Gentle retirement for old horses

[Scythian]

Larissa, Tom, and all other team members: Please don't take this as any sort of criticism. Xan and I know very well that you work like mine ponies on behalf of all of us! I've already gone Premium and Xan said she will too, on April 1, no Fools day.

This is a sincerely-felt attempt to alleviate a continuing difficulty for many.

About the "old horses can't always be rehomed" problem, discussed in "Comments and Suggestions". In case anyone missed it there, Xant’hippe wants to help with the problem. She is planning to buy up to 25 horses on March 26th, about 1700 UTC. "Horses for Sale" will be searched for

color "yellow horse"

minimum 18 years old

price $1 to $300

Prospects will be checked for listed Progeny (proof they cannot be rehomed). No pregnant mares will be purchased.

They will be given pasture room in Fields of Gold at 50% density, that's 2 horses to a small pasture. Pastures will be at 99%-100% quality. Xant’hippe will age them up and out of the game by March 31st.

If major changes to Retirement or Rehome are implemented in the game before March 26th, Xan will reconsider and either she or I will post about it (either here or in "Comments" -- possibly both). This purchase may be repeated, if there is enough response to the first one. Again, it would be posted on the this topic or "Rehoming". We also hope this will inspire similar efforts by other players.

Best wishes to all.

[QuesthavenFarms]

Sweet!

[Kintara]

Ok.. I have no idea why you want to do that, but ok

[Xant’hippe]

Please remember that the name a horse dies with is the name that will persist in all publicly visible pedigrees, records, etc.

If the horses designated / chosen for retirement have what seem to be their own breeding / competing / whatever names, I will retain them.

But if a "yellow horse" offered has a name like "all yours!", "don't need", (money symbol) ...

I'll rename with something descriptive, in a respectful way. Derived from pedigree, show records if applicable, breed, or color.

[Xant’hippe]

In case anyone's interested, here's what happened with my offer (in this thread and also in "Rehoming" thread, Comments and Suggestions) to adopt up to 25 horses designated with "yellow horse" in the Colour field.

Somewhat later than noon last Saturday, I searched "Horses for Sale" and found no horses with that Colour description. Redoing the search, simply setting minimum age to 18, I found quite a few horses! Most of the ones I bought were $1; two were $5; one was $10. And there was a wonderful pony for $14 -- more about him later.

Of the $1-10 retirees, only one, Spring Hope, has "passed on to greener pastures" at the age of 21+, after enjoying a rich pasture and new friends. (I have not been training as much as I wished.)

The others are still at grass (12 altogether). All but 2 or 3 were at BCS 9, 100% energy, and 0% fatigue, having never been trained. I have allowed this to continue, and they have not and will not be entered in shows. I'm thankful they all had proper names, not "sell" or "[money symbol]".

Meanwhile, I trust I'm fulfilling TheDoctor_007's wishes by continuing the career of the classic Shetland stallion Prince of the Hunt. This delightful pony, so well-trained by his previous owner, has earned championships in In-Hand Jumping, Log Pull, and Obstacle Jumping. He's well-along in Marathon Driving, too. Prince is available for breeding -- his descendants were already numerous before the sale, and I hope he will continue to generate good offspring.

So I'm not just the last protector-curator of aged equines. As the sale ad for Prince of the Hunt rightly asserted, that pony has plenty left to do!