Interested in People Who Have Equine Seniors that Have Reached 30 Years Old

[caper]

I have a 38 year old QH. He quids his hay. He has all his teeth but they are worn down. He gets a mushy diet feed and alfalfa pellets soaked in too. He is doing fairly well but his hind end is starting to fail him. He enjoys a good roll in the morning but getting upright he struggles. Keeping a watchful eye on him.

I also have a 30 something-exact age unknown. He now quids his hay too and has a few missing teeth. He is on the same diet. He tends to stock up a bit when in his stall. I’d like to see more weight on his big frame. He came from a bad situation and I paid way too much for him but even my husband felt the need to get him out of there. We heard a year later the women went bankrupt.

We also have a free lease that is now retired. He is now 28 and still bossing around his turnout buddies. He still eats well and no dental issues yet.

I’d like to get my numbers now but they still are thriving. They will tell me when it is time.

[horsenut_8700]

My off the track Standardbred turns 30 this year; we’ve been together 22 years. He’s just as sassy and opinionated as he was the day he came home. He’s completely sound, but has been retired to doing pony parties (he looooves posing for pictures and has no real work ethic). He still thinks all the mares love him (they don’t) and he likes to strut his stuff along the fenceline to the new boarder draft mare. His teeth aren’t what they used to be, but he loves that he gets special extra meals of TC Senior, and he’s fat and shiny. Hopefully he’ll be around for many more years to come!

[chalice18]

I have a 32 year old. He looks maybe 22 and acts younger than ever. He gets TC Senior, Poulin Sweet Tradition. SmartCombo Senior, and as much hay as he will eat. He doesn’t eat a whole lot of hay now, but he is doing wonderfully after I recently added the TC Senior to his regular ration. I tried soaked alfalfa and beet pulp before that, but he was not a fan.

He likes to run around his pasture and spook the other horses. I am thrilled with how he’s doing this winter!

[dotneko]

My Grand Prix dressage horse is 30 this year. 17 h, KWPN. Eats about 4 qts of Sentinel Sr, LS and hay stretcher. Loves his evening mash. Demands his daily watermelon hunk (and boy is that hard to get in MA in winter).
He has survived 3 bouts of EPM.
Weight is great, walks a bit crooked. Leaks urine so his hind legs need constant attention. Vet says it is due to EPM.
OTOH, we all will leak a bit when we get that old.

Update - Fabian was put down in March due to the infirmities of old age. He was down in his stall on his weaker leg on Friday evening. We called the Fire Dept who helped us get him up. He was fine that evening and early the next morning - marching up the barn aisle challenging the other horses in their stalls. Midmorning he was down again. We chose not to put anyone in danger getting him up again and let him go with dignity. RIP good horse.

[Lyn]

I have a 31 yr old Argentine tb. Retired Polo pony at 18. I’ve had her since then.she gets Dynamite tnt (vitamin pellet)soaked wi.free+easy (glucosamine, msm+herbs)Oxy-mega (vit.c+e)+Dyna-pro (pre-biotic)she has been doing great. Trail rides slower now but having surgery 4 old injury this week. Wish us luck

[blueribbonpanel]

i have one 29, was giving beet pulp, alfalfa pellets and sr. pellets (all soaked and mixed together) but she started not liking the mix with the alfalfa pellets, so now down to beet pulp and sr pellets, with a little hay thrown into her stall just because they like to chew something even if they can’t chew it. She is in really good weight and I try to feed her 4 times a day at least, even though she hates being in a stall that long. Sound as can be, but stiff as a board! I also give her previcox daily. No other supplements; I don’t believe in the glucosamine and MSM. I took them myself for a long time and saw no improvement, so I don’t think it will help an animal l0 times my weight,;just my personal opinion of course.

[seabreeze]

I keep my trainer’s 30-year-old retired TB event mare. I’ve had her here with me for 6 years now. She’s in excellent weight and doesn’t receive any maintenance. She gets about 3 lbs of Triple Crown Senior per day, split between two feedings; during the cooler months (October/November - March/April), 8 - 16 lbs. (16 on the absolute coldest days, generally 8-12) of soaked alfalfa pellets per day; and free choice alfalfa hay. She and her pasturemate are on about 7 acres by themselves, so they have plenty of grass during the warmer months to fulfill their forage requirements.

The number one thing that I think keeps her young is 24/7 turnout. The barn is open so she and her pasturemate can come and go in their stalls as they please, but being able to move around except confinement in the absolute worst weather (which usually means really bad wind) keeps her active. Her favorite speed is still full gallop.

Additionally, I have started blanketing her the past couple of winters. While she positively hates having her blankets put on, adjusted, and taken off (it’s quite the dance to avoid flying hind legs and sneaky bared teeth…yeah, she’s generally a witch in every way), I think it’s a good idea to give the oldies that extra help to conserve warmth in our damp, windy winter weather.

[cswoodlandfairy]

My TB just turned 30 this year ( well his actual bday is 4/1/1987). He is fully retired. Last time I probably rode him was when he was 26. He’s had a lot of ups and downs about his health. We honestly thought he would need to be put down before winter, but we changed a couple things feed wise and he blossomed. So much so he started galloping laps around the younger boys But hes a full time field board horse, though he gets to come in the barn to eat his grain and some soft hay before going back out. He does have some senior moments. The other day he was running up and down the field screaming for horses working himself into a sweat. All the horses were in the lower part of the field where he had come from. (Can horses get dementia??) but he’s been fine since.

Grain wise he gets 3qts of CarbCare Perfomance and a cup and a half of Purina Sport in the morning and then just a qt of grain in the evening with a qt of timothy hay pellets.

Otherwise he’s doing pretty good. Got a good grooming and bath yesterday with the warm weather we have.

[One_Two_Three]

Diablo is 36 this year. She’s a QH/TB cross. She’s boarded at the barn but is in full retirement board with an owner who isn’t down often (once a year?) so we’ve pretty much adopted her as our own. She doesn’t look as stunning as she did in her horse show years, but she gets along and has an aged small pony to keep her company. She’s almost completely deaf and it’s hard for her to see, but she still can. She will still trot from one side of her 7 acre pasture to the other when you call (scream, she’s so deaf) for her to come for meals. She looks hellish. Keeping weight and muscle on her has been increasingly difficult. The vet has told us all at this point to feed her what she wants. She gets about 14 pounds of grain a day along with unlimited servings of Chaff Hay. She cannot chew any long stem forage and refuses soaked cubes, but LOVES the Chaff alfalfa. She is still a spitfire and will chase away her aged pony friend while she eats (and subsequently drops some) her grain. She has very few usable teeth but still manages to process unsoaked senior feeds without much trouble, and just drops some on occasion. She is happy and such a sweetheart. She comes up to the fence for her breakfast and chaff, and then meanders her way back to the other end of her pasture to stand under the same tree every day, all day long, until she’s called back in for dinner. It’s a very calming, peaceful scene to stare out into the pasture and to see that old chestnut mare with her head hanging low, napping in the sun, under a tree that doesn’t provide hardly any shade (there are trees in the pasture that do). Something about that spot makes her feel at peace. I just love it.

[Linda]

I have a 28 yr old and 2 slightly younger guys. The Old guy runs the fields. He chooses which stack of hay he will eat and the other horses never try and move in on his food. He tells them where they can stand and the younger guys do exactly what he wants. They are very respectful of him! I bred this horse so he has spent his life with us which is great.

[Angela_Freda]

Yo was put down [colic] 3 weeks shy of his 29th birthday, and a few months shy of my having him half my life, or 24 years.
He retired at 23 when he started to suffer the effects of DSLD/ESPA, and he lived a great life those last 6 years, just being a dude out with the other dudes, lookin’ at mares.

The greatest gift to me when I lost him was that the entire farm where he was, who only new him as a retiree, was deeply effected by the loss. He was well loved, just for being him. :love-struck:

[TullyMars]

I have a 38 year old named that I have had for 30 years. He is a mustang that was sold to me with QH papers! I was always suspicious of his papers matching…Apparently they were for a different palomino gelding of 8-9 years of age on my PPE exam back in the day! I did a DNA test finally at 36 to solve the mystery! He is fed Timothy pellets un-soaked and 1/2 scoop of equine senior am/pm. Teeth have been jacked since the day I got him, we check himorally every 6 months to be sure that we dont have a problem. Gets Banamine here and there when he plays to hard in the turn out. Let me tell you, he can sure give me a rope burn still!. My other one is an Appendix mare of 33 years old. She is on the same Timothy pellet diet, but she gets 1/2 a scoop of Safe Choice as she has an elevated ACTH and lives on Pracend. She is very happy and healthy and requires no NSAID management. She has near perfect teeth. They live in 24-24 corrals and have 2 hours per day turn out to wander around. Neither are ridden any more as they have paid their dues. Lo

[StarPattern]

I have one that’s 24 now and another that’s 22. When I had the vet out for annual shots last year, she actually made me pull out the 24 year old’s papers to prove her age, because the vet didn’t believe she was older than 12/14 or so. I’m actually looking forward to the day when she slows down a little bit - all of our trail rides involve prancing and loping and spinning and spooking for the duration. I was under the impression these seniors would slow down eventually… still waiting.

[Linda]

How great for all of us who are keeping out older horses going. I have a 32 yr old, a 19 yr old and my “youngster:” who is about 15…so many people seem to think its time to euthanize them when the horses get older…not I.

As long as my horses are able to get up and down and move around, they have a life with me. I want them to last as long s they can whether I can ride them or not - - but I don’t want them to be in pain…and I medicate the older ones if I need to. So just because its not convenient to keep them any longer, is not a reason to put them down.

[SuzieQNutter]

I bought Pepper rising 7 when I was 15 yo. I married when I was 36 and a year later he taught hubby to ride.

In his late 20s he took hubby to ponyclub but hubby changed his days at work so they stopped going because of Hubby not because of Peppy.

He made it into his 30s. He never did slow down. He was know at Ponyclub when I went as Speedy Gonzales.

He did get very skinny in his late 20s and nothing was working. I was boiling barley and rice and he was getting a senior feed, all the hay he could eat and was out 24/7.

In the end we gave him a course of nitrotain. He put on weight over Winter and I was cutting his feed down over and over and over during Winter.

As they get older make sure you follow all the digestion rules like changing little. Feeding little and often. Water before food, etc, etc. They don’t cope as well as they did when younger.

[Magicboy]

Great stories. My 19 year old is still showing so I’m hoping for many more years together

[PeteyPie]

This is bittersweet for me. I have a 26-year-old mare who is starting to have problems. She had a virus last year which set her back and I feel like she’s aged a lot since then. She started losing weight so I am supplementing her with senior feed but her appetite is not robust. After the heavy rains we had this winter she was lying down a lot and just looking generally sore when she was up. The vet said she is starting to show signs of DSLD/ESPA, she may have something neurological going on, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she had a cancer or some internal problem affecting her appetite (her teeth are good).

So due to all of the above and the fact that I felt like she was in pain or at least uncomfortable, I scheduled a euthanasia. Of course many of you can identify with the problem of choosing the right time: I cancelled the euth because she perked up and was looking happier, eating better, and is no longer lying down excessively. To be honest, I was also influenced by a friend who thought she looked fine and made me question myself. It is such a difficult thing to make this decision and as my friend said, she’s eating, pooping, moving around the pasture, hanging out with her companion…

So I am taking things week by week at this point. I want her to have a good life, happy and free of pain, that is, excessive and unusual pain, not just a few aches and pains from aging. I don’t want her to be just existing and enduring.

Back to the original topic: I always expected my horses to live to their 30s so this downturn has surprised me.

[Jungle_Monkey]

Not me personally but one friends old guy just turned 37 and my friend adopted a pony that died last year at 48!!!

[caryledee]

I just lost my first horse at age 33. He had been blind for 7-8 years so I had to retire him at that time. He really didn’t start showing his age until the last couple of months. We started to think he was going to outlive us all but then something happened to his stifle and he was unable to get up that last morning. My vet offered to do “heroics” but I knew he had enough. He was always fiercely independent and didn’t want help from the humans! If it wasn’t for the stifle issue I think he would have gone a couple more years at least. He was the healthiest horse I ever owned.

[TwoTrickPony]

Mine was just short of his 31st birthday. He had no special feed or extra grain, just msm, glucosamine, and chondroitin. The day before I lost him we were schooling all of the I-1 work and doing trails. He was a bit creakier as he got older and took a bit to warm up some, and in his late 20’s I stopped doing the one tempis, but everything else was great. He could do all the work and was a great trail horse in better shape than everyone else. His legs were clean and strong the day he died. He was mostly blind from about 18 on, and completely blind from 23 on, but still showed and did fine. He was great on the trail blind. He did not die of old age. He died because the barn owner took away his pasture space where he could be moving all day and forced him into a stall and he just coliced. No way I was taking him to surgery,