Should we retire him?!

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Horsey_Gal

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My ex-bsja pony always tends to loose weight in winter. He's 14.2hh, in his 20's. I have a girl that comes to 'lightly' ride him at weekends, he doesn't seem to enjoy it though, she rides him around the field in walk and a little bit of trot (if she can get him moving!) and he just doesn't seem to want to do it, he stops and tries to refuse to go forwards. Do you think it is better if we retired him??? He is underweight at the mo, has nothing wrong with him apart from i tend to think he finds life boring! He lives out 24/7 with his cobby friend, as he prefers this to being stabled, he has shelter though. He is grumpy by character and prefers to be left alone. He still enjoys galloping around and jumping when being ridden but hates being lightly ridden as he finds it boring! Help!
 
Is there a reason he is being ridden lightly then if he enjoys bombing around and jumping???

If he enjoys them then let him do that instead.
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Thats a difficult one!!Does he have to be ridden lightly(any medical reason,or is it just that you can only find a rider that can ride at wkends)????As he has had quite an active life they can find life very boring just being turned out,they tend to fair better when in work(specially if healthy)!
However it does depend on your feelings and wether you feel he would benefit from being worked(if he enjoys jumping and galloping about why not let him have some fun?
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)!Or retire him and just see how he gets on,if he gets fed up rethink!!(summer is coming up and he will start to look and feel better and may enjoy the odd blast about,lol)
 
This is a though one. I had a horse very similar to this and he was in his mid 20's. I had a nasty fall off him and people encouraged me to retire him saying it was his age that made me fall off. I took their advice and did just this. Within 6 months he suddenly started lookign his age and went from a fit healthy looking young at heart horse to a skiny old unhappy horse. I had him PTS just 2 years after retiring him.
I now feel that had I kept him in work not ligh work as he hated that but a good amount of fastish hacking then he may have lasted longer.
Our cob now was retired for all of 3 months and went down hill loads the time off did him good and he is now ridden every other day and I even took him on 2 lines of the local hunt recently.
Trouble is only you know this horse and can make the right decision. It might be worth though upping his work load slightly and see what happens. Sometimes they need just enough to keep them ticking over.
 
Have you wondered whether it is adrenalin that makes him bomb around the jumps and simply aches and pains and no adrenelin which makes him unwilling to do the boring stuff.
 
I retired my old mare when she began to look tired. She was never reluctant to go out and still acted the pratt when she did. I was worried that she would do herself damage as she looked tired in the field. She was PTS in October at the age of 33 having been retired for three years, enjoying her time pootling around the fields with her friends. We also retired our black and white cob mare after a severe bout of colic and she is enjoying doing nothing much escept looking after her sheep. She is about 27 and has been retired for about 18 months.
 
Which end of his 20's is he at? If he's at the latter end, then perhaps.

Does he like the girl you've got riding him? My mare won't do a thing for anyone she doesn't like!! Maybe try a different rider and see if they get a better response from him.

I retired my grumpy old sod at 19, but he wasn't ready. I got someone lightweight to ride him and he really enjoyed it.
 
Why not semi retire him and leave him over winter, then bring him back into work in spring as he puts a bit of weight back on and looses his wooly winter coat? If he's grumpy' it might be that his tack doesn't fit so well as he gets a bit thinner. I kept my old jumping pony being ridden until she was 25 (until some pillac of a taxi driver ran up the back of her but that's another story!) and she was happiest when out having a good gallop!
 
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