Robust breeds

[Flowerofthefen]

A lot reach old age but not that many sound!! My tb, dare I say it, seems tough. Retired sound, turns 17 this year. No issues. I think it a lot of it depends on the horses younger years, how they are looked after. My tb was NH. So after learning to jump those huge hedges he would not have been jumped much inbetween races. Just kept extremely fit with the fast work. A friend has an 8 yo , not sure on breed, but she bought him at 4 and he's had a very busy life since. Gets jumped 2 to 3 times a week. Competes regularly, goes to camps etc. He has had bouts of lameness. He has probably jumped a lot more fences in four years than my boy ever did racing. So I really don't think it depends too much on the breed. A dollop of massive luck is also needed!!

 

[PSD]

Arabs and welshes seem to be the ones I know that go on forever. However welshes tend to get more silly with age in my experience older their bodies get the younger their minds get apparently

 

[asmp]

Criollos go on forever. Arabs also. I was hacking my old arab at 25. Lost him the following year.

Mine’s a Criollo so I hope so! He does have large sidebones so we just gently hack out. He’s 23 (we think)

 

[Auslander]

Cydesdale/TB. Should not still be in work at 26 years old. Totally up for it still!

 

[rabatsa]

Not a horse but Shetlands. I went to a riding school when in my mid teens and there was a Shetland there that my mother had learnt to ride on as a child, she said he was not young then either.

 

[littleshetland]

Soundest horses I've ever had have been the PREs. New forests were pretty good too.

So happy to read this...I love my PRE. He's only 10 atm, but so far seems as tough as old boots (touching wood....)

 

[littleshetland]

My 9hh shetland is approaching 30 yrs old, and still very happy in being driven in his little buggy.
I had a lovely middleweight cob a few years ago, she was still happy doing gentle hacking aged 30...

 

[SpotsandBays]

My Welsh X TB is pretty robust! Sometimes lacking brain ability but he’s almost 20 and people are shocked he’s that age.
Heinz 57 pony is in her early 30s.

I can confirm that warmblood X Appaloosas are not robust (although I love him dearly, he repeatedly gets himself into mischief)

 

[throwawayaccount]

Welsh x TB
Connie x TB

 

[rowan666]

Arabs!

 

[spacefaer]

My OH had a chestnut TB mare. She was born 1970, died 2002 having point to pointed, hunted and given him 9 foals in between. She never took a lame step.

 

[sakura]

My 17yo welsh x cob has fantastic teeth, and never had any issues with her back etc but her backend has forced her into early semi-retirement. Her conformation is truly shocking so I'm surprised she's got this far still in work.

 

[HufflyPuffly]

I agree it's more type than breed, and I would add the work they do too, but anything hardy and not too big gets my vote.

Doodle was 27 when we lost her to a field accident, she was about half Arab and mostly TB the rest but a bit of Spanish if you went back far enough.

Topaz is also a pretty tough cookie, she is now 20 and a very willing happy hack, the vets were quite keen to do xyz so she could keep doing dressage but we figured she deserved her quiet years now. Topaz is out of a Hackney mare, with her sire being Frisian x Hackney. Though Skylla of similar breeding is relegated to hacking duties only at just 11 (issues started around 8, she had time off in a field and then brought slowly back into work and *touch wood* is pretty sound and happy now!).

 

[Horseysheepy]

I always think it's such a privilege to own a veteran horse/pony. They seem to develop more personally as they get older.

I like to think my aged native will reach her late twenties. She's definitely becoming more of a demanding lady and allowed to get away with murder nowadays!

However, the native types are more prone to EMS, laminitis which is not managed correctly could shorten life span, so there is that to factor into longevity of these types.

 

[Hallo2012]

What all-rounder breeding do people reckon is the most likely to get to 25 still hacking gently round the lanes?

an arab?

not too big but athletic, and pretty.......id like one i think, a black stallllllllion so i can dress it in my pink plastic tack and yawp round somerford!!!!

 

[rara007]

Arabs are tough

 

[Gallop_Away]

If selecting purely for soundness, and disregarding looks & talent for anything, I'd say a Standardbred,

How lovely for us standardbred owners

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Mind you I know someone who has 3 Arab's and all of them were field ornaments from very young from mainly lameness issues.

The problem I see now is some breeders are trying to breed them taller I've seen some at 16h, in my experience these are the ones that tend to have issues.

They are just not meant to be that tall years ago you hardly saw any Arab's much over 15h.

 

[Surbie]

I'm hoping my cob will be totally fine for this.

Does some of this relate back to the post you had a while back on longevity? I seem to remember then that if you could get the horse (of whatever breeding) past the danger zone of late teens and they were mostly sound, they were more likely to be able to keep quietly working to mid-twenties?

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Mind you I know someone who has 3 Arab's and all of them were field ornaments from very young from mainly lameness issues.

The problem I see now is some breeders are trying to breed them taller I've seen some at 16h, in my experience these are the ones that tend to have issues.

They are just not meant to be that tall years ago you hardly saw any Arab's much over 15h.

I agree with this, Arabs 'were' hardy and fabulous, until they were bred to be taller, flashier, more extreme and only ever destined for the in-hand circuit... I really wanted a pure bred this time round but could not find one that I liked and was of a more traditional build and way of going...

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

I agree with this, Arabs 'were' hardy and fabulous, until they were bred to be taller, flashier, more extreme and only ever destined for the in-hand circuit... I really wanted a pure bred this time round but could not find one that I liked and was of a more traditional build and way of going...

Agree I don't like alot of the modern types I wonder how you would fit a saddle on most of them.

When I bought Arabi he was classed as a modern type then but now his 19 he looks quite old fashioned, but in my view a much nicer stamp of what they breed now, Louis is similar in build just taller finer and his head is not as dished but both would be classed as the older type.

There was Vlacq grey gelding on Al last week and a really nice liver chestnut racing stallion they both looked nice.

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Agree I don't like alot of the modern types I wonder how you would fit a saddle on most of them.

When I bought Arabi he was classed as a modern type then but now his 19 he looks quite old fashioned, but in my view a much nicer stamp of what they breed now, Louis is similar in build just taller finer and his head is not as dished but both would be classed as the older type.

When I win the lottery, that I don't play , I am going to have an Arab stud breeding back to the old fashioned types just for my own enjoyment!

 

[Maxidoodle]

My 9hh shetland is approaching 30 yrs old, and still very happy in being driven in his little buggy.
I had a lovely middleweight cob a few years ago, she was still happy doing gentle hacking aged 30...

They're just amazing, i have two mini shetties, one is 19 and he’s so playful and full of beans, I’ve got a falabella x section A - a proper “Thelwell pony” (a mistake at the breeder’s), he’s 33 and he is so full of life, he jogs everywhere when I take him out.

 

[cauda equina]

When I win the lottery, that I don't play , I am going to have an Arab stud breeding back to the old fashioned types just for my own enjoyment!

Crabbets? Fantastic horses

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Crabbets? Fantastic horses

Yep would definitely have some of them .

 

[Ratface]

Many Arabs go on forever. Mine is 28 next month and still hacking. I’ve just come back from riding in Iceland and damn those horses are tough. Our guide said they’re at their best at about 15- they’re considered immature before then.

My Arabs, (three over the last forty years) have gone on to 28 yrs, (1) pts due to catastrophic injury to SI joint, (2) one, now 17yrs, sold at 7yrs old, due to being too much horse for me , but mainly because I was being bullied at the yard I was at, and is now having a successful showing and eventing life with his owner, and my current Arab who is 29 this this time who was a successful Grade B showjumper in his earlier years, is still sound, silly and is currently retired with his breeder and his herd due to my chronic illness.
He wasn't backed until 7-8yrs old, was successfully shown in hand from 2-5yrs, turned away for two years with the other youngsters and then started with calm, firm, tact and diplomacy.
All of my current Arab's relatives are over 15. The oldest is 32 and goes out like the winning racehorse that she was in a previous life.
All my Arabs have been 15.2hh or under, live/d out, unless the weather dictated otherwise, have been fed very plain, given ad lib hay and regularly ridden over long distances.
I'm old too. I think the above management replicates the management of our horses in the 1940's, but now with the benefit of the scientific knowledge and better understanding of today.

 

[Ratface]

Yep would definitely have some of them .

My No.1 Arabian was pure Crabbet. No. 2 was mostly pure Egyptian with a few old Crabbet lines. My No. 3 is almost pure Crabbet with some old Polish lines three generations back.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Crabbets? Fantastic horses

Yes they are both of mine have over 30% of crabbet the rest is polish and Russian.

 

[Hormonal Filly]

Are some breeds hardier? I swear it’s all down to luck. Although I’ve always fanciest a New Forest.

My Heinz 14.2 cob was PTS at 9 due to chronic neck arthritis and my Welsh D had the most lameness issues ever, both didn’t have a difficult life and well put together.

A friend has a ex racer that she bought as a 3yo off the track. He’s just turning 20, hunted last season and evented all summer which he has done for years. He’s recently had some X-rays done of his hocks, perfect and he looks fantastic!

I just think any horse I own is doomed.

 

[paddy555]

When I win the lottery, that I don't play , I am going to have an Arab stud breeding back to the old fashioned types just for my own enjoyment!

you would have liked this lot.

Painswick Lodge Stud - Part II

By Emma Bennett. One of the nicest aspects of the Painswick Lodge Stud is that after the death of Margaret Murray in 1967, several members of her family continued to breed from her bloodlines: her daughter, Iona Bowring, from the families of Gleaming Gold and Farette; her son and...

crabbet.com

I was so fortunate to get one of my arabs from Caroline Murray at Foxbury. https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/sun+fari

He worked till 27.
I can't relate some of the modern arabs to the Foxbury stock. I got to see the greats at Foxbury and Bremervale emperor had recently arrived. He was outstanding.