Horses who refuse to retire

[sweetsalute]

Anyone else ever had a horse who should have retired, maybe many times over, but they keep saying no thanks?

Pony is now 22, and I think we’ve just had our fourth “retirement” lol.

2016 - staked her neck on a t-post, triggered an acute laminitis, was touch and go at the vet hospital for two weeks, and they said low chance of her coming sound. 6 months later…totally sound

2018 - I had no time to ride, so went well, she’s 18, she can retire

2019 - suddenly had time to ride again, thought why not see if she can come back into work, and she did with no problems

2020 - sudden mystery lameness, trouble balancing on 3 legs and was diagnosed with neuro issues of some sort, vet said riding was out of the question

2021 - marked improvement, so we started doing a little, then a bit more, then a bit more and had a couple years of the best times we’ve ever had together. She outpaced and outran every other horse we went on a ride with

2023 - two months ago, the symptoms from 2020 came back. Had the vets out, she passed all the neuro tests this time, but they suspected arthritis, and we decided to see if Previcoxx would help. Meds were on back order for two weeks, during which she ended up 3 legged hopping lame. Consensus with the vets was that at her age, this was probably it for a ridden career, and we’d try to get her paddock sound.

4 days of meds, and she was miss twinkletoes again, and then an abccess popped out. So of course I’m like omg was this whole thing an abcess?! A week later, she was practically falling over on the farrier, so it was back to hmm, something isn’t right. Yesterday…lo and behold, a second abcess on the same hoof popped out, and she’s acting like a 2 year old.

TLDR, pony doesn’t know she’s 22, pony says no thank you to retirement, pony says can we go for gallops please. I give up trying to work out what’s going on, and will continue having fun as long as she seems happy lol.

[2DogsFarm]

My TB was 22 when I brought him home.
Out of respect for his age, I’d set jumps at 2’.
And he’d jump them… Adding about a foot
Still sound at 27 - so much that a BNT I cliniced with refused to believe his age.
Lost him that same year to a trailer accident

I now have a 23yo Hackney Pony.
Got him as a 10yo Freebie from my shoer to be a companion to my WB.
Lost the WB 5yrs later
Pony has gone gray on his face, but from a distance & based on movement, can easily pass for 5.
He’s 2nd in Command to my current horse.
21yo TWH, who I’ve had for 8yrs & also shows no signs of age.

[moonlitoaksranch]

I suppose it’s good to keep them moving as long as they’re sound.

Some horses retire well on a pasture. They seem to exercise themselves. Others need some type of work.

My first horse, Ellie, was retired at 28, but fussed, so I ponied her with my green gelding, Phoenix. She loved it and the gelding learned a lot from my good trail horse.

At 30, she was officially retired and had daily turnout. We were boarding up in Rhode Island while I was stationed at Newport for training. The barn owner turned them out in the morning and I would walk her and the gelding back to the barn every evening. I used a chair to get up on Phoenix and ponied Ellie. The afternoon of 9/11, I was in a daze, like we all were, I suppose. Ellie pushed Phoenix out of the way of the chair, twice, as if insisting on carrying me down to the barn. I got on and she pranced down to the barn. Phoenix stayed beside us perfectly, even though it was the first time he was ponied. She gave me that sweet gift on that terrible day. I thought maybe she needed riding again, but no, it was something she just did that one time.

[exvet]

We didn’t retire until they were truly unsound. I had a 24 year old continue to show and perform (training/first level dressage) until he foundered and another who continued to do low level trail competitions until he passed away at almost 25 years old. If they don’t act old don’t retire them. If they hold weight and are interested in attention, giving them a job will keep them healthier longer imo.

[clanter]

Elmer Bandit was a distance competitive trail horse who raked up 20,780 lifetime trail miles and completed two competitive trail rides in the 2009 season just before his death at 37 (two months shy of 38)

We rode against him in the late 90s/early 2000s, he was a real competitor

Competitive Trail Horse Elmer Bandit Passes Away - EasyCare Hoof Boot News

[RMJacobs]

I bought a Hackney pony when he was 22. I thought I needed to retire him a few years later after he had a seizure, but he had other ideas. I cautiously started driving him again, and he was fine for another year or so. He finally got to where he could not pull the cart with me in it. So I ground drove him with the cart empty for a while. When that got to be too much, I retired him completely. He had a conniption every time I took our other pony out instead. I swear he was saying “Take me! Take me!” The other pony had zero work ethic, and I think he was saying “Take him!”

Rebecca

[sweetsalute]

Wow! That’s incredible.

Use it or lose it has been my philosophy with her. She loves hitting the trails, and I’ve always figured that if she’s constantly wanting to go go, then why not! The only real concern is just whether or not she’s got the balance enough for it to be safe.

If not for the greying on the face, you’d have no clue she was 22. She’s fat off literally no feed, yesterday was leaping up and down a 4 foot embankment of her own accord and prancing around with the sort of trot worthy of a flashy warmblood (she’s a 13.2 mongrel pony lol).

I don’t have time or funds for a second horse right now, so I’m just hoping she keeps going for weekend trails, and I’ll be quite happy with that. We don’t need to compete or do anything crazy.

[Calvincrowe]

Our barn has three horses still competing in the hunters (2’6”) at ages 20, 25, 26 respectively. All are sound, happy in their jobs, and healthy. If your pony is sound, keep on keeping on!

[Foxglove]

Seven years ago I retired my foxhunter due to idiopathic RAO (heaves) and a prognosis of “never able to hunt again” from three vets --one a pulmonary specialist from university. I bought another horse to hunt. The DAY that new horse walked into the barn, the old fellow never coughed again. Still hunts out at 25. Last year he was my primary hunter as I’d had shoulder surgery and could only ride second flight.

[clanter]

@sweetsalute

Use it or lose it has been my philosophy with her.

Our kids horse, Shamrock Foxie Joy was primarily a western pleasure horse but also campaigned as Hunter and competitive trail horse. As our kids got older she was often loaned out to other children who wanted to show but their families could not afford the cost. We would take Foxie along since our kids were showing their then new horses.

At one Class A show Foxie was High Point Junior Exhibitor horse for three consecutive years with a different riders each year (my daughter wanted the others to know just how good Foxie was)

One of those years there was state vets there to drug test the winners and random horses. As Foxie was exiting the ring after winning her class she was escorted by one of the state vets to her stall, we handed him her papers after looking at the horse and the papers he accused us of switching horses as he believed the horse on the papers was not the horse in the stall as “that horse” can not be 19 years old. (She was a Bay and of course all Bays look alike)

Had to get the show manager to positively identify the horse as they knew her

State vet was adamant in his belief, he kept mumbling there is no way this horse that old

Her last few years we kept her in “her” barn in a separate paddock which was maintained mostly like a show barn, she passed away peacefully at 28… just went into her stall nap in the afternoon in her freshly bedded stall under her fan (these days the three miniature live in that barn)

[Phaedra1]

My first pony was a black Shetland that lived to 33 at thirty-two and a half, she went on Previcoxx

The second pony I had was Shetland/Miniature went well into 34-36 walk trot with us little kids she had something wrong with her hind leg. She was free-range all over our farm but sometimes bucked us off. I am positive she lived a happy life.

My third pony Silas is 43-44 and is happy.
Last year we were riding him twice to three times a week easy fifteen-minute walk trot until his rider broke their arm.
He has free range of the farm.
He has lost almost all of his teeth, so he gets soaked hay cubes and has choked twice, so then he gets marshmallows and Maria Biscuits for treats, when we leave we can look at the cameras he will come up to our back porch and wait till we are home.
Our friend’s senior pony is Silas’s friend, he will load himself on their trailer when they go to leave, or he will wait till we leave the trailer when we are packing, he will hop up in it through the tack room door which is two and a half feet high.
I am convinced that he is still happy

[walkinthewalk]

The 27 yr old Dutch Warmblood, show jumper, would love to still have a job but sadly his injuries have forced him to retire, from even the simplest of jobs.

When he arrived at my farm for retirement, the sports medicine vet in my area re-X-rayed him. The verdict was absolutely no riding. Let him be the pasture companion I wanted for my then 28 yr old TWH, who was a terrific trail horse in his glory days.

Thankfully I have 19 acres of pasture for them to roam around on, so they get plenty of natural exercise - except for this week - they have sequestered themselves in the barn in front of the drum fans during the day and venture out to graze at night.

[Libby2563]

When I was a teenager we did an amazing cross-country jumping vacation at Penmerryl Farm in Virginia, where they used to breed Irish Draughts. One of the horses they put me on was in his early 20s IIRC. The story was that they kept trying to retire him but when they left with a group for the XC field, he would jump the paddock fence and tag along, so they gave up and let him just keep working.

My 27-year-old, on the other hand, is perfectly happy with his full-time job of eating and napping.

[candyappy]

Retirement is for people and even then it isn’t a good idea. As long as a horse is still sound / ridable I believe it should be ridden. You may adjust the work load to match the ability / age of the horse but why just let them sit?

Same for people. You may leave your profession but many people are bored and unfulfilled doing basically nothing and keep busy in a whole new late life career and are happy.

We had a walk/ trot lesson horse who was 30+ and going strong until the day she died.

[ThreeWishes]

The best hunter I’ve ever ridden who taught me how to.horse show at the A and once AA level was in 20’s and.stepping down. I rode and learned and loved that lease horse for 6 years. If a horse is sound… being active is GOOD.

P.S. His dear owners had tried to retire him but he really disliked being in a pasture and not having something to do. He’d spent his entire life in a “program”. Being worked and pampered and properly shod and massaged and pampered. He did NOT like the idea of standing out in a pasture without a job. And I swear I’m not anthropomorphizing. The horse hated his first retirement. And I went on to ride him for the next 6 years. In his late 20’s when he started to let us know he wasn’t able anymore he was retired. He went back to his owners. He died in his sleep 6 months later in his stall

[SharonA1]

I had one who was quite lame by his mid-20s, due to a suspensory lesion. Vets would try (sort of) to suppress their concerned frowns while meeting each other’s eyes over my head. However. Himself insisted on being brought out of his lovely in/out stall with its generous paddock with a great view, and had to have a saddle thrown unto his top-line-less body. He required a stately and correct walk around the ring and a workmanlike trot if his leg wasn’t bothering him. A number of serpentines or figure-eights or other patterns was expected of me. Thirty-seven minutes of “work,” give or take (I’m assuming alot of years as a 45-minute lesson pony, in his youth). If I was not quick enough to get the saddle and get on with the business of riding, he would nudge me and bang his hoof on the floor and make contemptuous faces. No idle chatting to barnmates was allowed before riding. When he saw the saddle coming, he would bob his head up and down earnestly and make generally cute faces.

After riding, I could hang in the aisle and chat to other people all I wanted while grooming him.

He only let me know he was “done” maybe two weeks before his death.

[sweetsalute]

Honestly the only reason I would be retiring her is for safety concerns if she’s having balance problems…that’s not worth the injury risk to either of us! A week before this problem cropped up again, we were out galloping about the place and she was having an absolute blast.

She’s such a good, solid horse too, she’s led marches, babysits other horses on trails, goes anywhere and does anything, rarely spooks and has impeccable manners. She is absolutely my heart horse! If I had the money to clone her, I would lol. Part of me wishes I’d bred her when she was younger in the hopes of getting her brain again, but that was too risky an endeavour when I was 20. It’ll be so hard to try and find a replacement when the time comes.

[Renn_aissance]

When he turned 20, I told my horse he could retire whenever he wanted, and gauged his want by his reaction to having down weeks or weeks off in his work. Tearing the barn down for want of interesting things to do? Pulling me towards the coop out in the field and making a bid for it? Okay, you’re not done.

At the end of the year when he was 26 he just seemed bored with his job, which at that point was trail rides and flatwork with me and being a professor for my mom. So he retired to trail ride.

At 28, he is retired to a life of whatever he wants. I sit on him bareback. He steers. Sometimes we go check troughs for 10 minutes and he comes back to the barn. Sometimes he takes me across the road to visit the neighbors. Sometimes he goes to the woods and we come back an hour and a half later, having gone up and down mountain bike trails. So he’s still not “done,” but he appears to be living his life to his own satisfaction.

He is serviceably sound, though he has arthritis and his vision is fading. When he stops wanting to go explore in the woods or visit the neighbors, he will retire further, to check fencing and water around the farm. He will tell me when that’s no longer fun, either.

[WildGooseChase]

Repeat after me… Age in and of itself is not a disease.

If she is sound, what’s the harm of a light hack to check fences, or to amble down the trail? If she wants to go, don’t stifle that energy. Tax her brain and her body. There is plenty you can do with her that isn’t high impact too… Liberty work, desensitizing to scary objects, hand walks, in hand obstacles, etc

Some breeds do tend to live longer than others. I’ve ridden Arabs well into their 30’s who had zero intention of retiring. But I’ve also ridden stock horses who were not serviceably sound at 15 due to wear and tear, injury and poor conformation. If she is sound, is safe to handle, and clearly wants a job, I don’t see a reason to retire her.

[clanter]

when working at a training farm in college, the farm had a school horse named Pete, he was over 28 and still working teaching new riders,

If a student wanted a lesson longer than the standard 30 minutes they had to dismount then remount as Pete would halt at 30 minutes not to move until the student dismounted,

Pete knew when 30 minutes was up and his time was over