What Happens to Retired Horses

Most of the Halleck Creek horses are donated to the ranch from people in the community who are looking for a place where their horse can slow down and be well taken care of. Horses like Ben, Jake, and Tom have been somebody's personal horse, but have gotten older or sustained an injury that keeps them from being able to do the kind of work their owners require of them. Working once a week at the slow pace of our program is the perfect second career for these horses.

Draft horses like Cotton, Belle, and Nell, have been purchased at the auction in Turlock. They have worked for years pulling carriages in cities, wagons at wineries – different types of jobs all over the country. Sometimes they have been trained to the saddle, but often we have to train them. Halleck Creek values these "gentle giants" to carry our biggest riders, or riders who need someone to ride behind them.

Due to our good reputation, Halleck Creek is offered dozens of horses every year, but we only take two or three. Because of the special work that our horses do, and the fact that we plan to care for them for such a long time, we are very careful about the horses we accept into the program. After we accept a horse, we continue to monitor and train it to make sure that it is appropriate for our special riders.

Because our horses provide such a valuable service – and do it so willingly – we happily care for them while they are working, and for the rest of their lives. When our horses can no longer work for us on Saturdays, we retire them onto our ranch, where they will live out their lives comfortably. We repay their gift to us by providing an easy retirement for them among their familiar "friends". They roam free with the rest of the herd for as long as they do not require any special care.

But as horses age, they often do require special care, just as people do. Northwind, who is completely blind, was moved to a smaller paddock when he could no longer compete for food with the other horses. Scarlett needs a special diet after her colic surgery, so she is in a separate paddock too. A herd animal, horses generally do not like being alone, so we provide these horses with pasture mates who are also retired.