Ridecamp: [RC] [RC] The Aging Equine Athlete!

<<Does anyone know of other older horses who have continued their careers
long after many folks would have had them down for the count??  Who are
they?  Who rode them?  When?  Has anyone here actually ridden rides with/on
an older Equine Athlete?? Who was the oldest you've seen??>>


If you look up the horse "El Czar" (also "Lucky Lad" which was his barn
name) in the AERC horse history you will see that he started doing rides
back in 1987 and we retired him in 1994. (I rode him for a friend for two
years and got a top 10 in my first 50 on him)  He was 24 the year we retired
him.  He STARTED competing as a 17 year old.  He did plenty of LD and CTR
during those years too - somewheres around 3,000 miles worth all told.  Not
bad for an "old" horse.

We actually retired him because too many of the vets would say "Oh, the poor
old horse, he should be home in the pasture not working so hard out here".
(I listed him as 17 on an entry form once, and after the ride, the vet said
he was looking good for a 17 year old and I said "Oh, did I put 17 on the
form, I got confused, this is the 24 year old."  Did it just because we were
tired of fighting for him to start simply based on his age and wanted to see
if he would pass the vet check as a "young" horse.)

By the way, this horse is still going strong and will give my 13 yr old
horse a heck of a race any day.  Still competitive and still wants to go.


Karen in NE Ohio (Where it is raining AGAIN!)


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