WWYD: Crossroads with aging gelding

[Ottbaxel]

I have been pondering for a little bit what to do with my gelding, who is coming up on 18 this year. This will be a bit of a long one-

He is an OTTB with hock fusion, mild navicular changes, headshakers (kept at bay very successfully with some magnesium), and a bone spur in neck between C6 & C7. He is also a cribber so he tends to be sore through his poll. We attempted eventing for a few years, but the combination of soundness issues and his lack of excitement leaving the start box plus some fear of water (lol) didn’t bode well for us.

I had him half leased out for the past couple of year, but his lease is coming to an end now. I’m kind of torn on two things: what sort of maintenance or vet “procedures” (within reason) I can try for him to get him feeling sounder, and what level of work to keep him in.

First off, the level of work. The thing with him is that because of presumably the neck arthritis combined with fusing hocks, he has trouble with the dressage. He is decently trained on the flat but he gets pretty clearly uncomfortable when asked for true collection - grinding teeth, ears pinned, falls behind the leg with slight head bob (not true lameness, but a bit of a bridle lameness). He jumps great still and I have a blast jumping him which he enjoys (due to his age and the trouble collecting up the canter in between the fences, I don’t jump high at all, probably around 2’3 just for fun and maybe once a week) but obviously I can’t only jump him every ride! His flat rides right now are just super basic, all three gaits with leg yields and transitions, but since going in the frame is a bit difficult for him, I’m contemplating what to do.

For the record, I absolutely do want to keep this horse in work. The times where he has needed time off, he has gotten really stiff so I don’t want to fully retire him yet (but when I do think that is best for him, I absolutely will retire him! he is with me for life).

Soooo I’m pondering. Do I keep going how I am now, with 4 ish light flat rides a week plus some small jumps here and there? Do I substitute some of the flat rides with lunging? Maybe try teaching him some long lining or something? Or put a little bit more vet/maintenance work into him to try and get him feeling even just a little bit better than he does right now in the bridle so we can do more flat rides? Which brings me to the other question…

Right now for his maintenance, he gets monthly Legend injections, as well as hock injections every 6 months or so. He has a back on track sheet, I just got a new back on track exercise rug, and he has the hock boots and hind boots that I use on especially cold days. I also recently bought sure foot pads that I have him stand on before & after rides, and he responds very well to them-licking, chewing, swaying, etc. and I do some light stretches with him as well. He also gets methocarb, equiox, or ulcergard as needed if he seems a bit stiffer or gets back sore. I am wondering though, with a somewhat limited budget, if there’s anything I should change or add to try and help him out even more. I haven’t tried anything other than Legend (Adequan, or something like osphos). He gets chiro and we’ve tried acupuncture but didn’t notice a difference with that. I certainly can’t afford a pemf or bemer or anything of the sort, but I could try having someone out for a session and see how he does with it? I’ve also considered a red light therapy poll cap in case the cribbing & cribbing halter is contributing to the unsteadiness in the bridle. Or I could try neck injections again for him-but the second time I did them I never really noticed a clear difference so I didn’t do them again after that.

I could also just keep on trucking the exact same way I have been and call it good enough until he starts feeling worse and I make the call to stop riding him.

There’s just soooo much to consider for this guy and I’m very very undecided. I know that in the summertime, I can at least do plenty of hacking with him to keep him moving around but the winter is so much trickier!

So, WWYD??

[HeartsDesireEventing]

Couple thoughts - can some of your flat days be hacking outside the ring? If you have the ability/facility for it, I find that’s a good way to keep the older horse moving.

I have had good luck with PEMF for my (now) older horse - I would say it’s worth trying, but be aware that if it helps, it should be done on a routine to get the best benefits. My guy currently gets done every 4 weeks.

To make flat rides more interesting, adding pole/cavaletti work? There are so many different variations and exercises with poles, even at the walk, that may make things more interesting without overstressing him or making him be in a frame.

With my older horse, I had the vet doing a general performance exam at least twice a year to make sure we were staying on top of whatever maintenance he needed, so I would also encourage discussion with your vet as far as what else may be an option to keep him comfortable, what the appropriate level of work is, etc. We gradually adjusted my horse’s level of work - from competing Intermediate, to needing to stay below Prelim, to no jumping over 3’, to primarily dressage, and then finally to retirement earlier this year at 20. It is definitely a bit of a balancing act!

[Simkie]

Kudos for getting what sounds like a complicated horse to this age and considering his well being in how he’s worked. So many would not

It is a-okay to hack around and do stuff he enjoys and not have an over arching goal for that work besides keeping him moving and comfortable and in a happy head space. There really doesn’t need to be a bigger reason than that. It’s honestly a whole lot of fun when the pressure to always be moving forward to something else is removed!

It gets tougher when your goals and his needs aren’t compatible, but it sounds like you’re also okay stepping back, at least for now?

There are a lot of fun “side quest” type things you could explore, if you just want to play around. Like trick training, or clicker work, or sure, long lining. It’s also great fun to go for hand walks. But I whole heartedly recommend doing stuff that he enjoys, because it’s also just a blast as a rider to make the horse the focus.

Best of luck!

[IPEsq]

Based on what you’ve said, Adequan might be worth a try. I would also rather just go on walks/hacks than do much lunging with a horse with poll, neck, and hock issues, personally. Other unmounted stuff could be fun too, but with less circling.

I exercised my friend’s jumper some as he was entering semi-retirement. And while he didn’t really need to be jumping anymore, he sure did light up and was much more fun to ride and easy in the connection with a few poles in the arena than just doing flatwork. Same for one of mine who is still sound enough to jump, I just haven’t been pounding his legs this year for various reasons. Some poles or cavaletti or even a small cross rail or some filler boxes with nothing on them keeps him entertained a couple times a week and helps him loosen up his lower back.

[Ottbaxel]

@IPEsq

And while he didn’t really need to be jumping anymore, he sure did light up and was much more fun to ride and easy in the connection

This exactly! He is a super, super lazy horse in the flatwork but when I pop him over some fences he perks up considerably. It makes the ride sooo much easier. In fact, I didn’t do much xc with him this year because our jumps are mostly on hills and after a month off due to an abscess I wanted to build some strength first-but he turns into a total freakshow jumping little xc stuff. The flatwork is just soooo difficult with him, and I don’t blame him since it’s a real physical issue.

I’ll ask my vet about Adequan. I know every horse is different and it may work better for him than the Legend!

[Ottbaxel]

@HeartsDesireEventing

Couple thoughts - can some of your flat days be hacking outside the ring? If you have the ability/facility for it, I find that’s a good way to keep the older horse moving

I can totally do this! Just not in the wintertime. That’s why I’m struggling a bit harder right now with what to do with him - I definitely don’t want him sitting all winter, but we’ve got months ahead of only riding in the indoor.

I’ll look into PEMF near me - I see all sorts of ads for them in other areas but I’m not sure if there are many close by me!

[Ottbaxel]

@Simkie

Kudos for getting what sounds like a complicated horse to this age and considering his well being in how he’s worked

I appreciate this so much! I feel a little guilty from time to time about still riding him given all of his issues, but this summer he was off for a couple of weeks due to an abscess and he was sooooo creaky and just seemed sad overall (the poor guy would stick his nose between the bars of his stall to watch me tack up other horses haha).

I’m totally fine stepping back-getting a horse that I can compete with is in the works for the spring (although on a tight budget), so I’m genuinely really excited to have this guy into old age. He is the quirkiest horse ever and even though he didn’t end up helping me fulfill my goals for showing, I love that I’ve had him long enough now that I know him like the back of my hand, AND can just laugh off all of his weird habits. I’ll be very sad when I can no longer ride him (especially the jumps since he’s so fun) but this is my first horse I’ve had into old age, so I’ll just be thrilled he’s still here with me.

Trick training could definitely be cool-I’ve never thought of that for him. If that’s something he seems to like I can for sure do that as well. I thought about ponying him with my other horse when I had him, on short hacks so he can walk around with us without a person on his back or something too-but he also is fabulous at bucking when he goes on hacks with other horses so I had to nix that idea haha!

[PNWjumper]

I’m a big fan of doing what the horse enjoys. I don’t think jumping crossrail/2’3" fences is any harder on their bodies than flatwork, so I’m all for throwing in a few fences here and there as often as you want (or rather, as often as the horse seems to enjoy it). With my old girl, we were jumping her every single ride for many years in the last years of riding. She’ll be 29 this year and hasn’t been ridden consistently for a couple of years now, but up through maybe 26/27 my daughter was still incorporating little crossrails and verticals because she’d get so excited (and was generally a very dull horse). No drilling, of course, and literally just as a fun little thing for her generally in the middle of the ride. If it helps break up the doldrums of being stuck inside/in the ring during the winter, then I say have at it!

[Ottbaxel]

This makes me feel a lot better-maybe I’ll go this route, at least through the winter if I can’t find anything else that he seems to enjoy as much. It’s funny, he’s actually much happier jumping in the winter than the summer-we used to jump around 3’3 ish in the winters because he’d be so game, then summer would come around and he’d be less enthusiastic about it so we’d bump the height down a bit. The flat work has always been much worse for him in the winter and he gets pretty grumpy, so now that I’ll be riding him full time again rather than his leaser I’ve been really trying to work through a way to avoid…doing it. hahaha

Last summer there was one day when I got on in my jump tack without any intention to jump, but my very very lazy horse saw another horse out doing cross country and picked up a canter before my other foot was even in the stirrup. I conceded and decided to let him do some cross country-and it was the most fun I’ve ever had doing xc with this horse. If he’s like that for little jumps/poles/cavalettis in the ring over the winter, I’d be thrilled to have really consistent rides like that, I’ve just been so fearful of doing it too often with him!

[IPEsq]

Depending on how exuberant he is, small jumps like that are really just a canter stride in terms of pounding on the body, especially if your indoor has decent footing. You can also make some interesting exercises just with poles that might encourage him to collect or stretch a bit to gently gymnasticize his body without so much pressure from the rider as you might need for doing the same thing with flatwork alone without the visual cues and interest in obstacles. I would not push his physical comfort too much, but if he is more engaged mentally, that is one way to get in some variety it in between some low pressure w/t/c rides appropriate for this stage in his life.

My current horses sure love their Adequan, but others might feel like it’s not worth doing. No big risks in trying one round to see how he does.

[cayuse]

Add me to the “try the Adequan” and see what happens list.

[RedHorses]

Why can’t you ride outside in the winter?

I have a 26 year old with a few health issues. He has a fragile stifle after a repeated meniscus injury, and an arthritic knee with partially restricted range of motion. Movement is a major management tool for two of his health issues, and we are mostly riding the same trails every time out these days. My focus is now on keeping him using his body, and not getting stuck in the stiff movement. We have some very narrow, twisty trails out back, and I use those to get him bending and loosened up.

I often hand walk and jog if we’re stuck indoors for some reason. I usually turn him loose and he stays with me. We do forward back (go faster 10-15 strides, then slower 10-15 strides, repeat) in walk, and trot if I can manage it. Walk trot 10s (10 strides walk, 10 trot, repeat). Serpentines. Poles if I can be bothered to put them out. He can move however he’s comfortable, and the little exercises help increase his range of motion as he loosens up.

That’s all I’m really doing - keeping him moving as much as he’s comfortable doing.

[4horses]

If you don’t want to do all the riding yourself, you can lease him out again. But if you can keep things interesting for both of you, I think you should continue to enjoy him and continuing doing what you have been doing.

Adequan and pentosan are fine for arthritic horses and certainly won’t hurt.

I have a 19 yr old mare with limitations and we are finding ways to keep her in work… because she’s a lovely horse and she doesn’t like being ignored. She’s always happy to go riding. Always.

[Pico_Banana]

I actually think Zycosan worked better on my old guy than Adequan. Plus, the dosing schedule is so much better!

[Ottbaxel]

I technically can ride outside in the winter, but the path out to our trails get super icy. My guy is generally great walking on ice to come inside at turn-in - he walks super slowly and carefully. But I still just don’t feel comfortable walking out to the trails with him.

I’ve had a few rides in the past couple of weeks where I really just let him do what he wants with his head and just let him trot around that way to keep him happy rather than trying to keep him in a light frame. He feels good that way but I worry that it won’t be good for his back long term to go around like that? He doesn’t have his head way up in the air or anything, but his head is definitely out and above the vertical. He’ll stretch down from time to time as well.

[Ottbaxel]

I wish I could lease him out again for financial reasons, but I don’t think I’m going to. He’s a tough sell-he doesn’t like competing, can have the occasional “weirdness” because of his headshakers (every once in a while it pops back up again and we have to readjust his supplements), and he does have a healthy buck in him. His leaser for the past two years basically fell into my lap and has been phenomenal and I don’t think I’ll find someone like that again. It was my first experience leasing a horse out, and it has been a tremendously positive experience!

I am actually pretty excited to have him back all to myself even if the rides are going to look a little different than what they used to be-I just worry that I’m doing too much with him still. What do you do with your mare to keep her in work?

[Ottbaxel]

I’ll have to look into this, I actually don’t know anything about Zycosan!

[SonnysMom]

If you go to the Magnawave site there is an option for Find a Practitioner.

[Christa_P]

I didn’t catch if he’s shod, but you can get hoof boots with studs and Scoot boots work over shoes.

[hallie2]

you mentioned in original post that you injected his neck and got a few good months. so he’s got arthritis, along w/ a bone spur. Maybe he holds his head in the position least likely to hurt his neck. If this were my horse, I’d have the vet out for repeat neck films, see if they’ve progressed and talk to the vet about how best to manage the horse, given his physical limitations. He’s 18, I’d worry more about his comfort now and less about potential impacts on his back down the road.