Veterans - adorable characters or heinous super villains?

My 30yo used to be perfectly behaved, but seems to have become more feral as he spends more time playing in the field and less time around humans!

The other day I just got his rug all unclipped before he took off across the field, rug flying off. He found the nearest muddy bit to roll back and forth, and back and forth. It was a ridiculous amount of rolling. He finally got up, soaking and filthy and shot off again. I couldnt get near him to get his other rug on. I had to walk back to the yard to get a head collar. He knows if I don't have a head collar he doesn't have to stand still.

I love him dearly but spend more and more time cursing at him! He's just a grumpy old man, I don't actually think I can teach him manners again - he knows the correct way to behave but he just doesn't do it!
 
Actually janette, mine has better manners than the majority of horses, something commented on by everyone that's ever met her. She's not just good for novices, kids, teens etc she goes out of her way to look after them. A toddler can handle her anytime anywhere, she'll nanny kids round courses & on hacks, & has shown countless kids everything from jumping, to loading & clipping. And restored shattered confidence to more than one. So she's more than earnt the right to some of her own way. She's also still being a dream of a schoolmistress for my 7yr old still, so if she wants to prat when I ride who am I to stop her? Unlike yours, she doesn't need reminding of basic manners or who's the boss, so I'll stick with doing it my way.
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
Janette, I'm perfectly safe around my horse as I'm sure the others here are too.

Think about being an old person one day and people keep telling you it's bad for you to be drinking at 90. You must not be crabby and be a perfect gentelman/lady at all times. I say you get to a certain age in life and you should do exactly as you please.

These oldies are clearly in homes with people that know what their doing. End of. They have lifetime homes and aren't being sold nor does it seem they've tried to injure their owners. They are the way the are. And bless them for it.

Terri
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Well said Terri :)
 
Black Beastie said:
Janette under saddle I can pretty much sit everything he can throw at me but inhand I expect manners.

The odd little bounce on the end of the lead rein that goes nowhere and doesn't even tug me or go any further I'm not all that worried about as all I'd need to do was growl at him and hed stop as he knows the score.

I've had him 12 years in Jan and he's still rideable and enjoying life so as far as I'm concerned he can have a bit of a prat about at times as I won't have him forever x
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That's fantastic. Star can try it on as well under saddle, but before, when I was a touch worried about the pulling, jogging and general disobedience, I now accept it as part of her general character and I laugh at her, as I insist on walk rather than a jog, carrying her own head rather than leaning on me and making sure that her back end is behind her front end and not swinging out somewhere on 3 and 4 tracks.
I know she has no malice in her, but she still has to be a safe horse to be around. It's not fun sitting on a horse that won't stand at the road junction. It's not safe. So she has to stand still. Whether she wants to or not!
Just as she is older, so am I, and I really don't fancy falling off because she's pratting about.

I think about the time when I will no longer have her. It will probably be sooner rather than later. She has had a tendon injury, a ligament injury which she is just about recovered from, a set of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for a tumour on her cornea and 2 sets of surgery culminating in the eye being removed. I treasure every moment I have with her, but she still has to be safe to be around.
 
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My boy is 20, and he has learnt all the tricks in the book to cause mischief! He has taught the other horses on the yard that if you yank your head down you can tip your rider and eat grass on hacks - at all three paces which can be rather hair raising. He is just so funny though, he just makes me chuckle. He develops new things to surprise me - walk to gallop is the latest exciting element to our hacking :D

He is supersafe for novices though - anyone can get on him and he really looks after them. He adjusts himself to the rider on his back. He is often a tit when I ride him, but I always feel safe and it is just high spirits and cheekiness. He definitely has a sense of humour!
 
Janette said:
I'm sorry to be the downer on this thread, but seriously? People accept barging, head butting .....why?
I am ecstatic to see my 18 year old being silly and giddy in the field, continuing to try things out to see what she can get away with...... They havnt worked in the 14 years she's been in the family, but that doesn't stop her from trying. That's the game, her trying, and being reminded where her boundaries are. But if I didn't remind her, she'd walk all over me. Last year she towed me down to the stable when bringing in.....in the dark, just because she could. Not acceptable. She's bigger and stronger than me, but needs to remember that I'm the boss. Always.

Do the horses who show these behaviour restrict them to their owners, or do they behave like this around other people?
Being pulled about is not pleasant, neither is being barged, scrubbed on etc.

I've said my piece.
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Ours was still in full work aged 18, we did not consider her to be elderly. Now she is 30 and retired. We thought we were going to lose her 6 yrs ago when she colicked for a week. She is NEVER bargy or rough but she will come back out of her stable for a wander round the yard, or stop on the way in for a mouthful of grass or to detour round the haylage bale for a snack. When led she has her usual perfect manners, we let her (and the others) come from field to stable on their own but the others are not allowed to stop on the way.
Interestingly the other 2 have started to look after her in the field. The other day in the pouring rain, she was standing at the front as they were sheltering under the holly bush, with the other 2 behind her, sheltering her from the worst of the weather, even though she was the one with a rug.
 
Had my 32 year old 17 years. She has never tied up reliably so everyone from me to holiday help to farrier just don't try it. She has good manners generally but the other day as shut field gate and she gently scratched her ears on my back I did hear myself say 'if you were b2 you wouldn't be allowed to do that' to her.
 
Equilibrium Ireland said:
Janette, I'm perfectly safe around my horse as I'm sure the others here are too.

Think about being an old person one day and people keep telling you it's bad for you to be drinking at 90. You must not be crabby and be a perfect gentelman/lady at all times. I say you get to a certain age in life and you should do exactly as you please.

These oldies are clearly in homes with people that know what their doing. End of. They have lifetime homes and aren't being sold nor does it seem they've tried to injure their owners. They are the way the are. And bless them for it.

Terri
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Agree with this.

After saying so many mean things about Obi on this thread :o I want to repeat that I trust him 100% in hand and under saddle.

He has spent his whole life around humans. He knows the boundries and how to be safe around us. He doesn't need reminding - it's second nature to him.

In the 22 years we have been together, all the times he has hurt me have been accidental, or me messing about (as a teenager) when I knew better and deserved to get hurt.

He has earned some indulgence and leeway from me ;).
 
I asked the assembled family in the living room last night.. they all chorused number 2!

(mum gave frank to the chiro to hold in the week briefly.. he promptly dragged her over to the grass (he can be bloody minded about that).. she knows he does that having seen him try it with me!.. he was firmly back under the thumb shortly after though :D )
 
Mines 19 and regularly bucks and bounces around, the other horses just think he's a mad old man who should know better, as should I as I sit and laugh when he does it, oops. He also has to be fetched in from field first or he has a meltdown but we all love him for his quirky ways
 
With any horse you've had a long time, you've had time to change anything you can about it and the things you couldn't or didn't want to change you just accept as part of who they are and what makes them "them". Like your OH's bad habits, lol.

Flame's a funny mare, she always has been, but I like it, she's always made me use my brain and respect her. Her age has caught up with her and she's being put down next week, but I'm lucky to have had such a cool little horse for so long. :)
 
I don't have a veteran horse, but I do have an OAP woof!
She gets away with murder now. I used to be very strict with her, but she's an old lady now! She still gets a telling off for snapping at other dogs though! Highly embarrassing!
 
Brilliant thread! We have two ponies, one an 8 year old and one whos as old as the hills, and not only that but a shetland. If 8 year old puts a foot out of line, hes the devil according to husband. But the elderly shetland he dotes on! Just in the last few weeks alone she has kicked my leg (was sponging under her tail) laid down when the farrier came, ran straight through the smallest gap when I opened the gate and led a merry chase around our farm, eaten through one grazing muzzle and got the other wrapped around her front leg somehow, climbed into the tack room and up a bale of hay and so on and so on!! Shes a madam but gets away with murder and we all adore her really!

She also lives to terrorise our flat coat whos actually bigger than her....

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Flame_ said:
With any horse you've had a long time, you've had time to change anything you can about it and the things you couldn't or didn't want to change you just accept as part of who they are and what makes them "them". Like your OH's bad habits, lol.

Flame's a funny mare, she always has been, but I like it, she's always made me use my brain and respect her. Her age has caught up with her and she's being put down next week, but I'm lucky to have had such a cool little horse for so long. :)
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Didn't want to pass by without saying I'm sorry to hear that. I hope it's all as painless as these things can be.
 
Flame_ said:
Aw thanks. I don't want to make a nice thread miserable though :o

Its nice hearing about all these older horses who found their "right" people.
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It's a lovely thread. I do have to admit to having a bit of a soft spot for Obi and his super villain ways, he sounds like a real character! :D
 
Oh Flame_ I'm sorry to hear that xx

Our oldie (only just at 17!) is a little terror!! It's a good job she's no bigger than 14.2hh else I think we'd have a problem. She nips, threatens to kick with a back leg (9/10 she won't actually strike) bucks, rears (on the lunge, not under saddle I must add!) drags me everywhere she wants to go (have had to change her bit for a pelham lately!) and when she's being ridden, she does tend to show off, stick her head between her knees, try and jog etc etc. Nobody will go in her stable to feed and nobody will get on her, not even our YO.

The other girl gets told off for jogging or dragging and we've got more chance of making her stand and remember her manners and she's a 16.2hh ISH!

Definitely easier to let things slide when they're an oldie...especially when you've been advised to have them PTS more than once but given them a chance and they've pulled through....have to add I trust her implicitly and she's just one of those horses you have to know! She is an angel with owners' granddaughter - she can walk between her legs, shout at her, sit on her, lie back on her, pull mane tail etc and Kelly doesn't even flinch.

She's not naughty, she's a character....
K x
 
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My 25 yo NF is atrocious! He is the undisputed ''King of the yard' and bosses everyone about, if he looks sad my mother feeds him biscuits, he snaps his teeth, won't be bitted by anyone other than myself and bullies the youngsters but we love him and I 100% trust him with the smallest child. He's hilarious, senile and a little bit vintage =)
 
My oldie TB mare has always been grumpy - snapping at you while you fasten rugs up, not wanting to be brushed. Old age hasn't made her any worse - if anything she has mellowed a little but these days, because I know her so well, when she threatens I usually just chuckle, tell her she's naughty and ignore the bad behaviour. She doesn't get away with anything - the rug still goes on - I sometimes think it's just a game she likes to play!
 
I realise that I come across as the baddy of this thread, and we all know our horses inside out, we know their body language, and how far they will go in a given situation.

However, I still maintain that barging, pushing and pulling etc is bad manners and shouldn't be tolerated. Half a tonne of horse, is half a tonne of horse - be it 20 years old or 5! I still don't want it on my foot.

That is the point I have been trying to make.
 
Janette said:
I realise that I come across as the baddy of this thread, and we all know our horses inside out, we know their body language, and how far they will go in a given situation.

However, I still maintain that barging, pushing and pulling etc is bad manners and shouldn't be tolerated. Half a tonne of horse, is half a tonne of horse - be it 20 years old or 5! I still don't want it on my foot.

That is the point I have been trying to make.
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Mine is 18. I've only had her a year and I'm working on her manners. :( She's squashed my foot several times, and really has no idea how to behave. I don't think she means to hurt, she just doesn't seem to know the difference between my space and hers!

Maybe it's different if you've had the horse for decades and know their ways, but Mollie's not getting let off because of her advancing years. :p
 
YorksG said:
Our 30 year old coloured cob is both. She has been a fantastic animal, with stable and ridden manners in abundance, she was a driver and knew her job perfectly. She looked after novices and children, but was forward enough going for more advanced riders. She is now retired and rules the roost. She wanders round the yard when she wants to, mugs people mercilessly but gently, we move round her rather than her round us. She has earned the right to be a grumpy old girl, we owe her that and a whole lot more. The others are NOT allowed to get away with anything :D
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This i exactly how we feel about and treat our old girl.
 
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