I've been forced to retire Daffy, and it's a mixed blessing I think.
We went through various lameness workups, he improved significantly to about 95% and we were given permission to get a saddle fitted, and told to bring him back into work. Vets seem to have this obsession with working an unsound horse to make them worse - yes it makes any problems more obvious, but I don't like it. Been told back, feet and hocks; different things from different people which never makes life easy.
We got down the lane once, he was nicely forward and a tad sharp but the second day Daffy wouldn't let me mount. Often he would be a bit eager to get going and wouldn't stand, but 20 minutes later I had called it quits after getting a foot in the stirrup with minimum pressure on it. Clearly he wasn't just eager to go - he didn't want me up there. Cue vets again, upshot is nerve blocks and xrays on his right hock, nerve blocks would allow us to look at his right fore, and once the hocks have been addressed, we can look at his back.
The vets that messed up our insurance claims over the last two years want the account balance paying off, despite the fact that they appear to have made no effort to resolve the problem. Ultimately, I cannot afford to pay that and for £1-2k worth of investigation and treatment, nevermind the fact that the outcome of such may not be positive anyway.
Daffy is rather enjoying his retirement for the time being, but woe betide me if I do not take him out onto the bridleway every day to wander and graze!