501(c)3 Non-Profit Horse Rescue Organization 
04/18/2025
Sadly we have to have this discussion too often with people looking to surrender their very old horses. Our primary focus is taking in starved or seized horses. When we have room, we take in horses to rehome under certain circumstances. This is not to say that we don’t take in senior horses, because we do. When people contact us because their old horse needs too much care or they want to get in a younger horse, is when we have this conversation. Horses do not pass away peacefully in their sleep when they are old. There are always signs that the end is coming such as the inability to get up and down easily, or a sudden severe colic episode. There are many others. You owe your horse a peaceful end. That horse served you, and that is part of horse ownership. It is better a day too early than a day too late. We have had to euthanize our share of horses that had severe medical issues from which there were no options, as well as horses when it was their time. All responsible rescues do. To keep a horse alive and suffering is the ultimate form of cruelty. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but it never is.
If your horse is unsound, aged, or no longer has a good quality of life and you cannot keep them, the kindest, most responsible thing you can do is euthanize them...not give them away to a stranger who “promises” a good home. Euthanize.
The people who pick up these horses, whether through a giveaway post, a sale ad, or a word-of-mouth favor, don’t love your horse. They don’t know them. They have no emotional history. No context for their quirks, their limits, or their medical needs. That bond you’ve built over the years? The memories, the care, the promises? That dies the second you hand over the lead rope.
From that moment on, your horse is just another mouth to feed. Another vet bill. Another project. And when they get inconvenient: when they can’t be ridden, when the arthritis flares, when the hooves need special care or when the meds cost too much, there is no reason for that new person to keep trying. They don’t owe your horse anything. And that’s the root of the problem.
Too many horses, good horses, kind horses, horses who were once someone’s heart, get passed down the line until they land in a place no horse should ever know. Auction pens. Kill buyers. Backyard neglect. Starvation. Loneliness. Confusion. Pain.
And do you know what I hear every time? "We had a contract." “I thought she went to a good home.” “They promised they’d keep him.” “They said they had a pasture for her to live out her days.”
If you truly love your horse: if they stood steady while you learned, were a shoulder to cry on, nickered when they heard your footsteps, and showed up for you on their best and worst days, you owe them more than hope and a handshake.
You owe them peace. You owe them safety. You owe them a dignified end that is pain-free and fear-free, before the bad days outnumber the good.
And this responsibility doesn’t only apply to the horses who’ve been your partners for years. Even if it’s a horse you’ve just purchased, they still deserve the same compassion. A horse doesn’t need to have earned your love to be worthy of a gentle ending.
All horses deserve that kindness, that dignity, and that final act of selfless care.
It’s not selfish to make the decision to euthanize. It’s not “giving up.” It’s doing what people who truly care about horses do: taking responsibility. You stay with them. You look them in the eye. And you make sure they never have to wonder why the person they trusted walked away when things got hard. Let them go with love, before the world gets to them.
