Anyone with an oldie out there?

[bexj]

Does anyone have any advice for schooling exercises for my horse? He is 20 years old, and hasn't done much work for ages. I am trying to gently bring him back into fitness, but he just plods round the outdoor school.......no matter how much encouragement you give him!

But when he's out on a hack, he's great! He's responsive, he's energetic, he properly starts to work. He behaves like a horse half his age!

Unfortunately, I am not able to hack him during the week, so we are back to the big old fat cob plod..........and its getting us both nowhere!

Thanks!

[Jay.o]

i just posted in the horse care and health about davids 25+year old mule and whether i should ride him or not because he has arthritus !

maybe your horse has had a load of schooling in her life and getting a bit bored and loves going out on hacks a sort of her retirement.
if she is energetic out on hacks maybe she doesnt need being made fitter.

i dont know really - maybe galadrial or floppy will be able to answer this one !

[bexj]

Thanks Jay-o - I shall go read your other thread.....

[welsh_mountain]

i think it must be an age thing because squire is 4 years old and he WAS the same!

i have a 24 year old arab and he bucks like *poo* since he had me of ( and i was in casulty for 3 hours! )and he was a plodded until that!

i have done some bending and that is getting him a bit more 'this is fun!' and troting poles put them a long distance adn make him/her do extended trot and put them not far apart and do a nice collected trot! try doing some gymkana races! like the flag and the egg and spoon! he loves it!

that has calmed him down from doing the grand national!lol! not many bucks now!

hope this helps! let us know what you do!

jo:D

[LindaAd]

Have you tried riding shapes, circles, serpentines etc? Lots of transitions - walk-halt-walk, and changing the pace in the walk. There's an exercise I like that goes: walk 20 paces, halt, walk 18 paces, halt, walk 16.... until you're down to walk 2, halt. This used to wake up my old pony and get him listening - and you can use any numbers and any pace you like., so it's as energetic as you want.

[cabanha]

I've just started bringing my mom's 23-year old Thoroughbred gelding back out of retirement. He is arthritic and he needs to keep his joints moving so he's back doing some light ringwork. He gets bored very easily and I've found that doing a lot of Dressage movements as LindaAd said, really works for him. I start off (well this is after his 10-minute warm up) with a working trot and then do a 20m circle, throw in a few serpentines. Sometimes I lay down a sequence of ground poles, nothing major, just so he picks his feet up a bit and relizes that plodding along is not what he's supposed to be doing. This gelding also perks up a great deal when out on hacks so on the weekends, when most of us at the stable go out trail riding, I've been riding him since he enjoys it so much. Anyway, best of luck to you, hope some of us helped you! And congrats on brining an oldie but goodie back into fitness, it's more healthy! :D

[Lucy J]

sadly my old horse is no longer with me, but he hadn't been ridden for years when I got him as an oldie. he refused to lunge, adored hacking and used to follow the sound of the ice cream van!!!!

when it came to schooling he was a lazy old sod, he just was not interested. he didn't mind jumping so much though. i was lucky in a way that i used to ride in the field, if I tried to set aside a schooling area he was useless, but if I just rode round the field he was quite good.

i gave up schooling in the end. i was at uni at the time though, so had the odd afternoon I could ride.

[sweetbriar]

I have a pony in her early twenties. She has been diagnosed as having arthritis in her shoulder and I've recently retired her from jumping.

She is a complete madam in the school and plods around at 3 miles an hour. I have her lunged by someone else 2 days a week as well. She didn't like the lunge either but has settled down to it now.

It usually takes her a good 20 mins to warm up in the school and I try to do lots of different things. Mostly it involves me trying to get her to move faster than 1 mile an hour. She has beautiful movements in trot and canter and we still do the odd bit of dressage.

Get her out on a hack and she goes like a bomb. She's overtaken horses twice her size by a good few lengths. She loves to hack and as long as she is able to be ridden I hope to keep up the work.

[angel]

until recently all i ever had was older horses and they are great, my mare who is 27 will school but you have to warm up a lot in walk first then do different things with them, serpintines, circles not too small ones, though if they are arthritic, and not a full hour its too long i spend at least 10 15 mins in walk on a light contact, before taking a more definate rein. and let her stretch out during schooling so she doesnt get stiff.
as long as i constantly change direction trot to walk transisitons, and canter she is fine try trotting poles then raise one end put them in a fan shape. use bending poles but make them wider than normal
and at the end cool down and walk on a long rein, good luck