our clients when they retire a horse with us.  They get to know us through this process and realize that we really do provide actual care and the horses are not just running free with no human interaction on the back 40 somewhere.  At a later point if they have another horse that has been through a thorough yet unsuccessful rehab they will ask us if the horse can come live with us for a year of "Doctor Green."  As space allows we are happy to do this for our clients so at any given time we typically have a few horses living with us whose owners are hoping for a sound, rideable horse after a year or so.

Since the vet(s) involved almost always tell their clients that the 12 month mark is the magic time frame this tends to give the owner involved a skewed idea of what is going to happen during this time frame. In their minds if they look at the horse every couple of months they should see a gradual, linear improvement in soundness.

I've rarely seen it happen this way.  Usually what happens is the horse spends the first six months falling apart and regressing to some degree (sometimes a lot, sometimes a little) in soundness.  They've typically gone from stall rest to turnout which means their bodies have to adapt to continual low impact movement, they are not being propped up with joint injections, chiropractic care, massages, and anti-inflammatories, and the whole program is just plain different.  The horse's exercise and movement can no longer be carefully controlled anymore as they go about the business of being a horse in the pasture.  So we typically watch the horse go backwards during the first few months.  

After they finish what I call the falling apart phase then they start putting themselves back together.  However the putting together phase does not happen in a linear fashion either.  They will look a lot better, then seem to regress, then look a lot better, then maybe plateau for awhile.  Once this phase is over you hope their final plateau is because they have come sound.  

No matter how many times I tell people that you shouldn't even bother to evaluate the horse in the hopes of soundness until the 12 month mark no one ever listens  I completely understand why, because at this point they have a lot of time, money and emotional energy wrapped up in the whole process.  At the six month mark they are desperate to see how things are going because at this point their hope is that things should looking 50% better.  In my experience the horse is just wrapping up the falling apart phase but despite being warned of this the owner is understandably freaked out to see the horse looking worse instead of better.

Given that all of the horses we have watched go through this experience have been unsuccessfully treated for a long period of time by world class vets and farriers with the most current treatments available, the odds are certainly not high from the start that the process will be successful, and it is not always successful.  When it does work it is fantastic for all involved, especially since the owner was probably quite disheartened when, despite our recommendation not to, they just had to evaluate the horse at the six month mark (again we understand why they feel the need to evaluate).  

In our experience if the horse has not come sound by the 18 month mark then it probably is not going to happen at all.  My number one recommendation if you find yourself going the "just be a horse route" as a last ditch effort is don't torture yourself by constantly checking their soundness.  Decide what time frame you are comfortable giving the horse (and we do think a year is usually the minimum and 18-24 months the maximum) and then let things be.  The odds are good that if the horse does come sound the path it takes to get there will be curvy and random, not tidy and linear.  

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Griselle

Kennedy, Toledo, Johnny and Tiny

Rocky

Largo

Thomas and Chance

Lighty just realized he was all alone and was looking for his friends

once he spotted them he was off in a hurry

Lily and Cuffie 

Calimba, MyLight and Cinnamon

Norman and Traveller grooming and hanging out

Homer, Moe and Levendi

Apollo, Hemi and Thomas

Making the Decision to Retire

All of the horses that reside with us at our farm are here to enjoy being retired, and a select few are here to enjoy being a horse for a year or two and then to hopefully go back to work.  We get a lot of questions about why the horses are retired.  Some are retired due to age, some are retired due to injury, some are retired due to permanent damage caused by an illness.  Some are very young, some are quite elderly, most are somewhere in between.  

When does someone make the decision to retire a horse?  Of course that decision is different for everyone.  Some of the horses here could still do light duty work like easy trail riding.  Some of them simply don't have a temperament suitable to being a low level trail type mount.  They might be to hot, too spooky, or simply not enjoy that type of work.  In its way that makes the decision to retire easy.  Sometimes it is simply a matter of an aging horse that is not easily holding up to work anymore.  In other cases the decision was made to retire when the horse was still perfectly sound but their owners felt like they had worked hard for a long time and the time had come to say thank you to their partner and let them enjoy the good life (for all of you who think horses need a job to be happy you really need to come visit our farm). 

With some horses the answer to the question when do you retire them is easy.  The horse has had an injury and they simply are not going to fully recover.  A common term to describe their situation would be "pasture sound."    

All too often it seems the decision is not always as straightforward.  As an example I have friend who has rehabbed her mare from three different tendon injuries (two of them the same injury on two separate occasions).  Any one who has rehabbed a soft tissue injury knows that there is a lot of waiting, hoping, stall resting, hand walking, tack walking, and attempting to keep a very wired and bored horse from going crazy. There is nothing fun about it in my experience.

I have to admit if it was me I probably would not have done the third rehab.  Her mare is now back in full work but I know for me, mentally, I just couldn't handle it.  I would forever be holding my breath waiting for my horse to break again and it would ruin any enjoyment of riding my horse.  Every time I went to ride I would be wondering if today was the day that my horse was going to come up lame again. This is all due to my history of going multiple rounds with rehabbing my own horse.  I'm permanently scarred from the roller coaster that was her soundness.  One time Jason told me it was like watching me be in an abusive relationship.  No matter what I did the horse did not stay sound long term yet I kept trying, hoping, spending the money, putting in the time, always to wind up in the same place again.  I always say it is the hope that kills you because it was always the hope that kept killing me.

Speaking only for myself I can say the day I finally made the decision to retire her was a huge relief.  I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders.  Due to several life circumstances at the time I was not in the position to get another horse to ride.  That was part of what made me keep going on the quest for soundness, because at the time she was my only hope at having a horse I could ride and show.  With the gift of hindsight the only thing I would change about that decision is that I would have made it earlier.  As that whole saga unfolded I felt like I helped finance a new wing at Rood & Riddle in Lexington and had nothing to show for it in the end.

Back to the question of when do you make the decision to retire your horse?  Well, my friend chose to do a third rehab and so far it is working out for her.  I would have made the call to retire when the third injury happened, especially since it was a repeat injury.  I really admire her for being able to go through a third rehab, since by that point you know how hard it can be on you and the horse.  Her horse is back in full work but I would still be stressed waiting for everything to fall apart again. Now when there is anything amiss with one of my horses my hope is always for a very clear cut answer, be it good news or bad news.  I've found I don't like living in the gray area that involves a lot of hoping, praying, lighting candles and chanting, waiting (endless waiting), and lots of expensive diagnostics and treatments to go along with it all.  

A few years ago as I was loading one of my horses on the trailer to go to the clinic for a lameness exam Jason told me that I needed to be sure and tell the vet that the word "well" was banned from the conversation.  As in nothing starting with "well, it could be . . . " was allowed.  Thankfully that turned out to be an easy to diagnose - and easy to treat - issue.  If only it could always be like that!!

I am curious to hear from others who have found themselves on the soundness roller coaster (and if you've never been on it I hope you never EVER find yourself on it) how far do you take it?  Do you have dollar amount that you won't exceed, a timeframe, number of rehabs  . . . ?  Or do you stop when you mentally just can't take it anymore?

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Clayton and Stormy hanging out

MyLight and Cuffie

Kennedy

Baby, Trigger and Homer

Sam and Sebastian

Wiz, Renny, Fuzzy and Dutch

Largo and Johnny

Tiny, Rampal and Toledo

Alex, B-Rad and Darby

Herd Dynamics During Introductions

Transitioning new horses into a group is always an event that owners worry about. We stress over it as well although for different reasons. The owners worry about the social aspects while we worry about someone getting hurt. Through the year and with a lot of horses we've never actually had an injury happen during group introductions but you never know when the streak will end. We are talking about horses after all.

When introducing horses to a group the concept that he horses have reinforced to us repeatedly through the years is introducing a horse into a small group has the potential for a lot more drama than introducing a horse to a large group. The dynamics I like the least are introducing a third horse to a group of two, or a fourth horse to a group of three. It is almost guaranteed big drama for awhile because the herd dynamics are being changed so drastically. I'm not saying always and never here, obviously sometimes introducing a third horse is super easy, but if I'm strictly looking at the odds I'm going to be a lot more nervous about the small group introductions.

On the other hand we find that the easiest introductions are with a larger group. For as playful, active and rowdy as the Big Boys can be at times they are, without question, the easiest group on our farm for a new resident to join. Why is that? Because they function in a manner that comes a lot closer to resembling a true herd dynamic than a small group of 2,3 or 4 horses. When we've had occasion to introduce a new guy to the Big Boys the drama usually lasts about 3 minutes. There is some nose sniffing and squealing, but everyone doesn't even bother to participate. They lift their heads to see what is going on and then flick an ear as if shrugging and saying "oh it's just some horse, not all that interesting," and go back to what they were doing. The net effects on the herd dynamic is minimal with them so the drama tends to be minimal as well.

When we introduce new horses the existing members of the group typically respond to the new horse in one of four ways:

-The "chargers" are the ones who tend to dart aggressively towards a newcomer in an effort to run them off. They are acting like a kid on the playground saying "these are MY friends and you can't have them." Charging does not come out of dominance but because they are insecure. Some of the chargers are more serious about it than others. We've got our own form of profiling going on around here as the chargers typically have a common background. They are the ones that usually had very minimal or no turnout prior to living with us. The more serious chargers are usually the horses that had limited turnout and hadn't been turned out with other horses in a long time. They are extremely possessive of their friends and are still insecure about keeping them. Usually the chargers only stay this way for a couple of years. After a couple of years these horses typically move out of the charger group and into one of the other groups. The chargers also tend to be the most strongly herdbound horses.

-Then we have the "greeters." These are the horses that never miss any of the action, be it running and playing or meeting a new horse. There is nothing aggressive or negative about their response to a new horse. They just view the newcomer as an instant friend and want to get to know them and become best friends immediately. New horses usually latch onto a greeter for obvious reasons for the first day or two while they get to know everyone and then they start to branch out. I've yet to see the top horse in the pecking order be a greeter. They are friendly enough once their superiority is established but not in the same way as a true greeter.

-The "indifferents" are pretty self explanatory. They don't feel the need to be a charger, nor do they feel the need to have a meet and greet session with a newcomer. Their response to a new horse is basically neutral. After the first day or so of sticking closely with the greeters new horses often like to pair up with one of the indifferents for awhile. It is a low stress horse for them to be around as they aren't being pressured to interact constantly by a greeter and it lets them step back and take things in for awhile in a more neutral relationship.

-Finally we have the "boss" horses. These horses may also be a greeter or indifferent, but it is also very important to them that a newcomer understand that they have the power. Boss horses are not chargers, they aren't insecure like the chargers. Once the newcomer acknowledges their high ranking in the group they drop it quickly and move onto being indifferent or a modified version of a greeter.

Next I was going to write about how the newcomers to the group tend to act but I'm out of time for now so it will have to wait until another post!

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I took this picture in the Big Boy's pasture. From where this picture was taken I was a mile from the road. The run-in shed to the left is where Rampal, Clayton, Rocky and friends live. The run-in shed in the middle is for the Big Boys, and the shed to the far right is where the mares, Norman and Cuffie live.

Leo, Grand and Chance

Faune and Gus grooming each other

Hemi, Thomas and Tony

Dutch and Wiz

Gus and George having a grooming session

Johnny and Sam

Being Present at the End

A common topic for discussion that often comes up with our clients is about being with the horses at their last moments when they are euthanized. Since many of our clients live either hundreds or thousands of miles away, some even live on another continent entirely, it has never worked out for the owner to actually be present when we have had to euthanize a resident.

We hear a lot of guilt expressed about this. "I owe it to my animals to be there for them at the end." I'm going to have to disagree with this for many reasons. I'm going to start with the most logical reason. The horse has no idea that he/she is going to be euthanized, and therefore what is NOT going through their minds in their last few minutes is "why isn't my owner who professed to love me so much holding my leadrope right now in my final moments?" In fact depending on the circumstances the horse is either seriously ill and could care less, and sometimes is not even aware, who is or isn't around. In those circumstances all involved, the vet, us and the horse, are just hoping for a quick and easy passing, period. Or it is a planned euthanasia and the horse is happily being fed a few treats while the sedation and euthanasia are administered, typically either in the field with their friends or just outside the field with their friends nearby. In that scenario it feels like any other day to the horse.

In the daily life of the horses on this farm all of their needs and wants are met. They have ample food, good shelter and compatible company. Their owners have delivered the trifecta of the top three needs and wants to their horses. It has been proven over and over again that the number one thing that is most important to a horse is food, followed closely by companionship and feeling safe. This is why the horses will follow strangers around in the pastures when they are here visiting. The horses learn very quickly that stranger in the pasture = very high chance of treats.

I always feel the worst for the owners whose horses are not even swayed to be polite and act interested in their presence even when being offered treats. Instead all they do is walk away, or scream for their friends. To add insult to injury other horses, just not theirs, may be gathering around with eager expressions on their faces saying "forget your horse, we'll happily take the treats!"

What goes through my mind is "can't you at least pretend to be grateful for to your owner for providing you with this wonderful life for five minutes?" Unfortunately for some of the horses here the answer to that question is no. Thankfully for most of the horses here the answer is yes, although with a few of the horses five minutes really is when their timer goes off, and all pretenses of a happy reunion are dropped at that point. My point being is the horse has already been given everything they deserve and more. Again what isn't on their list of important things is their owner, or honestly any person, being with them at the end.

I've even had this conversation with a few people who ask about what we do. They are always very fascinated by the idea of a retirement farm. They ask all about the horses and their backgrounds and what they used to do. They are often surprised when they learn that we have horses retired with us from 15 states and two countries. Given that we do run a retirement farm the questions inevitably lead to how the end is handled. A couple of times I've had to listen to people act horrified that someone would send their horse away. They usually announce with an air of smugness "I would never do that with one of my animals, I love them too much."

Usually that statement makes me want to slap the person (I'm just being totally honest here). I typically subscribe to the mantra that the less said the better when it comes to talking with people who have totally different views from me, be it about horses, politics, religion, etc. One time I just couldn't stop myself and I launched into a lecture with this stupid woman (again I know that sounds harsh but I'm being very honest about my thoughts here). "People send their horses to us because they love them THAT MUCH. Instead of being selfish and keeping them close to them, they chose to send them farther away to a situation that was better for the horse. Some people are too busy being martyrs and telling themselves how great they are to realize that their horse might be happier somewhere else. Our clients are also savvy enough as horse people to realize that the companionship that counts most to a horse is that of other horses. Even though we all want to think that we have a special bond and relationship with our horses, and most of do have that with our horses, in the end the most meaningful bonds our horses are going to have are with other horses. Period. The end."

I have no doubt that that most of my commentary sailed right over her head. I also have no doubt that she thinks I'm a witch and I'm fine with that. My point in this rambling post is that being a great horse owner has nothing to do with being present when your horse passes. Being a great horse owner has everything to do with what happens before that day comes. Anyone who has a horse with us has earned the distinction of outstanding horse owner and deserves to be applauded. They've had every reason under the sun to abandon their horse. The mares could have been given away as broodmares. The geldings could be given away as "companion" horses.

Many of them have gone through the emotional and financial nightmare of trying to diagnose and rehab their horse, only to have a retired horse to show for all of their efforts. Often they have people telling them to give the horse to a rescue. Didn't you know there are all these rescues out there with too much money and not enough horses to care for? Or they are told to give the horse away as a companion, because again, didn't you know there are people just lining up to support your no longer rideable horse so you don't have too? Instead they chose to keep the responsibility, and with that responsibility comes the bills, money being spent on a horse that isn't "useful" anymore.

For anyone who has ever beat themselves up over not being there at the end, or who worries about that possibility, this should be the last thing on your mind. The horse could care less if you are there or not, but they do care a whole lot about all of the decisions you will make in their lives prior to that day. So judge yourself by those decisions because they're the ones that count.

**Melissa now steps down off her soap box.**

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!

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Traveller

Lily

Moe and Leo

Elfin and Homer

Thor, Walden, O'Reilly and Lucky

Chili

Murphy, Sebastian, Dutch, Wiz and Sam

Renny

Lighty

Traveller and Cuffie

Miracle

MyLight and Maisie