Here at Lincoln Equine Retirement Care, our top priority is your horse’s wellbeing. Each horse is treated as the individual character they are, with their health and social requirements always considered crucial to overall happiness and quality of life. Our small team of highly experienced staff adapt management where required for every horse. It may be that your horse is laminitic and requires careful weight management. Perhaps your horse has a neurological condition and displays unusual behaviour. Or maybe they are suffering with arthritic changes and need constant low impact movement to remain comfortable. Whatever the reason your horse has retired, we can manage and monitor the condition while reporting changes to you and adapting the care plan where required.
Where to find us
“All of our retirement horses are part of our family, loved and cherished as much as our own”
How we care for your horse
Experienced and individual care for your horse…
Our residents are kept at grass on ancient established turf which drains well and provides a good footing all year round. Horses are kept happy in small herds, where they bond with friends and enjoy the freedom that comes with space to roam and good company. We monitor herd dynamics on a daily basis and are careful not to introduce any horses whose character may upset the balance too far. If any horse is being bullied in our herds, we remove the bully to restore peace in the herd.
Each horse receives a minimum of twice daily (sometimes three times) checks, which include a full top to toe inspection for injuries, swellings, eye check, nasal check, hoof check, weight / crest assessment etc. Also, a movement assessment and a demeanour assessment. We take care to spend time with each horse every day, as this is fundamental to knowing the horse and being able to pick up on small changes which could be signs of bigger problems. Small changes are never ignored.
We keep in touch…
As an owner, you will receive regular updates on your horse, including photos and videos. Any change in your horse, be it a health change (improvement or decline) or a noticeable change in character and demeanour will be reported and discussed with you. We are always keen to inform and involve owners with decisions relating to their horse’s care, as often these conversations can prompt you to provide us with information that can improve the care and management of your horse.
Mostly the updates we provide to owners are to confirm your horse is well and enjoying life with friends. Sometimes we might get a funny video of your horse having a YE-HA round the field with his/her buddies, or maybe we’ll catch them snoring in the sunshine. The daily life and care of these horses is always a joy to us, and we are always happy to share the wonderful moments that make this job so special and worthwhile.
When the time comes…
The quality of your horse’s life is our absolute priority. We are very experienced in elderly equine care and the associated health issues that come with a slow decline into old age. While we strive to give your horse the very best specialist care that we can provide, there will come a time when we feel that your horse will not do well through one more winter. When we consider your horses future, we look at the whole picture. This includes the time of year, mobility, dental health, weight maintenance, respiratory health, skin condition, hoof condition and growth, any decline in existing health issues, social status in the herd, prospect of improved health and many other factors. If we feel the time is approaching to say goodbye to your friend, we will talk to you about this in good time. We promise to give you plenty of time to process the decision, and to come and spend some time with your friend. Hopefully in the sunshine with plenty of carrots. Ellen is personally available to talk you through the process and support you throughout the whole journey. We can organise the vet and the transport, and make sure your wishes and followed whether you choose to have the ashes back or not. You can leave all of this to us, and of course you are welcome to be present with Ellen and vet on the day. This is always a very personal journey, and we will support you in any way you feel is right for you and your horse.
When the time comes, we have a method that we follow for every horse. Until your horses last breath, we put them first. They will be calm and relaxed with friends around them, and they just go to sleep, surrounded by love and compassion.
Meet some of our happy horses...
Meet Ollie
Ollie is a cob x who we estimate to be in his late twenties. He’s been with us 4 years. He was a successful little competition horse before his management and routine became difficult for his owners. Ollie is a stress head, and found himself stuck in a yard and routine that made him unhappy. This caused him to lose weight, and as he’s a cribber he cribbed off all his top teeth! Ollie’s lovely owners saw he was unhappy and brought him to us in the hope that we could help him relax and enjoy being a horse. He came with the challenges of fence walking and weight management. He’s also a funny character to work out. He can be grumpy and tells you he doesn’t want other horses nearby, but then he’s very sensitive to any movement of the horses around him and he needs company to settle. We learned that his dental condition means he must stay on extra forage into Spring later than the other horses. When the new shoots come through in March, we usually wean them off hay. However, Ollie can’t grab the new shoots without his top teeth, so the length of the grass is very important to his management. Ollie is best managed beside Sammy. He pretends not to like Sammy and can be quite mean. Though Sammy tolerates him with saintly patience, and mostly ignores him. When we move them from their paddock, Ollie becomes torn between the urge to fence walk and stress out, and the urge to stick with his buddy Sammy who will wander off to find the best grass. After a short time stressing at the fence, Ollie follows Sammy and soon forgets all about fence walking.
Ollie’s favourite things to do:
Mug you for any treats in your pocket. He knows you’ve got some!
Trot up and down the fence impatiently shouting at us (to hurry up!) when he spots the wheelbarrow full of haylage heading his way.
Meet Sammy
Sammy is a 26 year old (approx.) Welsh Cob who’s been with us for 3 years. We just adore him. He’s a very independent old chap who normally stays out of trouble but can occasionally be found testing the fencing. Sammy gave us cause for concern when his weight didn’t seem to tally with his breed and the amount of grazing he had access to. We began a process of elimination to find the reason he was looking a bit lean in summer. Firstly, he had a dental check up and a routine treatment. The dentist confirmed there were no problems here, so our next consideration was metabolic issues. Though Sammy certainly didn’t present with typical Cushing’s symptoms, we wanted to rule this out. Our vet came to take blood, and when the results came back, they showed Sammy had the highest ACTH levels our vet had ever seen. Sammy has been on medication ever since, and we check his levels routinely to be sure we’ve got the medication dose correct. The medication has helped Sammy to maintain a healthy weight, though we are careful not to allow him to carry too much as Cushing’s syndrome puts him at high risk of laminitis.
Sammy’s favourite things to do are:
Pretend he can’t hear us calling him for his daily carrot (tablet hidden inside) when actually he just doesn’t want to stop eating.
Lull you into a false sense of security with his little old man act as he slowly mooches by, then explode with bucks and farts, hooves whistling past your ears before galloping to the top of the field!
Our Service and Prices
We provide one level of care for all our residents. Horses are kept in small herds on established pasture, appropriate to their social needs and health management. Each horse is checked twice daily as a minimum, with observations on demeanour and movement with thorough checks for injury or illness. We often discuss care with owners and adapt our care plans to each horses individual needs.
The monthly rate is the basic fee for full care at grass, to include daily checks, also attend for vet / farrier etc. Poo picking, rug changes, feeding, grooming, medicating and any other tasks that are required for your horse’s daily care.
The price of our service is £260 per month. (Equal to £60 per week)
Additional fees:
- Hay or Haylage. Ad lib, as required. £25 per week (rounded up to the month) We have excellent grazing available and tend to only feed forage from December to March – weather dependant.
- Hard feed – charged at cost
- Farrier – charged at cost. £30 for a trim.
- Vet – charged at cost. Any invoices expected to be over £60 may require up front payment.
- Wormer – charged at cost. We worm twice a year, May and November and treat for tapeworm too.
- Dentist – charged at cost
- Any other treatment or third-party service is charged at cost. We don’t add further charges.
Contact us
Contact form
Visit us
Get in contact with us to arrange a viewing or find out more!