Senior hunters

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Pony180

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How old are your hunters & generally speaking what would be the max age you would buy or loan a hunter? Would be for decent hunt country with timber & wall jumping...
I have hunted 16-17 year olds with no problems before but do look after them and you hear of plenty of 20 odd year olds going strong!!
 
To Loan - I would consider any age up to about 20yrs as long as they were healthy and had a good hunting record.

To buy - I bought my last hunter at 10yrs old, as like my horses to have a bit of experience.

We have a number of veteran horses hunting with our pack, although sadly I have just retired my 17yr old due to wind issues.
 
Both of mine hunted until they were 22yrs old, they did half days.

The one horse continued hacking until he was 25 and was still a handful to ride, he was as tough and sound as they come, only seeing the vet for jabs and mud fever.
 
My old boy is 19 going on 5! He seems to have found a new lease of life this season and is enjoying his work soooo much, even showing up some of these young'uns by giving them a lead now and then :) He has a massive heart and will NOT give up, he is a star........even if a bit of a grumpy, cantankerous old b*gg*r at times.........no idea who he turns after for that :D
 
22 year old is still going strong with a Shire pack; however, I have had him since a four year old and what I would take on is quite different to what I have inherited with a known history. Having said all of that he has arthriticky hocks that are injected and he is managed well for an oldie, if you get my drift.
 
Mare is coming up 18 and just started! :)

Previous mare I first started out on as a kid, was 24 when I first took her and hunted her on and off for about another 3 years after that too till I moved :) She stopped hunting around 30 I think!

Horse who's belongs to a lady we go out with sometimes, hers is 34[!] and he doesn't look a day over 8 and goes all day.

Depends on the horse....if it's fit and healthy, then why not? I rather mine carried on doing something they loved, than stuck plodding or retired to a field.


To buy, it would merely depend on the price!

To loan...again. No limit.

I always see it as you can't buy experience and I have NO intention of jumping huge hedges, just baby ones occasionally and nothing more than 3'3-3'6 tops.
 
Any age healthy if done properly & well cared for. Fitten up the horse properly ( not sure how many do this these days - but with a little tlc older experienced horses know the score & are great fun :)
 
I'm hunting a 19-year old at the moment however he has relatively low mileage and I am only hunting approx every 2-3 weeks as he doesn't seem to recover as quickly as a younger horse would.
I have had to take my time with the fitness and he probably could go hunting more regularly but I think this may catch up with him in the long term.
 
Thanks for the replies guys!! New steed due to arrive saturday and i'm really looking forward to sharing many a happy day with him. He's a whippersnapper really compared to some of yours at 16 so as long as we get on would be great to think we could have a good few years together! Fitness and post hunting care abolutely paramount & i'm looking forward to getting him in tip top condition :)
 
Both ours are sprightly 18yo. Ron is 18 going on 3, Tom is more sensible but hunts in his head for a couple of hours after we get home.

So long a they are fit, sound, and enjoying it we'll keep going! Fitness is the key though, they take longer to get fit and harder to keep there as they get older. And after a particularly hard day they need more care too than a young horse.
 
My boy is 22 in March and is bk out on the hunting field this Boxing Day for the first time in 5 years!

I retired him from jumping & huning 4 years ago as i was worried about 'breaking' him. We do alot of showing including VHS.

But after chatting to alot of golden oldie owners i realised i was panicking about nothing! Early this year i bought him back into jumping and he is LOVING IT :)

We have competed in a pairs HT where we came 4th and a ODE where we came 10th :) So we are off out on the field again this season, Boxing Day being the first one! Oh lord ! :-/ lol

I have to say i think the break did him extremely well as he has come bk into the game with brilliant enthusiasm.

This said he will only hunt for half a day and once a month ;-)
 
I hunt my rising 22yo fairly regularly & have done since she was 4, do worry about her though and don't keep her out till the end of the day and wouldn't take her out on one of our bigger days. I bought a younger horse last year to take over from her a bit, initially I wanted around 5/6 yo but bought a 10yo, which I really think is quite young for a horse these days, like us 40 is the new 30 :D
 
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