Would you take offence at this?

[Muddywellies]

She knows diddly squat. Just ignore it. Tho it sounds like she's a bit of a know it all so I'd be warming up to give her a sharp response next time she shares her incorrect opinion with me about my horse!

 

[alibali]

Actually while we are talking about fitness I would be really interested to hear opinions on keeping older horses fit. My old girl is of unknown age, the vet say 18 to 20, her passport says younger, but when I bought her even the seller said that it was obviously wrong and I should make my own mind up! She owes me nothing, and can retire at any time, I have always said when I no longer feel the spring in her step she can wind down to just walking in the forest, or if she does not want to be ridden she can walk beside us.

I tend to take the view with her that we work to the level she wants, most days she is full of beans, in fact yesterday was full of energy and just wanted to run. We do get the occasional day where I feel that her heart isn't in it, and then we just take it easy, go for a hack, or sometimes even I will just stop and put her back to the paddock, but this is very occasional.

The thing that I am not sure about is how fit should an older horse be? My gut instinct is as fit as they can be without doing work that they struggle with or risking their soundness, but does anyone have any firm opinions. The vet is happy with her and says that she is great for her age, but when other people tell me that their horses of that age are just hacking I wonder am I asking too much of her? It is quite difficult as she does not show any signs of wanting to slow down, but I really want to do the right thing by her as I owe her so much. She was the horse who got me riding again after a serious accident, carried me safely every day for a year while she rebuilt my confidence, never once spooked or did anything silly, and without this wonderful school mistress I certainly would not be riding today.

Any opinions?

Winters your horses are in fabulous shape and so I wouldn't presume to tell you how to look after them. However you ask for opinions so I will venture mine. If I owned your older mare I would keep her as fit as possible provided she is eager and willing. It's harder to regain fitness and muscle once lost.

My oldie needed to drop down to mainly walking only hacks aged around 25 years old (he had arthritis and had had a very hard life before he came to me). However he stayed reasonably fit and well ticking over like that for 2 1/2 years. Then the birth of my daughter and subsequent single parenthood meant no time to ride. Once he stopped 'work' he deteriorated quite quickly and I lost him 6 months later. So definitely best to keep the work level up as high as they're comfortable with in my experience.

How to know when to do less with them? I stopped asking him for canter when he stopped offering it up freely. We still had occasional short trots whenever he felt comfortable and offered them freely.

I'm confident you'll know exactly how much work to give your mare and when to ease off. I don't think you need to worry about it, you've got it covered. Enjoy her

 

[ApacheWarrior1]

I’d love to know how you get your good doer to look ‘thin’. I’m struggling to shift weight off mine even though I’ve cut back hay and it’s now soaked for 12 hours. I know what I really need to do is more hard work, but (my) work keeps getting in the way. I’m hoping that starting jumping again will help to shift some.

The fact that you are feeding the poor doer of the bunch 5 times per day is testament to your excellent knowledge and dedication for your animals. Ignore this silly woman and let her opinions go over your head.

 

[Winters100]

If I owned your older mare I would keep her as fit as possible provided she is eager and willing. It's harder to regain fitness and muscle once lost.

I'm glad you said this - it has always been my logic with her that regaining fitness would be too hard on her. Happily she is the easiest to keep moving in the sense that when I have had disasters (sick family / injuries etc) and have not been able to ride I always have a line of people offering to exercise her because she is so easy and such a pleasure. Also I don't need to worry too much about how experienced they are, for example this week I let a 13 year old ride her a few times as her pony is lame, she also went for a long walk in the forest with a 4 year old on a lead rope, and my lovely girl looked after them both perfectly!

 

[ester]

Certainly the logic I used, and that decent muscle tone would also help to support any increasingly dodgy bits within reason/not to any harm. So we used to do a fair amount of low impact toning work too/enough school work to keep him strong and supple but not so much as to aggravate anything. Though saying that 2 years post retirement and at 28 the vet did suggest mum might like to start riding him (she doesn't?, that's why she never restarted after he had to have some time off??).

 

[alibali]

I'm glad you said this - it has always been my logic with her that regaining fitness would be too hard on her. Happily she is the easiest to keep moving in the sense that when I have had disasters (sick family / injuries etc) and have not been able to ride I always have a line of people offering to exercise her because she is so easy and such a pleasure. Also I don't need to worry too much about how experienced they are, for example this week I let a 13 year old ride her a few times as her pony is lame, she also went for a long walk in the forest with a 4 year old on a lead rope, and my lovely girl looked after them both perfectly!

She sounds worth her weight in gold

 

[Winters100]

I'm sadly in the category of only dreaming that I'll be able to see a rib, with a very good doer who is still on only walking exercise after a year off due to injury. He has changed shape a fair bit but he has fat pads on his shoulders and no ribs that I can find by any stretch of the imagination. However, his usual apple bum has a very small cleavage and he has no crest, both of which are a bit of a comfort. He is out 24/7 on our winter fields with no hay and gets two miniscule feeds a day of soaked grass pellets to keep him occupied while his old field mate stuffs a full bucket of feed down.

I would be so proud if he looked like your horses OP that I probably would have been so offended that I would have let rip about how fat hers is. That said, your method was much better and hearing it from a vet is likely to be much more effective in the long term!

It sounds like you are doing absolutely everything you can - with a good-doer it is a nightmare if they can't work hard. Well done you for doing all that can be done to manage the situation. I really do know that it is not easy, and circumstances like yours are very trying indeed, but your horse is extremely fortunate to have an owner who cares enough to do their best by him.

 

[Winters100]

As an update, rather to my surprise, I actually really like this woman. I quite admire people who can accept that they have been mistaken and try to change things, and she really is trying. She is sometimes initially horrified by the advice I give her, such as taking the rug off, giving away the many tubs of high calorie treats that she had and changing him from individual turnout to going to a field with almost no grass in a pack with other geldings, but she has gone along with everything. Sometimes takes a bit of persuading that it is not cruel, but she now sees that the horse will not melt if he gets wet, and that she can give a neck scratch instead of a treat to reward him. She has her work cut out to make him lose weight, especially since she is a nervous rider, but we have some hills a short distance from the yard and twice this week she headed out there to trot him uphill. It has been a very strange thing for me, because although I do things differently to most of the other owners on the yard, I have never before had someone question that my horses receive good care. Still it is sometimes good to have to justify yourself, makes you take a hard look at what you are doing, and it never hurts to do this when it comes to care of animals.

 

[teddypops]

Actually while we are talking about fitness I would be really interested to hear opinions on keeping older horses fit. My old girl is of unknown age, the vet say 18 to 20, her passport says younger, but when I bought her even the seller said that it was obviously wrong and I should make my own mind up! She owes me nothing, and can retire at any time, I have always said when I no longer feel the spring in her step she can wind down to just walking in the forest, or if she does not want to be ridden she can walk beside us.

I tend to take the view with her that we work to the level she wants, most days she is full of beans, in fact yesterday was full of energy and just wanted to run. We do get the occasional day where I feel that her heart isn't in it, and then we just take it easy, go for a hack, or sometimes even I will just stop and put her back to the paddock, but this is very occasional.

The thing that I am not sure about is how fit should an older horse be? My gut instinct is as fit as they can be without doing work that they struggle with or risking their soundness, but does anyone have any firm opinions. The vet is happy with her and says that she is great for her age, but when other people tell me that their horses of that age are just hacking I wonder am I asking too much of her? It is quite difficult as she does not show any signs of wanting to slow down, but I really want to do the right thing by her as I owe her so much. She was the horse who got me riding again after a serious accident, carried me safely every day for a year while she rebuilt my confidence, never once spooked or did anything silly, and without this wonderful school mistress I certainly would not be riding today.

Any opinions?

My 30yo Welsh x TB pretty much does the same amount of work that she has always done. She hasn’t slowed down at all, I never have to ask her to go and she needs to be kept under control and is very keen to go out hacking and to gallop and jump logs in the woods. When she isn’t so keen, I will slow it down. She is my favourite pony to ride as she is fast and feisty but totally safe so she is so much fun.

 

[Cragrat]

I'm very impressed Winters - it sounds like you have totally turned this situation round Something that could have escalated and made the yard miserable for you, this lady, and everyone and around you, is now a positive benefit for her hourse and any horse she has in the future.

 

[Renvers]

As an update, rather to my surprise, I actually really like this woman. I quite admire people who can accept that they have been mistaken and try to change things, and she really is trying. She is sometimes initially horrified by the advice I give her, such as taking the rug off, giving away the many tubs of high calorie treats that she had and changing him from individual turnout to going to a field with almost no grass in a pack with other geldings, but she has gone along with everything. Sometimes takes a bit of persuading that it is not cruel, but she now sees that the horse will not melt if he gets wet, and that she can give a neck scratch instead of a treat to reward him. She has her work cut out to make him lose weight, especially since she is a nervous rider, but we have some hills a short distance from the yard and twice this week she headed out there to trot him uphill. It has been a very strange thing for me, because although I do things differently to most of the other owners on the yard, I have never before had someone question that my horses receive good care. Still it is sometimes good to have to justify yourself, makes you take a hard look at what you are doing, and it never hurts to do this when it comes to care of animals.

That is fantastic news.

It sounds like she has lucked out and found herself a good guide to being a responsible horse owner. It is great she takes your suggestions in good faith, obviously she only wants the best for her horse and having someone more experienced and knowledgable to put her on the right track.

 

[little_critter]

As an update, rather to my surprise, I actually really like this woman. I quite admire people who can accept that they have been mistaken and try to change things, and she really is trying. She is sometimes initially horrified by the advice I give her, such as taking the rug off, giving away the many tubs of high calorie treats that she had and changing him from individual turnout to going to a field with almost no grass in a pack with other geldings, but she has gone along with everything. Sometimes takes a bit of persuading that it is not cruel, but she now sees that the horse will not melt if he gets wet, and that she can give a neck scratch instead of a treat to reward him. She has her work cut out to make him lose weight, especially since she is a nervous rider, but we have some hills a short distance from the yard and twice this week she headed out there to trot him uphill. It has been a very strange thing for me, because although I do things differently to most of the other owners on the yard, I have never before had someone question that my horses receive good care. Still it is sometimes good to have to justify yourself, makes you take a hard look at what you are doing, and it never hurts to do this when it comes to care of animals.

Wow - full marks to your fellow livery for taking on what was said, considering it and making changes. That takes guts.

 

[maya2008]

Lovely to hear that her horse is benefitting!

Sometimes it is different builds of horse too...vet came to do vaccs and teeth yesterday, husband held them so he is less confident justifying himself. At a distance, she commented that the shetland needed a muzzle- as everyone always does - but she is not pure shetland, and has the rib cage of a larger pony (you can feel ribs, no crest or fat rolls on neck etc). She does wear a muzzle as needed, but is still in her ‘thin girth’ at the moment, and a good weight. Vet got closer apparently and said, ‘Oh she’s not purebred is she?’ Then commented no more!

In contrast, first ridden pssm mare has very little muscle anywhere because she only carries a small child. He had comments about that, but we already do everything she suggested anyway. She keeps on more muscle if I ride her, but she has been a thousand times happier since I stopped, and she just had the small child on her back. Having less topline isn’t making her ill - I am happy to go with whatever makes her more comfortable and happy.

Fatty coblet didn’t get a mention - his ribs are buried, but he is a champion muzzle remover so our only option is to have him in as much work as possible (hours of hacking on weekend days!!).

 

[little_critter]

I do agree build does come into it. My mare has an apple bum. I admit she is carrying more weight than ideal, it’s a constant work in progress.
However I strongly suspect that the rest of her body would need to look like a rescue case before she lost that apple bum...it’s simply the shape she is. For me, the area to watch on her is behind her shoulder, that’s where she lays down excess fat first.