anyone have older horses?

[Cara]

i jsut wanna know what you do with them, or you do differnt, grain,hay,pasture time ect....

china is 20years old, and still kicken, but i think her age is starting to catch up a bit!

 

[targetsmom]

I have an older big horse (22 yrs) that has had half his small intestines removed in 2 colic surgeries, so some of what I do for him is for that. He is on Nutrena Senior feed (a complete feed) plus hay and he is turned out 24/7 next to, but not in with, the minis. I think the summer pasture is very important for him because of the colic history, but then, he isn't a mini! He gets a joint supplement (glucosamine) and daily wormer. He still gets ridden when I have time and the weather cooperates, and he often runs around and kicks up his heels like a 3 year old. Actually, he seems to have more spunk and energy than the young minis! You can see a photo of him on our website at the link below. He adores the minis!

 

[Tami]

I LOVE older mares.

I have 5 that are 18 or older. I don't do anything different with them UNLESS they need it. If you think your mare is showing signs of her age then yes, you will want to start dealing with that. Mine are 18,20,21,22 and 24. One was dropping weight last year but it was her teeth. None of them show their age, yet anyway.

 

[Denise]

I have one that will be 22 this spring. She is an easy keeper, fat and fast. When it comes to de-worming time the chase is on.

I do not do anything special with her....yet. But if she does start to drop weight I'll put her on a supplement and senior feed. She is kept on pasture 24/7 and runs with the herd and seems quite happy.

 

[Sandee]

We have a 20 year old gelding that doesn't know his age yet. In fact I don't know if he believes he's a gelding, since he chases and tries to mount our 3 yr old filly.

 

[gambler]

I LOVE older mares.

I have 5 that are 18 or older. I don't do anything different with them UNLESS they need it. If you think your mare is showing signs of her age then yes, you will want to start dealing with that. Mine are 18,20,21,22 and 24. One was dropping weight last year but it was her teeth. None of them show their age, yet anyway.

Wow, 24!! Gambler is 15 now and still very healthy. Guess he is still considered a young'un, lol!! I am looking forward to 10 more years with him.

 

[hhpminis]

I have a 28 yr old mare. I do not much different for her. I watch her weight close and if i notice a change I am quick to adjust as it takes her a bit longer to recover from weight loss. She lives out with the brood mares 99% of the time. If it is real cold and wet, I will bring her in. Sometimes she lets me know when she wants a stall and I let her have one. Then in the morning she wants out again.

I do watch her very close in the spring on fresh grass. Also when it has rained. She gets a little sore on it. She has been very healthy, but she did founder spring before last so we are very careful with her. She is a spit fire too, like someone else said, come to her with a wormer tube and shes off! LOL

 

[Boinky]

I have a 21 year old STB mare. I don't do anything different for her as she's an easy keeper and still acts like a stupid 2 year old all the time. She only has a few grey hairs on her body (i've noticed some crop up around where her noseband of the halter sits)...but that's about it and she's healthy as a horse.. LOL. She did bow a tendon this past summer but it was quick healing (so i'm not sure if it was truly a bow or just some swelling). first time she's ever been off in her life since i got her as a 5 year old and then she wasn't hardly lame. I have a feeling at this rate she might outlive me! LOL She'd get special treatment if she needed (ie. more grain/senior grain Joint meds ect ect).

 

[chandab]

My only senior horse is a half-Arab gelding, he'll be 25 in May. He's still doing quite well, although semi-retired as I don't ride as much as I used to. He is on a joint supplement. He gets a ration balancer year round: more in summer as he's on pasture; less in winter, as I add some senior feed to his ration (I like the quality fiber in the senior, so its more for me than him).

 

[Loess Hills]

We have a beautiful "older lady" who just turned 25 this year. She is amazingly healthy!

We do feed her a complete feed with hay and pasture, and she is with other mares, gets along very well, can still run out to pasture, although moving more slowly now. We have had her teeth floated twice and some cracked and broken teeth removed. I'm like Tami, I love the older mares, they truely are the foundation of a miniature herd.

 

[Riverdance]

I have one mare that is 20 this year. I bought her last year in foal. I am hoping to still get a foal or two out of her in the next couple of years. She is fat and sassy and looks and acts more like 10.

I almost lost her this fall to colic, but my woderful vets were able to pull her thorugh and she is doing just fine. Fotunatly she was not pregnat for this year as she had such a late foal in 2007.

I still feed her what I feed everyone else.

 

[alongman]

We have a few senior citizens on our farm as well. My stallion is still breeding, although cannot settle as many mares without a little more recovery time. As for my mares, they are out with the rest of the girls. They get more frustrated when they AREN'T with the rest. I do watch their weight closely, have their teeth done regularly and, in general, just maintain good health all around. I do supplement their feed a little with some extra fat to keep their weight up. Like many of the others, I make sure that they are able to get out of the elements very easily.

We lost our grand "oldest" lady of the farm two years ago at the ripe young age of 34! She foaled that year and successfully raised a beautiful foal - only passing after the baby was weaned.

 

[Relic]

Our oldest mare Becky is coming 27 this spring she's a buckskin with a mostly white face now that she's old. Last fall she started to shake when it got real cold around -20 so the only thing different now for her is she is stalled on those days. Hay is free choice 24/7 and a senior feed soaked in with her beetpulp twice a day all winter. She's 30 tall and very healthy. She's out front today teasing my fave stallion..little tramp.

 

[nootka]

My eldest is 32 this year. She is Gramma Pony, and that was all we knew her as, when she was given to us in the Winter of 1995. I since discovered in 2003, thanks to Stacy Score, that her real name was Dell Tera's Betty.

She is very healthy, and maintains her weight quite well.

Her only real problem is that she has lost nearly all of her teeth. Still, she prefers her senior feed (Allegra) served dry, and manages to eat it just fine that way. She had one filly for us in 1997, and serves her position well as "grandmother" of the herd. When foals are coming, she is so excited, and if it is her grandkid, she is a second mother to it, with the exception of nursing.

Here is a link to her page:

Gramma Pony

She's definitely a favorite for her amazing ability to survive. When we got her, she was pretty sickly. The gelding in my avatar is her grandson. She may "go on strike" this year, though, as we have no foals coming.

Adam, that's a wonderful story about your oldster. I think Gramma would love to have another of her very own, but she quit cycling regularly about eight years ago. No problemo, she's earned her retirement and then some.

Liz

 

[buckonranch]

All of you with mares 18 and older.. do you find they usually foal later in the season???? August of later for example?? I have been seeing a pattern all my older mares have been the ones going the latest..

We will be celebrating Cock Robins 30th Birthday in 08... Anyone owning a Robin offspring please contact me.. We would like you to join in the celebration!!!!!


email me at [email protected]


angie/buckonranch

 

[Lewella]

My senior stallion turns 27 this year. His teeth are really, really worn down so he lives on Senior feed. If he starts looking like he's not maintaining weight then he goes on MoorGlo (a fat supplement).

All of you with mares 18 and older.. do you find they usually foal later in the season???? August of later for example?? I have been seeing a pattern all my older mares have been the ones going the latest..

From what I've read that's pretty normal for older mares. With each foal there is some uterine scarring that goes on leaving fewer good places for a placenta. Most older mares likely conceive on each cyle they are bred but until they have an embryo that attaches to a clean spot they don't settle.

*Edited to add - I have a 20 year old mare due to foal in April and a 17 year old mare due to foal in May and they are both still in the herd and doing well.

Lewella

 

[Charlene]

my big gelding will be 26 in may. he gets the same as the minis...grass hay, a small bit of pelleted feed, daily dewormer, glucosomine/msm supplement and daily probiotics.

this is the same regimen i followed when i had my old quarter horse mare. she lived to the ripe old age of 37. i was forced to put her down because the arthritis was just getting to be too much for her. i miss that old gal, she was one in a million!

 

[Magic]

My oldest horse is a 24 year old mare. She had her last foal just two years ago (and settled on ONE cover) but she tends to be a harder keeper and I decided to retire her. She's kept with the weanlings/yearlings since she ends up on the bottom of any pecking order of older horses, so with the "babies" she gets plenty of hay and grain and doesn't get picked on. She's on pasture in the summer. I used to stall her when the weather was really bad but she hates that so I let her stay out. She's smart enough to stay in shelter when it's raining or snowing anyway. She looks great, and plays and runs, and so far I haven't given her any extra supplements but I suppose it's about time she started getting some glucosamine/chondroitin or some such thing to keep her joints feeling ok.

I love this old mare, she's such a gem.

 

[NoddalottaFarm]

I don't have an older horse now, however, my first horse was a QH who was given to me (free!) at the age of 23. He was 23, not me.

He was hardy so he did everything just like the others. He had a touch of arthritis and needed some meds in the Winter, but he ate exactly like the other boys! Nothing slowed him down but cold.

 

[Candice]

My Qh's are 23 and 28. They've been on a mixture of senior and a 10% sweet feed for years. I do watch their weights and have their teeth checked yearly. My 23yr old gelding looks 8. People are shocked to learn his age. My 28 yr old mare has had some serious arthritis build up over this past year in her knees so she is only ridden by my younger children. My vet says she'd be fine for us to ride if I bute her, but I'm not doing that to her.

All my mini mares are older. The oldest is 19 this year and she is as spry as ever. Due to foal in June. I treasure my older horses.