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[RC] Old horses and decisions - Hilyard

No one can give you the "right" answer, because everybody thinks differently.  Heck, I know from experience - current experience - that the answer will be different horse to horse, year to year.  Horses that are special - either your first horse, or a long term campaigner, or your child's pony, even the pocket horse who hangs around the gate all day hoping to see a human are going to get treated differently than one that you feel no emotional bond with.  Right now, half of my four horse herd is lame.  For different reasons which I won't go into here, one will most likely die on the farm, the other is going to be given away to what I hope and pray will be a place where someone else will pay his expenses for the privilege of watching him walk short strided around the pasture.  For some, euthanizing a horse should be treated with the same horror and provocation as euthanizing Grandma, for others, a care of a healthy but lame horse is an expensive mouth to feed and a waste of resources that could be used better elsewhere.  I hope you find peace with whatever you decide.