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We retired this horse from Endurance at the age of
15. Twenty years later I was still thinking "why in the heck did we think he was
old in those days?" The day before he died at the age of 35, he was standing way
out at the back of the corral looking out over the vineyard when I called him
for dinner. He spun, galloped full speed across the corral and "slid into
home" and almost splattered me against the barn. He never slowed down and always
thought he was a 4-year-old and was the biggest handful in my barn. There was no
walking on the trail. You put your foot in the saddle and hoped to you-know-what
you could manage to get on before he was at the end of the road leading out of
the ranch. Taking a break from work, (I work at home), sometimes I'd look out
the window and he'd be trotting "race-pace" around and around the corral
excercising himself while the rest of the horses stood in the middle watching
him with somewhat dumbfounded looks on their faces. Then he'd stop for a minute,
switch directions and keep on going. Sometimes I wondered if he was racing in
his mind. Since the age of 30 he's been on Purina Equine Senior ( he had hardly
any teeth), he was blind in one eye since the late 80's, but to look at him, one
would never know how old he was and I never stopped riding him, although it was
only to go out for a "joy" ride, if you can call riding an old horse who's joy
is beating the rest of the pack a joy ride!
I would venture to say we could have enduranced
this horse for at least another 5 years at the minimum. Just wish we
had!
:) Jackie
P.S. Monte died of disconnected small intestines.
By the time I found him, they were already in his pelvic area and it was too
late to save him. I miss him greatly. Some will say I have his picture
mislabeled by calling him a Champion as he never actually won a race. He came in
second and BC many a time, but he's still a Champion to me.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2002 12:37
PM
Subject: [RC] The Aging Equine
Athlete!
Hi Guys:
There is a wonderful article in the
July Horse & Rider about a 31 year old
Arab/Quarter gelding who
still competes in CTR. He's lined up to do 15 rides this
year!!!
Food for thought for folks who trade their mounts in for new
ones every few years and inspiration to folks like me who have older horses
and who want to take them 'The Distance'!! Well, some distance,
anyway. :o)
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??
I'm just wondering what 'older' means
anymore. With good nutrition, regular exercise, a good attitude
and with good and sensible riding, it seems to me that more horses might
qualify for this exalted status than we realize.
Thoughts??
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