At the therapeutic riding center where I teach and volunteer we receive a good number of horse donation offers each year. We've had a number of just super horses come to us this way, many of them a little older but not ready to retire, perhaps not able to do the level of riding the owner wishes, or the owner may have too many horses to keep in work.. There are lots of reasons. Our horses have amazing lives, have free turnout 24/7 on our acreage, cared for by an on-site property manager who treats them all as her own, and are doted on by volunteers and students.
Our clients range from four - sixty-four year olds (and everywhere in between) all of whom have some type of mental and/or physical disability. Understandably, our vetting process for new horses is pretty strict, and unfortunately we're only able to accept maybe 1/3 of the offers we receive for trial, and of these maybe only another half make it to being a full member of our herd. A lot of the reasons we have to say no have to do with health, many people are in search of retirement homes for their loved older horses, and while we Love gentle older horses they simply need to be sound and able to be in light work (and by light, I mean at most 5 days/week, up to 4 hours (2 max consecutive) at mostly walk with a little trot). It isn't a retirement-type situation. We have to turn away horses that have any propensity to stumbling, who need corrective shoeing or expensive health maintenance.. We also only accept geldings over the age of 10.
After email or phone communication and a visit to the horses home (we expose them to a few of our toys and props and see their reaction, watch the owner ride, and ultimately ride ourselves if everything looks to be going OK) we ask for a trial period to bring the horse to our center and see if they'll work out.
So, the situation at hand - we've had a horse 'on trial' at the farm and needed to make a decision re stay or go. I worked with him once a week in Oct/Nov, along with another instructor on other days, and when the equine manager asked if I thought he should stay I had to give my vote of No. He is physically in OK shape for the work he would need to do here, but mentally I just don't think he has what it's gong to take. Therapy horses are super special guys and it's just not a job for everyone. They need to be able to deal with working with different volunteers every night, and have to be a little forgiving of a rider who is learning, and is going to make some loud noises or abrupt motions, and frankly some 'mistakes' too. We always set up our horses to succeed, they wear halters and have leaders with the most involved riders, and many riders have sidewalkers walking next to them for support, but we count on our horse as integral team members to the students' success too.
Horse in question is just not there mentally (some concrete examples include two separate occasions on the lunge line where he rushed me and has turned to kick out to the center.. 'laziness'/wanting to get of work I'm ok with but dangerous behaviors like rushing aren't good signs). In hand he is manageable to an experienced horseperson but many of our volunteers have basic knowledge and while they work excellently will well trained superstar horses, may not be prepared to work with a horse who has 'NO' in him. So, basically for a variety of reasons including those above, he is not going to be accepted into the program as a therapeutic riding horse.
The problem - the owner is upset that we don't want him, and will not agree to take him back. This hasn't actually happened before, and we're not sure what to do about it. Unfortunately the contract we have in our lease doesn't have language that can force her to - I'm not sure how all that is written or what the deal is but that's what I'm told. (I assume that wasn't an anticipated problem..) I keep thinking about it and I can't help feeling guilty and worried about what's going to happen to this horse. He's older, doesn't have nice manners, and not very nice conformationally. It's a difficult situation, and I'm not sure how it's going to play out. We've been looking for people who might want a 'buddy' pasture horse, but frankly there aren't many of those homes out there especially in the middle of winter. In any case, our contract is being re-worded.
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