Ariel Finished Entry in Public Entries

J- the girl I am boarding Ariel with (yes the same girl I had all the drama with back in May/June- it is sincerely all worked out now & no hard feelings were held) messaged me today to say something is wrong with Ariel. She needed my permission to call the vet & a budget amount to work with with the vet. Ariel went on a trial run to a new home about 2 weeks back. She was returned after a week. The trial owner claimed she reared so high she was nearly on her back with someone on her & they were no longer interested in her. She dropped over 100lbs in the week she was with them. Totally normal for a horse to lose a few (say 20-30lbs) with a move. Ariel's a pony, 100-150lbs (J's educated guess on how much) is 5-10% of her total weight & not cool. Not a huge flag like this horse is dying, but a really strong something wasn't fucking right here flag. She has never ever reared. Anyway today Jamie messaged saying that Ariel seemed to have a fever, seemed dehydrated & is bumping into things. And in a general sense just not herself. She was being really affectionate, and Ariel is just NOT an affectionate horse. So I authorize the vet visit & paced around waiting to hear more. She didn't have a fever, the vet didn't feel she was dehydrated. She does however have the beginnings of cataracts which is totally normal for a horse who's about 20. And I know no one is keeping a play book on my pony, but my pony was sold to me less than a year ago as a 5 maybe 6 year old pony. I've gotta come back with the rest, I'm already getting out of sorts here & David is going to be needing attention in a moment. I'm not upset with Jamie. She should have verified the horse's age before selling her to me. But I should have had her vetted long before now. What's upsetting me is how knowing this would have changed everything about my experiences with Ariel. I was looking for an older horse. I wanted a horse who was over 15 & had already had its peak & passed it. One that wouldn't need never ending training & lessons & camp & all that noise. Just an old hay-eater who was perfectly content to not be ridden daily & just poke around with me on its back when I had time to ride. Every time Ariel & I have butted heads, every time she was moody or stubborn or just a pill I thought it was my fault. I thought I was doing this horse a disservice. That she should be in training & lessons & camp & all that noise; that I was holding her back from living up to her potential. If I had known she was being a pill because she's old & crotchety & been there done this; we'd have gotten along great. Then I wouldn't resent having to work her more than I wanted to, and I wouldn't worry that she wasn't getting enough exercise. I'd have just respected her crotchety ways & ridden on days when she wasn't. So now I find myself once again going in circles about what to do with my horse. It's not like buyers were beating down the barn door when she was a 5yr old pony at a rock bottom bargain price. As a 20 year old with cataracts, I'm pretty sure even giving her away is going to be challenging. And I totally do not want to sell or give her away. I never wanted to, but now even less so. She is the horse I was looking for. We could buy a used horse trailer & bring her up ourselves. We could contract with a shipping company- turns out there's actually many companies that haul livestock. When you factor that we would have to go in both directions in our gas-hog truck, there isn't much difference in price. Not that I have the means to do either, and having her hauled up will absolutely mean delaying when I can get our stuff up here. It'll mean more months of fees for the storage unit & more months of not having things I need.