I love this thread! My horse is 11 and I’m in my sixties. I hope this is the last horse I have. It’s a lot of work to find one you like! I have a friend who’s 75 and still competing in low level jumpers and baby eventing stuff. She’s my role model!
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I’m in my late 50’s and I’ve been riding my heart horse, a PRE mare, for 15 years. She is the kindest, wisest, most trustworthy horse I know - moves out wonderfully with my friends who ride gaited horses and ambles along with my husband’s QH. She is now 18 and blind in one eye. It looks like she is developing the same condition (melanoma) in her other eye. I hope to be riding her for 5 -10 more years, but trail riding may become too much. If that happens, I will be shopping for another Andalusian/PRE as I’ve been completely spoiled, but won’t be starting a youngster next time. I have a friend in her early 80s who still trail rides. She’s my role model.
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I want to be like the queen, ride till I die. Right now (knock-wood) I’m in good shape and ride 4x a week. I think what will hold me back is finances. The cost of owning a horse is expensive and more so every year. Six years ago I was paying $600 a month at a full-service show barn in my area. This year the cost was $1100 and when they increased the board again $50 in March, I had to move on. The barn I moved to is nice, not a show barn, but has great care and boarders which is important and I pay $800. When retirement comes in five years, not sure my checkbook can afford a horse.
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It’s time to quit when the rider’s balance and fitness become compromised and cause the horse to have issues. If you don’t have the strength and you either don’t or can’t work out enough to get it back and you look like a sack of potatoes on your horse, it’s time to quit. Because when you ride that way, you don’t have balance. You flop and bounce. When you have to use your hands to balance and pull yourself up into a post, it’s time to quit. It isn’t fair to do that to your horse. If you aren’t fit enough to post more than 12 steps at a time, it’s time to quit. If your horse is back sore because of the way you ride, it’s time to quit. When these things start to happen, you surely will not have the strength or balance to save yourself from a spook or a stumble. Can you tell I have delt with this? 😳🤣
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I have a good barn friend who is 68, she lost her 21 year old heart horse a few months ago to colic, she’s currently leasing a 10 year old QH to see if they’ll be a good fit. He’s a lot quieter than her 17.2hh Hanoverian was (even at 21 he could buck and zoom with babies when he wanted to- and would get extremely offended that he wasn’t allowed to jump over 2ft6 consistently anymore) and a lot smaller at 14.3hh but she says a smaller and quieter horse is better these days! (Plus the QH has no history of rearing when he gets excited!)
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I board at a barn where an 83 yr old woman w/ two hip replacements rides her little arab 3x per week, W-T-C- and hacks around our field and woods. By comparison I’m a 67 yr old spring chicken, showed this year at I-1 and have a youngish horse in training that I hope will allow me to perhaps get my gold medal in a couple years. But in any event, as long as my foot can go in the stirrup and I can hoist myself over, I will ride. I am on awe of the Queen of England, she is my ultimate role model.
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I’m 72, and bought a 12 year old 4th level schoolmaster last year. This past spring the arthritis in my hips got pretty bad, but so far it’s being held at bay with medication and I’m riding five days a week. One of those rides is with the barn’s hunter trainer. The horse is loving learning to jump, and the change of pace does us a lot of good, both mentally and physically.
The hardest part of the ride for me is dismounting from my high-cantled dressage saddle. I will probably start looking for one with a lower cantle in the next few months.
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Yesterday our 76 year old Huntsman led the hunt at a blistering pace. The Hilltopper Field Master was 78 year old. He was riding a bottomless Mustang, she was riding a new to her TB cross. And yes, both of them keep their horses at home. Just perfect!
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I don’t have a good answer but I will say that as i approach ‘that decision’ I still hold fast to my ‘as long as I can throw a let over the saddle’ mantra. I’m a vet so I wont’ ride one who isn’t sound or sane enough to do it; but, I will say that I have personally witnessed where my older mounts stayed sounder and going longer as long as they were in a ‘regular’ program. Once there was a major glitch to curtail their daily exercise the down hill slide was fast and furious. I have breeds who are known for driving talent; so, I break them all to ground driving when they are young. Part of the plan is when I can no longer throw a leg over, my hope is to try to drive. I have a good friend who is a well known international driver so I will send them off for training when the time comes, whomever that poor beast happens to be. At least that’s how I’ve been looking at it since I was very little. I was also fortunate enough to have a grandfather who insisted I learn how to harness, hitch and drive (though I prefer to be on their backs).
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of course theres many different ways of riding from competetive to just hacking. but in this comment ill just assume its a hobby rider who competes once i a while. i feel as though as long the person has control of their body and rides in a way that doesnt hurt the horse and has enough strenght and cunning to have controll of the horse the person can ride. but if the riding is causing the horse pain or putting the person in a bad place in means of health i dont think riding is very smart. theres other diciplines with horses than just riding so id consider at that point to just retire to the occasional hack or switch to some dicipline that does not require as much from my old body
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My grandpa is 80 years old and he is an inspiration for me, he still rides and even we gifted him cowboy hat and boots on his 80th birthday through couponcodify .
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Hopefully I will ride until the day I die.
I have MS. Riding horses keeps me walking. It is the best and the cheapest regular physical therapy I can get.
I am definitely the oldest rider at my lesson stable, in fact I am the oldest person at my lesson stable. I think it is important to show young riders that riding can be a life long passion, one that they can enjoy even when old age reduces all a person’s physical abilities.
I’ve found that a lot of horses just never got real schooling at the walk. That gives us both plenty to do to avoid terminal boredom.
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I assume you have checked out all those on the ground and riding at the walk drills with poles that Linda Tellington teaches, she of the TTouch system.
Those would be good to make riding interesting at a slow pace and still get much accomplished without boring horse and rider.
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I’m 66. I thought my last horse would be my Arab, who died unexpectedly in 1999 at the age of 11. I’ve had (have) three horses since he died. I’m leasing my 19-year-old gelding to an 89-year-old lady. She gave up jumping, decided dressage would be a good option now.
They’re so cute together! I wanna be like her!
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Good thread. I’ve been thinking about this lately.
I’m 57 with a perky 12 year old QH. In ten years she’ll only be 22 but I’ll be 67. I plan on keeping her for her life, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to ride (I just trail ride). Sometimes I wish I bought an older horse. I did have her trained to drive in case I just can’t get on any more, although putting a horse into harness takes more work than a saddle.
Worst case is that I just put her out in a good pasture and visit on the weekends when I stop riding.
The last time I was horse shopping there were several older people (around 60’s) who were sadly selling horses they thought they’d be riding for many more years. But serious health issues took over (i.e. possibly dying). We really don’t know how long we’ll ride.
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I am mid seventies and on my second broken rib in four months.
Was not doing anything extraordinary, just those little dings and bumps here and there as we all go thru in our normal horsey life without any care.
Those now may have consequences.
Dr said, no osteoporosis, as we get older we become slowly more fragile, things don’t work as they used to.
In horse terms, “we don’t bounce as well as we used to”.
I suggest everyone does what they really want to do now, not wait for later, because later some of it may not be doable any more.
Then, don’t count yourself short either, learn to manage so we can keep doing what we can.
After all, we are also wiser now.
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Words of wisdom from @Bluey.
I am almost 70, and crippled with MS.
I am SO GLAD that I jumped, galloped, trail rode, and rode in big pastures (good gallops!) when I was younger, because it is no longer safe or possible for me to ride like that now.
I MISS jumping. I MISS galloping.
BUT I am still riding and will ride for as long as possible.
I tried life without riding, it just was not the same as I felt like I was dying inside everyday.
At least I get to ride!
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