do fizzy horses calm down with age???

Firehorse

Firehorse

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my boy is 15 this year and just loves to be ridden. whatever we do, he does it with the greatest enthusiasm. hacking alone is exciting, hacking with friends is exciting, seeing other horses out is an excuse to jog and jump and sweat like crazy, jumping is out of this world and once we've cantered, schooling is a laugh.

he's a fabulous fun ride and now i've got to grips with him, i love him that way. although now and again, i do poop myself when i feel a complete lack of control at the bottom of a steep grassy hill!!!! i'd love to know what he was like as a baby.

anyway, people say he will calm down as he gets older, but i'm not so sure! there is a connie cross at my place who's 30 this year and is just as nutty! she's been like it all her life and does similar things to mine. just the sheer happiness at going out, the excitement at the chance of a gallop. although, bless her, she is quite stiff these days and cant quite manage it, its all still there in her head and she gives it a dammed good try and outruns some of the others who are babies compared to her.

so, have your horses mellowed with age or do they keep it up till they can no more???
 
I don't think their basic character changes all that much. I know that my horse mellowed with work, and was much more settled when he had plenty to do and think about than he was as a youngster. Now he's retired he has definitely regressed!
 
My TB is 20 and is becoming fizzier as he is getting older!!!! I think some of it is feed as I do like him perky but some of it is that he is happy and enjoys his work!
 
in my experiance nope! I used to get asked if my pony (in my sig) was my new youngster when she was 13, now at 23 her loaner gets asked the same when she goes out jumping.
 
I'm affraid some horses are natural chilled laid back rides who take everyything in thier strides and others are high strung loons who find everything over exiciting and just can't wait to go and do it. I had a lovely arab on loan who was suppose to be slowing down he was 21 the fittest fastest biggest jumping hyper looney i've ever ridden though was no steady trot it was a flying extended trot out pacing most of his buddies in a canter that went into a gallop that could knock socks of race horses and aim him at a fence and he'd clear 5ft without battering an eyelid he had no intentions of slowing down! my new 3yr old is just as bad but my firends 2yr old fresian is the extreme opposite i swear it moves in slow motion she will get there when she gets there and never gets excitied or picks up the pace so comical to watch just her saunter along as she is huge but appears to go nowhere when she walks my tiny mare moves twice as fast
 
NO!! My 27 yo TB has got worse if anything. He's a nutter! Like an old person, he seems to need his routine to be the same as always - any changes & he just cant cope.
 
As everyone has said NO!!!!

My old gal at 27 was still ridden in a mullen mouth pelham, curb chain so tight, running martingale also tight! Mad ned always never changed was safer riding the 2 year old colts on newmarket heath believe me!

Now my 22 year old is just as excited!

Don't think they ever slow down!

If they are full of beans now they will always be full of beans!
 
some mature and mellow with age, some don't.
i had one who got progressively naughtier with age actually. he'd do a lovely test as a 6 and 7 year old, but the older he got the cleverer and naughtier he got. by the time he was 12 he was the biggest clown and would add in whatever additional movements he fancied, just to liven things up. passage, piaffe and flying changes in a novice test, that sort of thing. he was far too clever for his own good, and would deliberately try to wind his riders up, too...
 
Sorry another no, Cappy is 17 now and still a stress monster who can get really fizzy without proper management. Fany is 15, 16 in June, and she is so laid back she is positively horizontal. I think it is about nature not age.
FDC
 
No, my 20 yr old in foal mare is still bonkers and I am about to take delivery of my old dressage horse on loan to me at 18 because he is still as sharp as he was 14 years ago. Moreso because he's now Adv/med so better balanced.
 
I would say no they don't calm down! My old boy is now 30. He is basically retired but i walk him out in had once a week or fortnight, keeps him interested and also helps with the stiffness. I say walk him out in hand, actually I often ride. Believe it or not I struggle to keep hold of him in hand once we get on grass. If I ride he jogs the whole way and I confess to letting him have a short canter at times. He loves it.
 
Not really!

My now 22 year old anglo-arab is still a nutter. He doesn't always have the energy he did when he was younger for general work but if something exciting happens he will not be able to contain himself. He is a bit more chilled out to hack nowadays (so long as he's on his own), but if another horse comes it is incredibly exciting. In the school he is fine doing normal work but if you ask him to do something different like walk to canter or flying changes you had better be prepared to do this for the entire ride as he won't wnat to stop! I have discovered he is very good at one times (admittedly far too fast and completely unasked for) and have trouble holding him once he gets going.

A couple of years ago the hunt was in town and I wanted to go, I thought I would take the old boy (Roscoe) as my younger horse is also a bit loony so I thought Ros would be the safer bet; certainly not! Roscoe was the worst one on the field, he could not stand still whenever the hunt stopped and had to spin round in circles or back into ditches instead, then when the hunt did move off he was so excited he didn't know what to do and would forget how to move forwards again. When we did get going I suffered from severe lack of brakes and at one point he managed to canter through a crowd of closely packed other horses and riders all stood still waiting to move off, nearly knocking several people off, I decided to take him home after this! I have many other tales of his exploits. Needless to say my younger horse is far saner and I think Roscoe will always be a loony. :)
 
Nope, sorry! My boy was a TBX, and was as fizzy and full of life at 15 as he was when I got him as an 8 year old :) but I liked him that way.
 
Toffee is 18yrs old, arthitic (unlevel), vet said to hack lightly.

We do have better brakes than we used to, but last month we spooked at a pile of snow, and then had a beer can chase us, we stopped with the aid of someones gate :D :D :D

And she is more than capable of all four feet off the ground spook :D Had her 9 years, I think we just know each other inside out and a bit change, rather than shes mellowed.
 
Well my Dutch WB mare hasn't calmed down with age but with motherhood.
She gave us a beautiful colt foal last year and when we started riding again the change was unbelievable. She no longer spooks at the scary bit of grass that's going to bite her and is so much more loving, relaxed, chilled out. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't experienced this first hand. Wish I'd now put her in foal years ago.
 
Another No here! My almost 21 yr old Welshie has just learned to walk in a dressage test, most of the time anyway, and schooling on the whole is a much more pleasant experience than years ago probably because I give him more challenges these days but take him hacking, well thats ridiculous and if we're on grass I usually have to get off and have trouble leading him home. I know, Im a wuss but I've got bored of galloping into hedges because of lack of brakes!! I adore him though and the day he stops doing this will be a very sad day indeed.
 
Oh and to add... I turn out the horses at our yard at weekends and the only one who regularly gives me problems is a 35 year old native who jogs and spins all the way to the field and the same coming in at night!
 
Faro said:
Do fizzy horses calm down with age???

In my experience, and in a word - NO.

Even 30 year old Arabs still go boing, boing!
Click to expand...

This, mine is only 20 but she boings too, even in the pasture, on frozen ground when everyone else is tippy toeing about she is still boinging :D

I think that if a horse feels well physically then they'll still be fizzing whatever their age.
 
Mine is 32 Arab x cob and can still boing with the rest of them !

If something starts him off on a hack thats it for the whole ride, same goes for my friends mare, think she's 20+, and if we go together and one starts thats it !
 
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