What bothers me about this is it sounds like the organization has the final
say. I would prefer that decision to be my own. As for finding "good
homes" for these horses, you have to be very very careful. In my time
working with horses professionally, I have seen polo horses "retired", and
showing up somewhere else, drugged to the gills and being ridden hard.
I've seen horses go somewhere to retire, and the people figure they can stick
them out in the back pasture and forget about them. I have in my will
specific directions that my two older horses (Earen is 31 and Cheers is 21) be
put down if I die. I know 21 seems very young to consider this, but Cheers
is not an easy horse to deal with, and is getting arthritic. I shudder to
think of him relegated to a back pasture and hobbling around because he's not a
sweet, good-natured horse. That scares me more than the thought of him
actually dying.
