Any 28+ year old horses still competing out there??

See you have a lot of success stories here which is great but that's a very small percentage of the older horses out there. I know of more older horses that are retired than I know ones that are still being ridden and competed. That's sadly just how life works they won't all keep going until a very old age. Same as people you see one 80 year old running a marathon, the next one can't walk without a cane. Horses are exactly the same and there is no telling which one she is.

The horse is competing still now, will she next year? Its a less likely chance that she will be compared to a younger horse. Yeah you see a lot of stories about broken young horses on here, again thats a minority.

I wouldn't personally take the risk as there are plenty of horses to choose from and its likely there will be a young version of that horse out there. Just go in with the idea that potentially in a few years hacking is perhaps all she will be able to do.
 
I had a Welsh x who was pts aged 40! He was being ridden 4/5 days a week up until the day before we lost him to colic. That was in the May and up until the previous summer we had still been attending PC, I loved that wee fella! I also had a tbxconnie on loan, he had had a very competitive life and competed again up until the weekend before we lost him suddenly aged 26. My current horse I got as a 3 year old she will be 10 this year and I have managed to do the least with her!
 
I wouldn't buy a horse that was 18, but then that's because I ding agree a horse if that age should even be up for sale.
I love the stories of the oldies going on into 30's but the running theme with them appears to be them being in a long term loving home where they've been kept fit & well. Not palmed off because they are getting long in the tooth.

I don't think that 18 is necessarily an old horse in terms of wanting to go out competing if you own it, but I do think it's an old horse to sell.
 
I think that brings up another point too glamourpuss, if you buy a horse at that age most of us would then be wanting to give it a home for life, if for any reason you don't get on with it, which does happen as you can read on this forum then a year or 2 down the line depending on the horse it might be trickier to sell and you start to get into the realms of whether it is appropriate to sell on the open market (rather than loan etc). It was something we thought about when Frank hit the 17ish stage re. if he is staying past this point he is staying for life.
 
I wouldn't count on it.

While there are great success stories and we have a 40 yo New Forest on my yard who competed merrily until she was 30, I know just as many horses who aged very quickly and very suddenly at 20-23years. The horse even staying alive to 28 is not a certitude, let alone it being fit to be ridden or compete!
 
I bought a perfectly sound 16 yr old who needed retiring aged 18 and was sadly pts in November aged 21.
You can't guarantee 10 years work from a horse of any age, but I think 10 years work from an 18 yr old is quite unlikely and you may well end up having a retired horse for longer than you had a ridden one.
 
A year ago I would have said go for it - no one ever believed how my Welsh boy looked aged 20. However, he is now developing arthritis and suddenly just looks older at age 21. He still looks good for his age, don't get me wrong, but the decline has started sadly and it's hard to watch and face up to the fact that he won't be around forever. At 18, your sister should have a few good years left, but she also needs to prepare herself for that being taken away from her. Will she be able to keep a retired horse?
 
My Welsh D mare will be 19 this spring, still competing but I highly doubt she will be aged 28. We don't do bounces or tight grids anymore as I'm wary of the strain it puts on her legs, she told me two years ago that this was too much for her when she started stopping after she'd been down them a few times so we plain don't do them anymore. She still wins at SJ though!
She'll likely see 28 but she'll be mooching around the field or down the lanes and certainly not in an arena.

I wouldn't buy an 18 year old and expect to get 10 years work from them - I'd consider myself lucky with 3 and go from there. So unless she's content with just a few years of riding then I would steer clear and get something younger.
 
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