Retirement Boarding

Determine Your Horse’s Needs - Now and Later

Even if your horse is the picture of health now, and has simply gotten too old for their present job, age takes its toll on us all. Older horses often have health issues and require daily medications and monitoring. Your goal in searching for a retirement home should be to find the ideal place for him right now, and much later on in life when his health may start to fail. The decision to send your horse into someone else’s care is difficult enough, but you don’t want to be forced to switch caregivers late in life because the facility that you chose isn’t capable of handling serious health issues.

The Aurora Advantage

An essential part of keeping senior horses healthy is preventative care, informed management, and a watchful, expert eye. All of our horses receive comprehensive yearly veterinarian and dental exams, and every horse is individually fed and monitored every day, allowing us to take detailed notice of their health and any developing conditions. And with our on-site diagnostic lab providing immediate test results, we are able to respond quickly to any issues.

Select the Right Atmosphere

As you are looking to take care of your horse’s physical needs, don’t overlook their mental health. Retirement is going to be an adjustment, so consider how your horse has been housed throughout their life and identify their preferred lifestyle.

If your showhorse is accustomed to being pampered in a stall all day, full turnout could be a shock to the system. But, for an older horse, inactivity can cause stiffness and stocking up. They will need to be eased into a slower-paced lifestyle, with more turnout time added incrementally to allow them to adapt.

Similarly, companionship is important to older horses. But in a large herd, seniority doesn’t necessarily favor the eldest. Young, strong, higher-ranking horses will eat and drink first, and can bully older or weaker horses causing malnutrition and stress.

The Aurora Advantage

The biggest and easiest mistake that can be made in retiring a horse is simply opening up the gate and putting him out to pasture. It can be very damaging, both physically and mentally, for a horse to abruptly switch from an active, busy schedule to not having any regular activities.

We know that there is no one-size-fits-all equine retirement plan. Every situation is as different as the individual horses themselves. To keep a senior horse active and happy, it is important to gradually decrease their activity level, based on their changing physical abilities. At Aurora, a customized retirement plan will be created that provides a regular routine to boost your horse’s health and comfort. And this plan will update on a day-to day basis as the horse ages.

Our retirement horses are gradually placed into small-herd turnouts of 2 - 6, which are selected and grouped for compatibility. This guarantees that they can feed and drink without anxiety, and provides companionship. Another step that we take to guarantee the stability of the small herd is to have the farrier attend to the horses in their own pasture. This avoids the disruption of removing and reintroducing a horse from the group, and that continuity helps to maintain harmony in the herd.

Look for Expertise

This is a critical part of keeping an older horse healthy — having experts who are alert and engaged, to actively monitor your horse’s daily activities, and who will recognize when changes need to be made. Entrusting your older horse to knowledgeable and committed pros will bring you enormous peace of mind.

So, what expertise is needed to ensure the horse a good quality of life?

Of primary importance is the quality and experience of the operators and staff of the retirement farm. They need to develop a long-term relationship with your horse, and will have direct, regular interactions that can alert them to any changes. Capable workers must be available for regular handling of the horse.

A reliable and knowledgeable veterinarian for geriatric horses is a great asset on any retirement farm. They will need to provide annual wellness exams, vaccines, dental care, and advise on nutrition, as well as be available for emergencies. And finally, a skilled, caring farrier is vital for regular hoof care, and to work in concert with the veterinarian should an issue such as laminitis occur.

The Aurora Advantage

Aurora Farms provides experienced, committed, around-the-clock care. We have a deep background managing the diseases and underlying health issues that often occur in senior horses: equine Cushing’s disease (PPID), founder (laminitis), arthritis, colic, weight and dental problems, and eye disease, and we attentively monitor our retirees for symptoms or changes in their health.  

The long-standing and trusted partnerships we have developed with our stellar vets and farriers provide us with professional support and allow us to accept horses with more challenging health issues than most retirement farms.  

Research, Visit, and Listen to Your Gut

After you have gotten referrals and read all of the websites and brochures, when you’ve found a farm that you like, check out all of their references. You can learn a lot from speaking directly to other people who have their horses boarded there.

Then, it is time to call and schedule a visit. Walk the pastures, inspect the barns, and talk directly to the people who will be providing care so that you can get a good sense of the quality of life your horse will experience when they are living there. Once you are comfortable with operations, personnel, and the facility’s atmosphere, then invest some of your time examining the most significant proof of worth that a retirement farm can offer — the horses.

Evaluate the other horses boarded at the farm. Look at both their appearance and attitude. Apart from everything else at the farm, horse care and well-being should be paramount. If the horses that are currently retired there are fit, content, and interested in their surroundings, then chances are that your horse will thrive there.

The Aurora Advantage

We would love to provide you with references, testimonials, tours, and answers to any questions you have, because we know that the more you learn about Aurora Farms, the more pleased you will be. Actually, we think that one of our clients said it better than we possibly could:

“When anyone asks me about Melody Adler’s care of horses, my response is that I trust her with my best mare, BHF Evangelique. My other response is that when I die, I want to come back as a horse here.”

Julie Behrends-Jones

Contracts, Costs, and Communication

The devil, they say, is in the details.

Once you have selected your horse’s retirement home, it is critical that you have a detailed boarding contract. Your contract should outline exactly what is and is not included in the boarding cost, and it also needs to cover all aspects of your horse’s stay, including who is responsible for making final decisions on routine and emergency health care. Clearly stating who is responsible and who has the right to make decisions for the horse under a variety of circumstances helps avoid potential uncomfortable questions or misunderstandings.

You should also clearly communicate with your horse’s caretaker the amount of extraordinary effort you’re willing to invest in and pay for when it comes to veterinary procedures and visits. If your horse has colic, would you want emergency surgery and hospitalization, or is euthanasia an alternative? Having those conversations ahead of time helps you prepare for all possibilities, and helps you avoid making difficult decisions at an emotional, stressful moment.

The Aurora Advantage

At Aurora, we satisfy clients ranging from international owners who aren’t able to check up on their horse in person, to local owners who visit every day. We know that clear, upfront communication regarding health and well being is vital to make sure that your horse gets the care he needs. Our goal with all contracts and communication is simple: to eliminate confusion. That is why we provide flat fees for all of our services, without pages and pages of add-ons and upgrades.