What do you think is an old horse

My big horses are 2x 17 and retired is 19
Only two years difference but I do call the older one my old horse! He's had a tough life and been stiff and had soundness issues since 10.
I think age with horses really is just a number.
Id say roughly 20 plus if consider quite old and 25 plus old!
 
Mine is 24 and I tend to think of her as "quite old". She's been retired for a few years and looks in pretty good nick - I don't know if you'd guess her age though I'm sure most would put her at over 15. She does get a bit stiff though, which is more or less noticeable depending on the day/ weather etc.
 
My lad is 16, I wouldn't call him old. He's fitter and healthier then when he came to me at 14 and definitely has more life in him.

Some horses do appear old beyond their years, and some appear young.. It depends on the horse. I guess I would call anything 25+ 'old' and anything 20+ 'getting on a bit'. We have a few horses who are 20+ and a couple who are 30 at the yard and they are getting on just fine. Both the oldies (30) not doing too much anymore but are happy and healthy.
 
An old horse is 11 if you're buying and 25 if you're selling 😋

But seriously, I'd not call a horse under 20 old. Veteran, maybe, or possibly "older". I tend to think of old horses as in their twenties.

If I was looking right now, I'd consider a mature horse for myself and expect that to be around 10-16. I'd possibly want an older horse for my husband and think that was 15-20.
 
I think horse life expectancy has increased rapidly over the last 40 years and what once was "old" is now "mature", although I think there have always been exceptions to that rule. About 35 years ago, I was hacking out a 28-year-old who was full of vim and was complemented by an old boy on that "nice youngster".

I've changed my views over the years and now think 25 is the new 15 as care has improved so much, but it does depend on how much mileage there is....
 
I would call a horse "old" over the age of 15. This for me, is the cut off point as to when I would sell a horse on. Once past 15, then they are lifers. I fully appreciate many carry on for longer but realistically, I wouldn't be looking for a 15 or 16 year old horse which I wanted to compete on. I bought my schoolmistress mare at 13 who had evented up to intermediate. She gave me 3 wonderful seasons and then finally was diagnosed with arthritis in her neck and her jumping stopped then and there. While she went out on loan as a hack for a while, I had her back and retired her on part livery till she was 30 (she absolutely refused to live out and I really did try). I won't ever do that again as while I owed her so much, she ended up being the most expensive horse I ever bought. So on that basis.. would not buy a horse over 15.
 
another that thinks it depends on the horse. I tend to think of them as old when they start to look and appear old - when the movement appears stiff, when they get that head tilt if they look around behind them, instead of bending at the neck, when the back dips etc. That could be 16 or it could be 30.

My 20yo feels like a spring chicken despite having had a hard time of it in recent years. The only giveaway is the start of some grey hairs above her eyes :o
I don't think of her as old - she is fragile because of her medical history but old she ain't! :p
 
alainax said:
8+ = not a youngster
16+ =Id call a mature horse
20+= I'd call a veteran
25+= an older horse " he's an older gent"
30+ = an old horse
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Me too I would not sell my horse on when he reach 16 (which my home bred has) like a pair of old boots "lets get a new pair" For me when a horse comes into my life, regardless of if he sustains injury or not, he or she is here til the end of their time when Mother Nature decides they have to go back to her. (unless they turn aggressive)

I appreciate some get rid of a horse at a certain age, and think of horses that are aged differently.

All I am saying is I think of them more like part of the family which they are and not like a asset to be sold on when it is no longer financially viable to be any use to me.

They are here to stay!!
 
Had one come to me at 25 and then another shortly after at 28 they were old, tired and sad, once they met each other had good grazing and a bit of TLC they seemed to become so much younger and had a new lease on life, both gone now but certainly left their mark on our place

The others I have now I tend to think of as young until I have to drag their passport out for some reason, then I think OMG where did that time go

I'm not too good at guessing ages with humans or animals, I just judge on how well they look or how they are acting, as my husband so rightly said (Although it shocked me at the time) *Nothing gets out of here alive* which just means if any animal come to me they are with me for life, so age is irrelevant
 
fredflop said:
Old is when the horse feels old, not going by a number
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Yup. Ardennes has just turned 13 and I call him my old boy.

Joints knackered sadly. He won't make it to what most people call 'old'........

ETA - but we've got a Welsh Sec C at the riding school on site who surprised me when I saw his passport a few months ago. He's 22 and acts like a baby - he rough plays with the youngsters and is always the one to start trouble! I knew he wasn't 'young' but thought around mid teens.
 
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Age IS relevant to me; our horses work for a living and are in the public eye so always have to look happy, sprightly and well (they have to be that way for me too, just to clarify!). Almost all of our horses have worked well into their very late teens, at least, and had some years of retirement before going on to the Great Pasture in the sky, but I don't keep old, creaky horses going just for the sake of it. Once life becomes less than a pleasure for them they are humanely put down. If I was to sell, the oldest I would consider would be 11 years, and it would have to be sound. The oldest I'd buy a horse is at 14, with the idea that it could potentially work for 5 years; any older than that would not be feasible.

A friend just had her 34 year old mare put down, and we were reminiscing about her life. She was bought at 10 years old; my friend was worried that she was "too old", and too expensive for "an old horse" at £2,000. She rode Molly until she was 32 (and still bucking people off for fun ;-), the mare was never lame, never needed a vet until the last day, and cost my friend in excess of £125,000 over her lifetime.
 
It depends on the horse. Some keep going forever, some are knackered by the time they're ten. Buy something with a decent conformation, work it correctly, manage it well, you increase your odds but it's always going to be a crapshoot. A vet friend of mine once observed that if a horse has got to its teens without any health problems, the odds are fairly good it will keep going until its 20s. So there's some sense in buying a horse that's shown it can withstand the work being asked of it.

My horse turned 24 in May. Keeping weight in her in the winter is a pain, but that's been the case since she arrived in the UK 10 years ago. Age hasn't helped, but if we'd stayed in the US on the feed, hay, and routine there, I doubt it would be such a hassle. There's something about the way horses are managed in winter here. Other than that, she's like whisky -- keeps improving with age.

I took these last week -- they're of my friend having a shot on her.

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As others have said it depends on the horse. If buying I would not buy over about 11 years old, as i think you do not know the history and could be buying a heap of problems. In the old days it was anything over 15. Older horses do have their value and can provide novices with safe knowledgable rides but I would worry about underlying conditions. I think the larger the horse the quicker thay tend to age. All my animals live to vast old ages and tend to cost me a forture before they slip the motal coil and long may it continue!
 
I would call over 20 as an old horse. My old horse is 23, he started slowing down at 20 with some arthritis, but still good to hack out and he's happy when in work so we will keep him going for as long as we can. X
 
fredflop said:
Old is when the horse feels old, not going by a number
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That's what my friend's 24 year old WB keeps trying to tell us. He was still hunting this spring, still dancing about like a big daft fool and still being told that he'll grow out of it soon!!
 
My TB gelding is turning 18 come 1st of August and he is starting to fall to bits. Most of his issues are just old age creeping in plus wear and tear. He retired just after he turned 17. He has arthritis in his hocks and hip, Cushings and just does look as well as as he use to. He has plenty of condition though. He is the oldest horse I have ever had. Wazzle raced successfully at the highest level before breaking down and then had a successful eventing career up to 1* so he has more than earned his retirement. I consider him to be older, I have always thought of 20+ as old and 25+ geriatric.

My TB mare on the other hand is turning 15 this year and doesn't look a day over 8! She was also a racehorse who broke down and has had 9 foals since (no easy feat!). I really think its horses for courses.
 
For me anything over 18 is Old. But horses definitely live and work for longer than they used to. Really I think it depends on the individual horse and how much hard work it's done over it's life etc.
 
Mine is 24 and she certainly hasn't had the memo about being old. She's fast, sharp and healthy. I bought her at 16 as I wanted a mature horse to hack and have fun with. She was well cared for before I got her, not backed too young, over worked or injured so I see no reason not to work her appropriately whilst she still enjoys it. She loves work and would do a lot more than I have time for. All the younger horses on the yard have some health issue or other - she's the most medically uncomplicated one despite being 10 years older than the oldest of the younger ones.
 
http://www.horseandman.com/horse-st...-criollo-horses-mancha-and-gato-2/10/16/2012/

Aime Tschffely famously took a 15 and a 16 yr old criollo and rode them from 10,000 miles from Buenos Aires to New York in the 1920s. The two had already been driven 1000 miles across country to get to Buenos Aires. Both continued to live well into their mid/late 30s. My riding horse is a 16 ish year old criollo from Uraguy - he's as tough as old boots and never gets tired, he'll go all day even if it's really hot or hilly. I expect to have at least another 10-15 years of fun with him and consider him to be in his prime, not old at all.
 
They are all so different, I lost my mare at 23 and she had been old for years at that point, then my MIL's mare was still riding until she was 30 and died at 36. My mare now will be 24 in July and is looking great but has been retired since the age of 7 due to ill health which she is now over and very healthy. Depends on the horse I guess.
 
Goldenstar said:
I think that's true as long as under five they have not been spending their time standing around in tiny fields too fat for their own good .
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What the heck sort of stupid lunatic keeps anything, let alone a youngster, confined to a tiny space with too much food and not enough stimuli? Genuine question - where are you finding these people? How have their young horses not exploded from sheer boredom and killed them?
 
KittenInTheTree said:
What the heck sort of stupid lunatic keeps anything, let alone a youngster, confined to a tiny space with too much food and not enough stimuli? Genuine question - where are you finding these people? How have their young horses not exploded from sheer boredom and killed them?
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You find them all over the place, just look around you at all the horses out in taped off small paddocks. Look at all the grossly obese horses, all the horses which are fizzy, naughty and too much for their riders. They are almost the norm judging by all the problems that people seem to have.
 
KittenInTheTree said:
What the heck sort of stupid lunatic keeps anything, let alone a youngster, confined to a tiny space with too much food and not enough stimuli? Genuine question - where are you finding these people? How have their young horses not exploded from sheer boredom and killed them?
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I'm in Cheshire. I see them wherever I look.
 
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