howengold
Well-Known Member
I thought I would ask how the owners of our older horses and ponies look after their old friends through the year.
I am not asking for advice as such, more comparing how we all cope and maybe pinching ideas to try on my soon to retire old gal and her two pals.
I have owned 37 year old Sov for 1 year (yes I did get a really old pony on purpose lol), her best pal Mony is 30 years old and I have owned her around 28 years and my section A Willow is 23 years old. Sov is due to retire but will still go for walks and be very lightly hacked to keep her mind occupied, Mony is still competing with my stepdaughter and Willow has been retired now since he was 7 years old due to poor health.
I have just brought the girls in for winter. Normally I would wait until November but as Sov doesn't winter too well I decided to get the girls in early so I can monitor her feeding properly as Mony will hog any hay or haylage if I don't spend all day hovering over them. Willow will be living out as usual with his best friend Kosha (a tough shettie) unless the weather is too much for him and then they will move back in to my barn a while.
I feed Sov three times a day in winter (she is lacking in teeth) and Mony is fed morning and night. We use Rowan Barbary Ready Mash extra on the girls. Willow has 16+.
in summer Sov has slightly less depending how good our grazing is. The other two get reduced to one small feed a day for their supplements as they are good doers. They also get shredded carrots and apples as a nice treat.
I do find I may need to change how we do things from time to time as their needs change.
I was riding Sov four times a week to keep her fit enough to show her locally and I would hack out with my three daughters and their ponies so we had to be able to keep up but not gallop about like loonies. I now have reduce her ridden work to three times a week with 'child free' hacksas part of the winding down process. Her pal Mony is still ridden 4 times a week and hacks with my other daughters a couple of times a week. Willow gets a short walk daily but nothing really is done with him as he is happy enough playing with his little pal and bombing around in the field.
So what do you do?
I am not asking for advice as such, more comparing how we all cope and maybe pinching ideas to try on my soon to retire old gal and her two pals.
I have owned 37 year old Sov for 1 year (yes I did get a really old pony on purpose lol), her best pal Mony is 30 years old and I have owned her around 28 years and my section A Willow is 23 years old. Sov is due to retire but will still go for walks and be very lightly hacked to keep her mind occupied, Mony is still competing with my stepdaughter and Willow has been retired now since he was 7 years old due to poor health.
I have just brought the girls in for winter. Normally I would wait until November but as Sov doesn't winter too well I decided to get the girls in early so I can monitor her feeding properly as Mony will hog any hay or haylage if I don't spend all day hovering over them. Willow will be living out as usual with his best friend Kosha (a tough shettie) unless the weather is too much for him and then they will move back in to my barn a while.
I feed Sov three times a day in winter (she is lacking in teeth) and Mony is fed morning and night. We use Rowan Barbary Ready Mash extra on the girls. Willow has 16+.
in summer Sov has slightly less depending how good our grazing is. The other two get reduced to one small feed a day for their supplements as they are good doers. They also get shredded carrots and apples as a nice treat.
I do find I may need to change how we do things from time to time as their needs change.
I was riding Sov four times a week to keep her fit enough to show her locally and I would hack out with my three daughters and their ponies so we had to be able to keep up but not gallop about like loonies. I now have reduce her ridden work to three times a week with 'child free' hacksas part of the winding down process. Her pal Mony is still ridden 4 times a week and hacks with my other daughters a couple of times a week. Willow gets a short walk daily but nothing really is done with him as he is happy enough playing with his little pal and bombing around in the field.
So what do you do?
