Just seen yet another ad☹️

[Kat]

I'm sorry but I think this is wildly optimistic.

In over 40 years of horse keeping, the only ones I've ever met working to their late 20's were small ponies. I have not personally met anyone who has had a larger horse alive to 30, never mind still working.

I was worried that people were beginning to feel like failures for not being able to keep their horses in work into their mid 20's so I did a poll on here a few years back and got ages of death of dozens and dozens of working horses and it averaged out at 15.

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I think if a horse has stayed sound to a reasonable age the chances of them staying sound into old age are higher. Any average is skewed by those that never really get started.

On my yard we currently have a 27yr old large WB, another big WB who is about 25 and a couple of large ponies in their 20s all still happy hacking. The two or three fully retired horses are under 20. Not so long ago we had a 30+ cob in ridden work and an ID who retired at about 27 before being PTS about a year later.

The 27yr old WB was still hunting and doing pleasure rides at 25.

 

[ycbm]

I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of horses working into their late 20's, or that anyone should not buy or sell an old horse. I'm only saying that the statement "In my mind, if managed correctly, all horses can be ridden well into their late 20s, !" (my bolding) is, in my long experience, massively over optimistic.

It's becoming something that a lot of owners think they should be able to achieve and feeling a failure when they don't. A bigger horse, even when they reach 20 in work will not normally, in my (long and varied) experience, still be doing much, if any, work after 25. And many which were "managed correctly" all their lives will be broken and retired or PTS long, long before then.

Nobody should feel a failure if their horse doesn't reach an old age still in work.
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[Merrymoles]

My horse's ID fieldmate will be 29 in May and is still hacking out. However, his management is complex as he can no longer eat forage - his front teeth are non-existent and his back teeth have no grinding surface left. He can still manage long grass but that is it so he is having four fibre-filled feeds a day and he has never looked better.

While he will never be sold, so it is not an issue for him, it would take a matter of weeks for him to become a walking skeleton or starve to death if he ended up in a less well-informed home.

I do worry that some of the oldies advertised will end up in homes that have little idea of what it takes to keep an old horse fit and well enough to work.

 

[Annagain]

I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of horses working into their late 20's, or that anyone should not buy or sell an old horse. I'm only saying that the statement "In my mind, if managed correctly, all horses can be ridden well into their late 20s, !" (my bolding) is, in my long experience, massively over optimistic.

It's becoming something that a lot of owners think they should be able to achieve and feeling a failure when they don't. A bigger horse, even when they reach 20 in work will not normally, in my (long and varied) experience, still be doing much, if any, work after 25. And many which were "managed correctly" all their lives will be broken and retired or PTS long, long before then.

Nobody should feel a failure if their horse doesn't reach an old age still in work.
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I get where you're coming from and it's admirable that you're trying to reassure those who have lost horses at a young age but I'm very surprised you've never met ANYONE with an older horse still in work. There are plenty of stories of them on here and we're pretty representative of the wider horsey community. Scientific advances mean horses, including bigger ones, are living longer, just as people and dogs are living longer for the same reasons, than even 20 years ago. I looked at the poll you did about the age of death and it's very interesting but the one thing it fails to consider is how long ago some of those horses died.

Personally, I know a 23yr old 15.3 cob who would would still be doing BS (to Discovery - owner's time/ money/ confidence limitations not his) if there was any at the moment, a 27 yr old 16.2 hunter type doing elementary dressage (online at the moment and doing very well - recently placed in a national BRC comp) a 28 yr old former advanced eventer doing dressage and doing very well at senior showing and a 23 year old 16.1 Welsh x Warmblood who would be doing riding club to a very decent level (medium dressage and 1.10 jumping) He's only not eventing any more as (COVID notwithstanding) his owner has a youngster she's bringing on and doesn't have the time or money to event them both but he still did some unaffiliated last summer. I know at least 6 other 18 year old + horses at riding club not setting the world on fire but ticking along very happily and only haven't included them here as I don't know their exact ages.

Of my lot, Arch retired last year at 24 (according to his passport, issued when he was "9", we suspect he's older) Monty, at 25 is still hacking and schooling and would be doing riding /pony club if it was on. They are both around 17hh and hunter types. I was told I'd be lucky to get Arch to 20 with his feet and melanomas so while I'm proud he's gone on much longer, I see it as his achievement, not mine. I have no influence over the melanomas in particular.

 

[scruffyponies]

I did a poll on here a few years back and got ages of death of dozens and dozens of working horses and it averaged out at 15.

Many horses die through injury or illness way before their 'old age'. Average age at death is much, much younger than 'old age'. If a horse reaches 20 still sound, it probably has a good few years in it.