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How old is an old horse?

Okay, just a curious post....I saw something on facebook earlier about this horse being too old to ride, and it was 17 years old...another lady said she started riding her horse much lighter at 15 years old, and another said she barrel races her horse until about 10, then she thinks they are getting too old to run. Red is almost 13, and I do not consider him old at all. He's in his prime, in my opinion. He does have a touch of stiffness, maybe arthritis, in the winter months when it gets SUPER cold, so he's on supplements, but the vet says it's mostly from his sheer size, and going from skinny to a good weight. Red's not the tallest, but he's built like a tank, especially when he's in shape.

So, how old do you consider a horse "old?"

8 comments:

  1. I think it just depends on what you're doing with the horse as far as too old to ride goes. Almost all of the school ponies at my barn are in their mid-twenties and they're still happily packing kids around with no extra maintenance. I guess they're technically "old", but I wouldn't look at them an think so. Likewise, there's a young 20yo. ex-jumper who's been retired for many years and I would consider him old.

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  2. I agree with Carly. It just depends on how much wear and tear the horse has and how well they've been cared for. I've seen an 18 year old horse still easily jumping Grand Prix. I've seen 12 year olds that are extremely arthritic and can't perform well anymore. It really just differs with each horse.

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  3. It depends on the individual and what he does. Like Carly said, lesson horses can do well in the their 20s, assuming they are healthy. Trail horses and pleasure mounts can probably do well at that age as well. Some horses can even compete into their 20s. It really just depends.

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  4. I rode a 27 year old horse. We walked, trotted, cantered, and once accidently galloped. She was a Morgan and they have a pretty long lifespan, still it depends on what sort of work the horse does and health problems (if any). Horses in very hard work tend to "age" faster.

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  5. I found out the other day my horse is actually a few years older than we thought. He's about 23-24 but he loves to canter even gallop (we won't be doing that anymore lol) He's full of energy. We are going to show him this year. We might be getting another horse to take the load off him a little bit.

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  6. Also there apparently was this guy I know who rode his pony (maybe a horse) in competition and the pony was like 30 but they did pretty good. I guess it just depends on the horse. And then there was this other pole bending horse at a stable I worked at who was still bending poles at 17.

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  7. I agree! He's in the prime of his life! A barrel racer quit when her horse was 10? Most keep running these day till their mid 20's! And some past that! I really think people underestimate how strong horses really are.

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