I would distill my advice into 24x7 turnout on gentle land and attentive feeding and management. Noticing when they need to have their food separate and mushy and making the time to do that. It helps if they’re in a situation where a human is regularly observing them and not just at feeding time, but can notice behavior changes.
Luck too.
Luck, mostly.
I have a Rocky Mountain mare that I bought at a sheriff’s auction 19 years ago. She and the rest of her herd had been starved and then seized by the sheriff. They re-fed the horses for about a month, until the court case was over (guilty!) and they were stable. I bought her for $50.
She’s somewhere in her 30s, we think. We had fun in the pasture and trips around the neighborhood. We went to several horsemanship, ranch riding and 4H clinics. We gathered cattle a couple times on a ranch. She has always been very round, zaftig like Miss Piggy. She’s only fed a handful of low starch pellets - so she doesn’t feel left out - and coastal hay. That’s all she’s ever had with us. And grass, when it’s available - we live in the desert.
She’s had a comfortable, low stress life with us, on a dry lot and never stalled. She has horse and donkey companionship. I haven’t ridden her in about six years because - call me crazy - one day she told me she didn’t want to anymore and that was it. Her hocks are a little stiff and she plays less these days but most folks would put her in her 20s or late teens, probably. Great barefoot hooves. No supplements and no more vaccines, after she did poorly with them a few years ago.
She’s the only Rocky Mountain horse in this region, says the vet. She looks like a little round Morgan and has been a hardy thing, only colicking a couple times when she got into a new roundbale and ate herself silly. I’d happily have another of the breed. She’s built right for a long life, too. Four feet very squarely on the ground, if that makes sense. Sturdy-looking. Big plain head, huge eyes. Not tall, just 14 hands. Her body runs very economically, not needing much to stay healthy.
She’s always been an optimist in personality, also - curious and friendly, interested in people and their doings, assuming everything is always good, but able to state her opinions and stand her ground with animals and people alike. I think her optimism helps with her longevity.
Some of the oldest horses I have ever known received extremely sub-par care much of their lives. So yeah, luck is a huge part of it. Or maybe genetics?
I acquired a then 32 year old TB with a BCS of 2. I got him refed and he lived to 37 or 38 (I was gone by then). A barn I boarded at briefly had their horses seized for neglect, including a 42 year old Morgan.
Meanwhile, I’ve lost most of my oldsters in their 20s.
Luck. Proper attention to teeth and adjusting their diet for any dental/metabolic issues helps, but mostly just luck. I had two live to be 32, one to 28, one to 26 and I have a 28 year old right now. On the flip side years ago I lost a 2 year old to a fractured shoulder and a 3 year old pony to some god-awful respiratory infection that was resistant to treatments. So luck. And a good vet who likes the old-timers.
Best guess at our pony Charlie age when he passed was 45 We got him when he was said to be 22. He was ridden frequently until his late thirties, afterwards he stayed with his best friend my son’s Morgan.
His last six or so years since he had limited teeth he was fed a mash of senior feed four to five times a day (by this time his buddy had died and Charlie had his own paddock)
He was cared for, handled daily, His vision was limited as he aged, we just made sure everything was in its proper place,
Upon his passing he was buried next to his buddy in the farm’s burial plot.
Not yet had one reach 30, but my TB was 27 when I lost him to a trailer accident.
Earlier that same year I’d taken him to a Dressage clinic where the very knowledgeable clinician (Jeff Ashton Moore - co-authored FEI Judging Manual, bred WBs) was amazed at his age.
My Hackney Pony has registration from the breeder that proves he’s 25. Can pass for much younger until you get close enough to see how gray his face has gone.
Still moves like a much younger horse.
Alleged (no registration) TWH is guesstimated mid-20s, gifted by a friend who had him 6yrs & put him at 13 when she gave him to me in 2015.
Only sign of age is his incisors in the last year have become worn like a cribber’s. He’s on turnout 24/7 with free access to a stall that has no place for him to crib& I’ve never seen him crib. They’re at home, I feed 3X a day, horses come in for this, so I observe stalled behavior.
Fencing is coated tensile with a flexible top rail.
I guess he could crib on my 6" round posts, but none show this kind of wear.
Aside from teeth & the very beginning of graying, he could be judged as a teen.
For these horses I’m going to give at least 1/2 the credit to their personal genetics.
The way I keep them gets the other half.
No processed feed, “grain” is whole oats & BOSS.
I added 1 heaping cup TC Sr for the Walker when he came out of Winter ribbier than I like last year.
Hay is 1st cutting grass, pastures are not lush, but provide decent grazing most of the year. I feed hay year-round, a lot less when there’s grass.
To my mind, the minimal time they spend stalled is another component.
Retire a horse at 14 and I’ll guarantee it will set the Guinness book of world record for longest living equine. Something about being useless and living for free makes them live forever! Lmao
I had two live well into their 30s. Both came through the same rescue, who got them at an auction; one was in her late 20s when we got her, the other in his teens, at best guess. So I have no idea about genetics or care before I got them.
They lived outside 24/7 (with deep sheds to get out of the weather) with me. They got senior feed once they could no longer chew, and were blanketed in very cold temperatures when they could no longer keep themselves warm. The younger of the two was boarded once he was quite old (estimated past 30), and DH and I moved him with us from Colorado to South Carolina.
Luck and genetics. I just retired mine at 26. Who knows how long he will live. Every creature has an expiration date. You can just give them the best care possible and hope for the best.
Luck and genetics. I think that quality of life is exponentially improved by quality of care though. The good diet, awareness of metabolic issues, joint maintenance, prioritizing movement, etc keeps them happy but I think most would still live as long just with less vigor.
I agree. Mostly luck and genetics, coupled with lots of the good management practices here. they need more care for their feeding times due to dental issues. You can’t just retire an old horse and toss it out in a field. Even though they aren’t being ridden they still need to be looked after and checked over. I bought my mare off the track as a 3 year old, and we did everything I could think of. We had a blast. Until the day she died she needed front shoes, and she got them. She still got her teeth done every year, and always got a blanket when it was chilly. She had a stroke in my field and dropped dead a month after she turned 30
A little off-topic, but we have two donkeys, along with the ancient but thriving Rocky Mountain mare. The donkeys were found roaming on a ranch about 20 years ago, with the marks of a hard, previous existence - scars around their ankles from being hobbled with wire and on their knees where they’d fallen. One has lost his ear tip to frostbite. They’d been on a candellia or fencing crew in Mexico and either escaped and come across the river or were purposefully set loose on this ranch.
Anyway. The vet guesstimates they’re in their 40s, but it’s vey difficult to tell. The little dark donkey was having a hard time keeping his weight recently, and has a weakness in his back/hind end. He’s now getting half an Equinox daily and Pracend, as is his donkey friend. He has graduated to eating a bit of low starch feed and a couple nice big handfuls of alfalfa, which he dearly loves and he’s brightened considerably. I don’t know that he’ll make another winter, but we’ll see.
The other horse here is 26, a more delicate creature that has dealt with ulcers and occasional colic until we figured out that alfalfa in his diet really helps him. In the last two years he’s been beset by vicious head shaking. We’ve tried everything there is to try, and are now on our last option before calling it for him. Fingers crossed. He’s a grumpy, princess of a gelding, but we adore him.
We had no age luck at all with our young mare who was just magical - talented and super people oriented. I really believe she loved us. She was never quite right in her body, despite keen care, including kissing spine surgery. A year ago, when she’d just turned 10, she broke down with pemphigus folieacious, which I don’t wish for anyone, ever, and we let her go.
My horse turned 30 this year and he doesn’t particularly look it unless you flip up his forelock to see all the gray hairs he hides on the underside. He’s Irish, and I’m convinced he’s at least 1/4 pony, so that’s a good part of the puzzle. I never know what I’m doing right with him so I’ve never stopped anything that might be working, but I think the biggest component to his longevity is that he’s intensely curious about life, the universe, and everything; and he’s certain he’s 4 years old.
He goes out for 16+ hours a day (weather permitting- he has anhidrosis) with a low-key herd that includes his codependent platonic life partner of many years. They amble around 10 acres of rolling terrain and eat their faces off on lush grass. This is perhaps not ideal for a Cushings horse but it’s worked so far.
If I’ve done anything right with him, it’s been a lifetime of appropriate physical fitness balanced with recovery and good body care. He was my big eq horse when he was young, and my intent was to always step him down before I thought he actually needed to. He was loping over 2’6” until about 25. After that I trail rode or flatted him in the grass a couple times a week and he taught my mom over 2’ speed bumps until 27. At that point I retired him because I thought he was getting bored of being in a ring, and we just trail rode. I sat on him bareback and held a lead rope with one hand and he went wherever he pleased, which was sometimes two times around the ring and back inside, and sometimes through the woods for an hour and a half. He completely retired last year when his arthritis progressed.
He of course continues to get all the same medical care he did when he was in work. I didn’t believe in joint injections to preserve his competitive career but they do manage his arthritis- I keep hearing “he ran away from me this morning when I tried to catch him” and upon inquiry it does appear he was at least trotting with a purpose. The only change is that he’s now barefoot behind- flexing his stifles to hold his foot up for the farrier was getting less comfortable, so we tried it and he’s done well. He’s lost one tooth to nature but the others are doing fine. I have to rug him very heavily in winter, even though he grows a spectacular 4” long and very thick native breed coat. That’s about it. I thank his parents and his breeder, whomever that may be. I wish I knew!
The oldest horse on the farm currently is either 35 or 38, depending on whom you ask. We had a grand old TB live to about 38. It’s amazing what good medical care and a zest for life can do for a body.
I have one that reached 36 (TB) (died of Ehrlichiosis) and one that reached 32 (3/4 TB x 1/4 TB) (either a twisted intestine or a strangulating lipoma), as well as one (TB x QH) that died at 5 of septic arthritis from a puncture wound.
Luck is a big part of it, but both of the ones that made it past 30 had lots of turnout, and continuing veterinary and farrier care even after they were no longer being ridden. The 36 yo TB had hip artritis, from at least age 10. the 32 yo TYB QH cross had Cushings ( but not IR), and lost quite a few teeth, so had chopped hay for her last few years.
I had a QH for 29 years. She was boarded out for the entire time. She was stalled but frequent turnouts. She was an easy keeper, and never sick or sorry, but went downhill at about 35, so I had her put down. We were able to bury her where she had lived.
My guess it’s a combination of genetics (longevity/conformation), management, and luck. If you asked me personally, I’d say the best thing you can do for a horse’s longevity is keep them out 24/7. Stalled horses colic more than turned out ones, and colic kills many horses before they can enjoy advanced age.
We have a 31 year old mini gelding. His first 20 years he lived on a pig farm and ate whole corn and grass… and got trimmed a couple times a year and probably a vaccine once and awhile?
He was owned by a friend’s family member and my husband wanted a mini. So we got semi feral Henry at about 18 years years old haha…he was healthy and good looking but hard to catch and a little wild.
He’s still going strong at 31- just added senior feed to his ration balancer and beet pulp soup as he’s having a harder time with hay now. He still is the king of his herd of 3 and living his best life- a 13 yr old mini donkey and a 14 yr old gypsy gelding. They live in a run in stall where they can come and go as they please. We do regular vet, farrier work on him and otherwise just kind of let him be. He’s still not the friendliest guy with people unless he sees a treat or his food coming then he nickers like crazy but he tolerates us and loves his two pasture mates. Sometimes I think luck and good genetics trump everything with these creatures…
One of my boys turns 31 tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Chico!! He’s just got good genetics, I think!
My gelding lived to 35. My family owned him most of his life (from 7 onward). Workload was decent for a few years, then a pasture puff in his early teens, then brought back into work and achieved good results showing at 2nd level dressage and training level eventing into his late teens. Still was ridden quite a bit until mid 20s, at which point my mom took over and he did relaxing trail rides up until almost the very end.
Care was 24/7 turnout on sandy loam pasture. Coastal hay and Purina grain. Did develop cushings in his late 20s and was on medication for it. 15.3 hand APHA.
Pic of the old man. We still miss him every day.
There is a QH gelding in the pasture next to where my horse lives out at the barn, and he’s in his 30’s. He cannot eat hay and gets ample amounts of soaked alfalfa cubes as well as whatever else (no idea what else he eats). He has an acre of grass to himself and though he just quids it for the most part, at least he can mosey around at his leisure “grazing” as it were. He lost his long-time pasture mate over a year ago, and he’s a bit of a Nervous Ned type when taken out of his pasture, but he has two shared fence lines with other horses, a nice stall he can come and go from as he chooses, and a good barefoot trimmer who trims him in the shade of his tree in his pasture where he’s relaxed and happy. No one would ever look at him and think he was over 30 until, as others have mentioned, getting a closer look at the grey in his face. He sheds out beautifully every spring and shines like a brand new penny. He loves to give us heart attacks by taking long naps laying flat out in his pasture, but he always comes up for feed time, whinnying and demanding service, LOL.
His owner only comes out occasionally as she lives some distance away, but she makes sure he has what he needs and that he is living as comfortable a life as he possibly can. She always assumed he’d be the one to die before his pasture mate (who was in her 20’s) but it wasn’t so. Ol’ Rebel just continues living on, unaware of how old he is.
My oldies died at 28 (some sort of internal issue…not really colic, but enough pain to say goodbye), and 22 (broken leg…ugh). I’m hoping my now 17yo that I’ve had since he was a yearling will make 30+. He’s a healthy boy and I am a slave to his health and happiness, so we’ll see. He’s literally living his best life with 24/7 access to a small pasture with his BFF mare friend, 24/7 access to nice, airy, clean stalls with fans, lots of doting on by me, and reasonable amounts of riding to keep him fit enough but not tax him too much. I obsess over his diet, and he wants for nothing when it comes to care.
Of course, he could break his leg at any time. I can’t control that. But barring a catastrophic accident, I think he should last a pretty long time.
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