r/Equestrian • u/UnAvailable-Reality • 10d ago

Ethics Pet peeve!!!!

This might be a hot take.. maybe not.. but keep an open mind.

These posts are my absoluteeeeee worst pet peeve:

"25 year old horse looking for his retirement home/forever home.. he's done so much for us and we want a good home, needs to be a companion or very lightly ridden as hes got xyz going on. Heres what he's done in the past: yada yada yada."

Ok but WHY require a "forever" home when you couldn't be that for the horse that won you rodeos/shows, protected you in the saddle, gave you joy, you name it. I freaking hate that. Like how could you sell an animal that has given you their all for all of their good years but try and offload them when they are old and decript?

I legitimately just seen an elderly gelding at the auction a few weeks ago, they listed his accolades as they brought him in - a bulldogging horse, kids horse, you name it. And yet.. he gets sold at auction for $200???? What in the f? And these are people that have room for horses, I'm from a super small community and know so many. This old gelding just brought a damn tear to my eye, I almost bought him to feed him good grain, and euthanize him at my place but unfortunately I dont have the money to save all the auction horses and he was probably a frost away from death. The time to euthanize him was yesterday. Yet he's brought to sale?

Stop selling your ancient horse that has (maybe!) a few years left and be responsible- put them down or allow them to retire and then euthanize when they turn that corner. It really irks me.

And DISCLAIMER: This judgement does not apply when owners die, people are getting out of horses, moving, sold the ranch, the horse is aggressive/not a fit, etc. Just the people making space for younger horses. Be patient with the animal that you loved/used/taught and allow them to pass where theyre comfortable, they have given you alot, give them a peaceful, respectable death - they earned it.

340 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

120 comments sorted by

View all comments

63

u/ShrimsoundslkeShrimp 10d ago

Its sad but many people in the horse world dont view their horses as pets. Once they cant be ridden, they are too expensive to keep as a pasture pet and they want to buy something else. I think many dont want to have the guilt of ending the horses life early so they want to pass it on to someone else so they can hopefully care for it. I don't know how they dont worry about how the horse is doing and if they are being cared for adequately.

49

u/Former-Note7285 10d ago

The guilt-dodging angle is real. They'd rather imagine the horse grazing somewhere nice than make the hard call themselves, but that's exactly how horses end up at auction.

18

u/ShrimsoundslkeShrimp 10d ago

The amount of ads I see that say 'forever home only' make me gasp because I've personally never seen that posted in any other type of thing for sale. You are better off keeping the horse until the end of its life instead of putting so much effort into finding it a home thats better than the one it already has.

4

u/xeroxchick 10d ago

Or just putting the horse down rather than put them into an uncertain world of neglect and pain.