How many of you have 'un-retired' a horse/pony?

RuthnMeg

RuthnMeg

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Just out of curiosity.
Juno is now 23, suffers a bit from arthritis in her hocks particually and has been a valuable field ornament for about 4 years now. She did all the PC/RC activities and has hunted. She is a 14.1hh dun welsh/con x.
Now, as daughter who is 6 1/2 has so say 'given up' after a not so happy experience with a loan pony (who has returned to owner now), she took a very surprising interest in Juno today and even had a ride around the field with just the headcollar. Juno didn't mind, and was very good as she was last ridden 4 years ago!
Now, I know a child of that age with a 14.1hh doesn't quite look right in the grand scheme of things, but do you think its possible for Juno to be ridden by child, with maybe an ambition of doing a vetrans class or something?
Have you ever un-retired a horse? Did it work?
 
Our old welshie came out of retirement at the grand age of 25.
He never did overly too much, but enough that he stayed interested in life, and free moving.
 
I suppose you could say our mare is retired, She's 19, was 13 when we got her. She's on loan from WHW/ ILPH, and was a rescue case before living with our freinds, who had her before us. She was backed or retrained by WHW, I don't know which, as a lead rein pony, which she was for a few years but totally unsuitable. She won't wear a rug with us, so god knows how they got a saddle on her! :p She hasn't been ridden since she was about 8 and I'm now far too big for her, but seeing as she's a rescue case I think she's allowed to be retired :)
 
We were given a 30 y.o. show pony who had been retired for many years as a lead rein pony for my son, whisked her off to pony club and she was totally in her element, you would never have known she'd been away!
 
We retired our Thoroughbred at the age of 27 as we thought he was too old to be ridden anymore. However, after just a couple of months he became really bored, so we decided to try taking him out on steady hacks again which he really enjoyed. We carried on hacking him until he was 29, and then he began stumbling and we decided the time had come to retire him properly. He is now 31 and is happily retired, living in a field with a field shelter and our other old pony.

I think the horse will let you know itself in it's own way when it's ready to retire - that's what ours did! :)
 
i retired my old Welshie aged 21 when he reinjured his annular ligament about 9mths after surgery. aged 23 i started hacking him out gently again as he finally looked sound. now we go on some great fun hacks and i'm gonna take him to some veteran classes this summer. he did one last yr and won it :)
 
we tried to retire my 24 yearold show pony, however he went down hill so fast it was shocking, he seemed to loose the will to live so we brought him back into work. He is now 27, looking amazing and still showing the youngsters how it is done!
 
my first pony (welsh sec a) was brought out of retirement for me. he was about 25, i was 3.

he really didn't like retirement (was a sucessful little show pony/hunting pony). so i rode him. until i was about 8. when he was retired again (about 30 by now). he was miserable again, so we found another very small jockey for him. who rode him for about 5 years.

by this time he was 35 and we felt we had to actually retire him this time.

but, i was a teenager, and therefore would still sneakily ride him bareback in the field.

he was eventually pts when he was 39 because his teeth got too bad for him to eat properly and we didn't want him to start suffering. but... even the day he was pts, he was FULL of life and still seemed like a young pony.

he was called Muffin, and was a REAL strawberry roan. i actually had a PINK pony... :D
 
Ruthnmeg said:
Just out of curiosity.
Juno is now 23, suffers a bit from arthritis in her hocks particually and has been a valuable field ornament for about 4 years now. She did all the PC/RC activities and has hunted. She is a 14.1hh dun welsh/con x.
Now, as daughter who is 6 1/2 has so say 'given up' after a not so happy experience with a loan pony (who has returned to owner now), she took a very surprising interest in Juno today and even had a ride around the field with just the headcollar. Juno didn't mind, and was very good as she was last ridden 4 years ago!
Now, I know a child of that age with a 14.1hh doesn't quite look right in the grand scheme of things, but do you think its possible for Juno to be ridden by child, with maybe an ambition of doing a vetrans class or something?
Have you ever un-retired a horse? Did it work?
Click to expand...

How about this then, we broke in a welsh cob mare at 17 after giving up trying to get her into foal and she is taking to it quite well, needs much more work but pretty steady.... having a few issues getting her into canter, she just doesn't see why she should as she doesn't even canter round the field much, she certaily doesn't want to do it in the school... but this is coming slowly.....

You can teach an old horse new tricks......

Dizz4
 
My first horse was bought out of retirement for me to have on loan, he was only 17 but he'd worked hard in his life and his joints had suffered for it and he was quite arthritic. I had two of the best years of my riding life on him before we had to retire him again at 19 due to soundness issues. I showed him, jumped him, hunted him, hacked him, did RC with him etc and he loved it and he taught me so much! He now lives out happily in the field.
 
My boy is an ex 2* eventer and grade c sj, retired at 19, back in work at 21, bought him from my best friend who runs a competition yard and his owner could no longer afford the livery. When I first tried him I got on from an office chair!!!! Then I realised he was steady. but he can also be VERY sharp!!

We were 6th in affiliated dressage at Ingliston and we are doing a 50cm (for my benefit don't laugh!) XC at the weekend. He was SO depressed when he wasn't worked, I take it easy with him and nurse him a bit, BUT he is sound and happy and no-one can belive he is the age he is.

I totally lost my confidence, had my medium level dressage horse put down when I was 18 and swore I'd never have another, cue my 30th birthday and Windy was here (pressie from my husband) he has taught me so much (if I do it wrong he tells me so) but despite the wobbles in confidence that I have, he's been fab - older horses are great for restoring confidence!!
 
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