Older horse starting to get stiff...

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But time has got the better of us I guess... She has a home with me forever regardless!

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Firstly, shes 15, not 25!! Time has not got the better of her at all. Shes a little stiff, its cold at the moment, i think you'd be stiff if you'd not been worked for 4 days in this weather and only turned out for an hour a day!

My YMs horse i ride is chronically stiff, hes only 12. He has intermittant lameness problems, takes a good 25mins to warm up but when hes warmed up he does PSG movements.

It dosent matter if she takes 30mins to warm up. Do you start her off with a rug on? I would advise that, along with cantering to start with to loosen her off.

Bloss takes a good half hour to warm up, always has done ever since i got her. Im certainly not writing her off just because shes 17 this year and is slightly lame at the moment. Shes got arthritis, dosent mean its the end of the world. She still works at medium level at home.

And you say she has a home for life, but im sure shes advertised as for sale on your website????

Sorry hun, but you need to chill out, a lot! A little stiffness isnt the end of the world x

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Im glad Tempi said the above, & you know we all suffer stiffness as we get older, as im finding out
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I have a 25yo horse who does suffer terribly with stiffness & has muscular problems. So i do know about stiffness in older horses. However at 15yo i wouldnt be to worried atm from your description of her stiffness
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If she where mine i would be feeding her Boswellia, it's stronger than Devils claw & a lot more gentle on the stomach. I would also be feeding a good Joint supp, my own favourites are Aviform Suppleaze gold or Feedmarks Extraflex. Another good one to add to help joints & stiffness is Micronised Linseed plus she will also get a mega glossy coat
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Ive just invested in a Back On Track mesh rug for my old boy, he's only been wearing it since Sat & even though he's still walking out stiff he's now back to doing cartwheels when he gets out in the field.

I personally wouldnt be looking at Injections atm, unless she really stiffend up. I also don't think you have to give up on your dreams with her either, she's just like any horse age does happen & they change slightly. You will just have to work out longer gentler w-up routines for her thats all.

T/O would really help her stiffness though, more than anything.
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I have ordered some Devils Claw from a friend of mine who has a herbal feed company and the magnetic boots are on their way...

I will see how she gets on with these and then speak to the vet again in a few weeks time...

I quite like the TopSpec joint supplement as it is 10g Glucosamine and 10g MSM so I thought by looking at a pure Devils Claw addition I could keep her on that.
 
We always do really stretching warm ups as she is prone to tightening through her back when she gets excited as we do the more 'interesting' bits
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However, as a result of her attention span (she is a rather whiley old bird) I have to keep her sessions really varied. Some days I spend the entire session in low and deep with a few pick up to keep everything elastic, other days we work on lots of lateral work and collection.

At the moment turnout cannot be altered. I am very lucky to have somewhere to turn out at all... Most yards I have been on before this one have ended up with no turnout at all come winter despite promises they like horses out as much as possible
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Most people I know in the area haven't been able to get their horses out since the beginning of December, whereas mine have thankfully got out every single day bar one... phew!

I definitely think the magnetic boots are going to help after reading people's responses on here. She can have them on over night once she is used to them!
 
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