Anyone over 65 still riding?

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Patchworkpony

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Is anyone over 65 still riding, or do you know someone who is? Please inspire me and also tell me how you deal with the lack of energy and aches and pains. I so want to ride again but my stupid body is not so keen!
 
When we were in Spain a couple of years back the local livery yard had 8 owners over that age, with 3 in their 70s.
I think it helps using a Spanish type saddle as your seat is more secure overall, also they always used the mounting block to get on with. Riding was either dressage, schooling or hacking.
Grooming was an issue for some as the dust got on their lungs, so they wore workman's dust masks and 1 groomed his 2 using a Hetty vacuum cleaner. The German tack suppliers sell a special horses attachment for that model!
 
I know 2! one is a lady that is 65 and bought a Arab foal! he is now 4 and has been broken. She has just done her first dressage test! The other is 75 and has a connie pony she does struggle with her hips as she has had replacements. She is in pain but still hacking! x
 
I am 69 and hack out every other day. Bit stiffer than I used to be but will carry on as long as possible. Could not imagine life without riding
 
I am 62 and husband 68 both still ride. I do something with the horses every day and hubby schools once a week and hacks out twice a week with me winter and summer alike (unless weather horrendous)
I broke one of my horses 4 years ago when 58 and he is now 8 and ridden/ free schooled/or lunged most days .
We do have an outdoor school and a small indoor school so we don't have to go outside if the weather is bad.
We have set up our place (horses kept at home) to make the work as easy as possible .All 4 horses live out 24/7 there is a huge pole barn 80ft long 25ft deep with access to a hard standing yard and then into what ever field we are using they can come and go as they please .
The pole barn is mucked out in the morning and hay put out twice a day in winter am and pm and one a day in summer am if it is hot or the flies are bad so they can stand in if they want.
They are brought into the stables first thing for a feed (if needed ) and to ride and a hay net in winter and so I can give them a good check over .
This is done when I get up as they have access to fields 24/7 there is no hurry.
Both now mount from a mounting block we have one in each school and one in the yard.
Keeping the horses out 24/7 with suitable rugging feeding and hay makes them easy to do and .
The pole barn is dug out at the end of summer and again at the end of winter (by a neighbouring farmer with his huge digger
It is then heavy rolled and straw is added weekly/fortnightly to make a lovely bed .I often find them all crashed out in there.
We have horses for fun so it is important for us that we don't make them hard work .
They seem to enjoy the life as we have a 26 year old a 20 year old plus the 8 year old and a 10 year old all happy and sound.
We go abroad to the sun in January for 3 weeks and again for a week of so April and October and it is easy for our house sitter to do them.
We both hope to be riding well into our 70's!!!!!
 
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Thank you for your inspiring comments. I keep hearing negative comments about not coping ay 'our age' as OH is 75 this year (older than me) but we both have a wealth of knowledge that seems wrong to waste and all the people we know who gave up have aged much more than us.
 
Yes my OH is 68 - has his own horse. My friend (who rides beautfully) is well into her 80s has her own horse and only the other day she send me a link to a 2 year old as she wants a youngster as well! I hope to be riding in my 90s - I mean what else is there?
 
My father still rides. Not to be ungentlemanly ut he's a little past 65. I got him a western saddle with a sheepskin cover and he does have a bit of an armchair seat as less flexible than before. It also helps that the horse is very smooth and strong. We built a mounting block with the top level with the stirrups and an extra large top platform. Dismounting happens via this also.
I won't say he's a graceful rider but he does enjoy a pootle around the farm.
 
horselib said:
I am 62 and husband 68 both still ride. I do something with the horses every day and hubby schools once a week and hacks out twice a week with me winter and summer alike (unless weather horrendous)
I broke one of my horses 4 years ago when 58 and he is now 8 and ridden/ free schooled/or lunged most days .
We do have an outdoor school and a small indoor school so we don't have to go outside if the weather is bad.
We have set up our place (horses kept at home) to make the work as easy as possible .All 4 horses live out 24/7 there is a huge pole barn 80ft long 25ft deep with access to a hard standing yard and then into what ever field we are using they can come and go as they please .
The pole barn is mucked out in the morning and hay put out twice a day in winter am and pm and one a day in summer am if it is hot or the flies are bad so they can stand in if they want.
They are brought into the stables first thing for a feed (if needed ) and to ride and a hay net in winter and so I can give them a good check over .
This is done when I get up as they have access to fields 24/7 there is no hurry.
Both now mount from a mounting block we have one in each school and one in the yard.
Keeping the horses out 24/7 with suitable rugging feeding and hay makes them easy to do and .
The pole barn is dug out at the end of summer and again at the end of winter (by a neighbouring farmer with his huge digger
It is then heavy rolled and straw is added weekly/fortnightly to make a lovely bed .I often find them all crashed out in there.
We have horses for fun so it is important for us that we don't make them hard work .
They seem to enjoy the life as we have a 26 year old a 20 year old plus the 8 year old and a 10 year old all happy and sound.
We go abroad to the sun in January for 3 weeks and again for a week of so April and October and it is easy for our house sitter to do them.
We both hope to be riding well into our 70's!!!!!
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Gosh I envy you your facilities - we have move to somewhere with far less land then we used to have and we would have to keep them fairly intensively - the work load would be quite heavy BUT we just can't get horses out of our hearts try as we might. It is not practicable to keep them now as we are getting older but if we don't I fear we will end up like our neighbours - boring and nosey. It is a real pain getting older frankly I never thought it would happen.
 
not quite but I am over 60 and still ride, still muck out fields, handle babies and keep fit working with the breakers although I don't back them I do long rein them for miles
 
Before I left Oz (in 1980) I went on a clinic with Mollie Sivewright - brilliant! One of the other people on it was Miss Kay Irving, the doyenne of the Victoria Pony Club. She was 82 - and riding a rather nice 4 year old TB she'd just backed! Dring the clinic, he threw a strop and bucked like stink - she just sat there and told him off and- once he was back under control, she apologised to Mollie!! Mollie was gobsmacked!
 
Come here, can't move for aged ladies galloping around on their horses. A few of my friends, well into their 60's are still very competitive endurance riders. A few ladies in their 70's I know still hunt on their TB's, taking on all the big fences and looking disdainfully at anyone who turns up on a cob.

Oh yes, that generation was definitely properly built!
 
Lovely stories on here. We have a customer who is I think in her early 80's, her little hunter has been recently PTS and she has been itching to get a new horse for a couple of years as until now she has still been hunting. Her nod to her age is that she now needs a narrow horse (hips) and it needs to be steady and a good hunter, she will always hack to the meet across Dartmoor so needs to be sane. Wish I could find her the perfect horse. :-(
 
I am so inspired! !! This has made me smile and I thought I was being daring starting a new horse at 48.........I am just a whippersnapper! Shows me I need to buck my ideas up!
 
For goodness sake, the 60's are the new 40's! I'm 65, just bought a new horse and hope to be riding into my 80's. you are only old when you can't face a new challenge, some people are old at 20!!!!!!
 
I'm 68 and seven months! When my last youngster grew much more than predicted, became very fit doing long pleasure rides up and down our long rolling downs, I decided that he was becoming too much for me to ride "properly". I'm 5'9" tall, but only 7stone 7lbs. I've lost muscle in my arms, and he could almost unseat me, plunging around with enthusiasm! So, I found him a competitive home which he adores and they adore him!
I've bought a lovely 4year old mare, Exmoor x ?light cob, who is 14 hh, takes up the leg very well and is proving a clever, quick learner and a very promising ride.

I am reliant on keeping working (to keep pony, dog and cat in the manner to which they are accustomed) for as long as my intellect and body stay useful.
I bought Miss Pony to bring on well enough to be a reliable good all rounder. This will give her the best chance to have good care, and long periods in one home. She suits me well, being shorter than The Monster That Grew, and feels much more balanced because I can ride her in a competent, balanced manner. She's great and enormous fun every time I ride - about five times a week.
 
I knew a couple who are 75 who started riding! One found it difficult in her knees and struggled to mount and dismount but will go out for short hacks. Her husband did his first work trot test a few months ago and has started jumping! So age is no barrier :)
 
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