sadly a lot of horse owners are only interested in a horse for as long as it does a job and once it cannot do that, it is gone.
i have a mare here retired in 1997 as a 9 year old, still with me. I guess I could have got my money back if I'd lied about her problems and she would have been passed on and on, but I couldn't do it to her.
I used to do annual checks on a pony out on loan for a charity, he was a super dooper pc pony, but every 18 months changed rider till when he was 21 he got returned as unwanted - had just finished summer pc camp but they didn't fancy keeping her for the winter. He won rosettes, cups galore but none of the families over the years who had their fun on them - all sitting in their extremely posh and expensive houses! - felt any responsibility to his future. I wrote a poem about him:-
Advice to a Foal
Now that I am old, and stiff and grey
And you so young
So many days to play
I once was young like you
My words, you’ll learn, are true
Remember to
Grow more than 13’2
Then children will ride you
But older people too
Or life will treat you as me
Do not a schoolmaster be
I carried them with care
I carried them with pride
I taught them everything
I was their everything
But only for a while
They loved me, so they said
Their friend for life, they said
I was their pride and joy
I was their golden boy
And in the galaxy
My name of course you know
I sparkled like the sun
The golden trophies won
Rosettes, silver like the moon
All ended, far too soon
The games I played for you
The egg and spoon and sack
Were races run for you
You hugged me then and cried
But then, of me, you tired
Your secrets told to me
I never did reveal
When people were unkind
And did not understand
You cried into my mane
I understood your pain
But every year the same
Another calls my name
I am outgrown again
I have another friend
But never till the end
And do you think of me?
The one that you once loved?
I can remember you, your smell, your voice
The names they are so many
Of all the ones I taught
The girls, the little boys
All grown, too big for me
Do you remember me?
You promised me you’d stay
A friend of mine, for life
But always came the day
A younger pony came, the one who ran so fast
Our friendship did not last
And what would it have taken
That promise made, to keep
A holiday not taken
A Happy Meal forsaken
Would have bought my hay
Was that too much to pay?
And on my final day
With only strangers there
I looked for you, you know
I called out in my fear
But no, you were not there
Because you did not care