11/04/2019
Absolutely love and cherish my senior horses 💕 I do what I can to keep them sound and healthy.
We live in an era of the futurity stars, the routine joint injections, the peaking of animals training at age eight, ten or twelve years… if they’re lucky.
I always applaud the trainers and horsemen who have hopes and dreams pinned on younger horses, perhaps, but who keep their old-timers in fine fettle, still maintaining if not improving, still working well beyond their teens. Well into their twenties, should their minds be willing and their bodies able.
The trainers who believe in this are in it for the long haul, for their horses’ well-being. Working ranch horses, field hunters, along with guiding and outfitting horses, will often be sound and fit all throughout their twenties and beyond, despite steady diets of arduous days and high mileage. Many are nearing or in their thirties, still showing up to do their jobs.
Why are performance horses any different?
I have my theories, which I won’t bore you with. They do run along the lines of not being able to have our cake and eat it, too… burning the candle at both ends… robbing Peter to pay Paul. More and more, I am interested in keeping my old, aged horses sound. Working. Learning. Improving. All this, despite the fact that so much of today’s horse sport is built on the short game.
This past summer, I was riding twenty-six-year-old Cody while teaching a student. This woman was struggling with her own body position in relation to asking her horse to perform the shoulder-in. Cody is no dressage horse! He has, however, a wonderful limberness and an understanding of the rider’s legs. On him, I was able to demonstrate my own position, the diagonal aids, the direction of my eyes… while Cody proudly held the shoulder-in up the long side. His tail was swinging, his bend was steady, his ears up, his eyes bright. The old horse knew that he was still of value, that his knowledge and enthusiasm were things that I still held dear.
More and more, this long game is becoming my gold standard of horsemanship.
Can I bring my young horses on with an eye to their sustainable futures? Can I train to improve their mental health and physical soundness over the course of their lives? Will I continue to show pride and hope for the ones who are growing old with me? I believe these are all choices, yes.
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Addendum: I want to somehow acknowledge the trainers who have made these sound, older performance horses we all love and learn on. These good, older horses were usually good, younger horses... and I have a special appreciation of those who were serious competitors or top workers in their long-ago youth. The people who started these horses and campaigned them WITHOUT BREAKING THEM DOWN are to be commended and publicly thanked! You have done great, lasting work in a demanding industry. You've made a difference.
