Stiffness/ Arthiritis and Competing?

Kokopelli

Kokopelli

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I went to the yard today to ride a friends horse and saw someone who I haven't seen in a while. I used to part loan her horse he's a 14.1 newforest and I would imagine he's in his late teens now.

I had so much fun on this pony he used to buck all the time with excitement I loved it and he had a hell of a jump in him and decent flat work once you got him moving.

He's a bit stiff now probably due to his age, probably the start of arthiritis although not confirmed by a vet and I've been offered him to full-loan or buy :)

How much would the stiffness hold him back? I don't jump very much at home but in the winter due to lights he would mainly get schooled. Would he be up to B test in the summer, jumping 90cm once we get him fit again and on some supplements for the stiffness?

Anyone with arthritic horses that still compete? My old pony got a spavin when he was 9 and couldn't jump much bigger then 80cm is this true for all horses?
 
My old boy is 25. He can be quite stiff when it's cold but once he is warmed up he is absolutely fine. Still enjoys jumping and schooling. I know it is different from horse to horse but i'd just allow a little extra time to warm up. He also has shivers and he evented up until he was in his early 20's. I dont tend to jump him more than 2'6 now mainly due to his age, althought if he had his way he would go higher - he loves it!
 
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KirstyLou said:
My old boy is 25. He can be quite stiff when it's cold but once he is warmed up he is absolutely fine. Still enjoys jumping and schooling. I know it is different from horse to horse but i'd just allow a little extra time to warm up.
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I would allow extra warm up time anyway :)

I'm a bit worried about possible getting an older horse, I've never bought anything over 10, not sure I could actually bare losing another horse :/
 
My big beautiful girl has mild bone spavin. She is impossible to sell and is currently on the market at one third of the price I paid for her.

I would never buy a horse with arthritis again, you just can't sell them on. It's a buyers market and so I wouldn't knowingly buy a problem.
 
Achinghips said:
My big beautiful girl has mild bone spavin. She is impossible to sell and is currently on the market at one third of the price I paid for her.

I would never buy a horse with arthritis again, you just can't sell them on. It's a buyers market and so I wouldn't knowingly buy a problem.
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We wouldn't look to sell him on though, he would be for life :)
 
I have a 20 year old TB. Never mind the arthritis in his hocks, he has the superficial flexor tendons bowed on both legs after breaking down racing, has had a broken knee at some point before I got him and with me, he broke his leg 3 years ago. He still competes at unaffiliated dressage, quite successfully! I put stable wraps on his back legs at night when he is in the stable and feed him a joint supplement which he has had for about four years. He bounces round like a 10 year old. I wouldn't let arthritis put me off as it would be unusual to find a horse over the age of 12 which didn't have the start of some. Just allow extra time for warm up and give a little more TLC. Having said all of the above, I don't jump and to be honest I don't feel that it would be fair on him to expect him to at this time of life.
 
My horse has spavins and arthritis, and just does dressage and hacking now. Vet never ruled out jumping completely it was mainly out of choice. Personally i wouldn't buy or loan a horse intending to do jumping or hard work with it.
 
I definitely wouldn't buy one with stiffness/athritis. I bought my boy nearly 10 years ago, he was only 8 and ever so slightly stiff. Fastforward a few years and his stiffness worsened, he's been on expensive supplements for the last 6 years. He's now 17 and became unsound due to oncoming athritis - after 2 grand's worth of steroid injections he's now sound and can enjoy schooling and hacking. He will never be jumped, never ever competed and most days I feel bad asking him to do a circle as he doesn't feel the same to me as he did before the athritis, though he is definitely sound. Fortunately he is with me till the end and we will keep on injecting him as long as he's happy, and then he will become a pretty field ornament. If you aren't in the position to provide long term medical care, expensive supplements and the possibility somewhere down the line of having a field ornament then I would avoid.
 
Kokopelli said:
We wouldn't look to sell him on though, he would be for life :)
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Yes, but why buy an animal that you may have to retire sooner rather than later - there are 100s of horses out there that have no lameness issues. You are only relieving the present owner of their responsibilities of a 'retirement shortly' animal.
 
My first loan horse was 20 when I got him and had a bit of arthritis. He was on a suppliment and I was careful what I did with him, not jumping on hard ground etc. We did a bit of everything - I won my first show jumping class on him, did my first hunter trail and had my first days hunting. In the 2 years I had him he was only lame once and that was nothing to do with the arthritis. He taught me so much and I wouldn't be the rider I am now if it wasn't for the time I had with him. He's now living happily in retirement aged 29.

Obviously each horse is different and you would have to assess the situation for yourself but I wouldn't write this horse off if you feel he is what you want.
 
One of my boys is only 11 and he was diagnosed with slight arthritis of the hocks when he was 9. The vet and chiropractor advised me to start feeding him a joint supplement so he now has a scoop of Cortaflex in his feed once a day which seems to help him. Also, I allow him plenty of time to warm up if he has been stabled with lots of walking on a long rein to start with and no small circles. Also, when it gets really cold he wears stable chaps in the stable to keep his joints warm and I have found this makes him less stiff. As for competing, we compete in Dressage and Show Jumping and we also hunt. He is fine and just takes a bit longer to warm up but once he is warmed up you wouldn't know he gets stiff!

I would say, have him on loan first and see if he can do what you want him to do. Just bare in mind that as he is in his late teens, it will be uncertain how many more years of jumping he has left. Our old boy stopped jumping when he was about 19, but happily continued doing Dressage and hacking until he was 29! Every horse is different though so I guess you will just have to see how he goes.

Good luck! :)
 
After some very hard thinking we will probably not go for him. I've never bought a pony over the age of about 14 although we have had some older then that.
But saying that look at Koko he was 5 when we bought him and my old pony was 8 and got arthiritis at 10.

But even though I don't want to jump very much I still need a horse suitable for my B test which is jumping 90cm which I don't think is fair :(

So still looking for a horse going through all the websites and I can happily say I hate horse hunting!! Its supposed to be fun but it is absolutly awful, if anyone hears of anything please send them our way :)
 
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