Cinch Magazine- Your Online Equestrian Source

Why the Older Horse?
J.L. Orchard, Cinch Magazine


If you could choose between an eight-year-old and a twenty-four-year-old horse, whom would you pick? But why?

So often it is the older, gray haired nag that is turned down, and unfairly so. Older horses make some of the finest of equine pets, especially for young children and novice adult riders. Even at the homes of competitive champion equestrians, there is still room to open your heart and share the life of a horse that's seen it all. Beyond the mature horse's bony hips, grayed faces and brittle hooves, there is still a horse teeming with a single ambition. 

Yes, you must be wary. The older horse can have many hidden secrets, some obvious and some not so obvious. They may only have four or eight years left in them. They may suffer from a shedding disorder, arthritis, or be nothing more than the left-overs of an unrecognized show that closed in the eighties. Yes, their vet bills could heighten with crooked or misplaced teeth, or a lack there of. And their frail feet may require some extra farrier stopovers.

Their joints may creak when they walk and they may not paddock party with the younger generation anymore, but you've found yourself a good thing when you've opened your heart to the older horse. An animal of twenty knows all the tricks. They've seen it, done it, and been there a thousand times over. The vet is merely another means of slow entertainment and the farrier can do whatever manicure he wants…I won't be picky, I'm not going to the GP ball tomorrow. The old horse develops a relationship to the trailer like those of an old man to his off-sidewalk four-wheel drive scooter. But let’s not say they've lost their amusing personality.

The older horse is unimaginably polite. They've become like the crosswalk guard to the preschoolers in the arena…We're walking! We're walking! When you compare that un-educated three-year-old with the crosstie wrapped over her crest and the leg in an ice pail from last nights gallivanting, to the doleful old woman in the grooming stall over, how could you refuse the demeanor of the older generation? Little Ditsy over there may enjoy blowing bubbles in the water trough, but Mrs. Mature would much rather nod her head to sleep in your arms.

All this is not to say that the experienced equine has run out of spunk and hilarity, no indeed not! There is a quiet almost British sense of humor spoken from the retired mount's lips in an evening ride. Their art of trickery is so refined, so polished that it will pass by without ever being noticed. But somehow, just somehow, your horse finished the trial with stems of grass between her teeth and a hint of secret amusement in her eye. She is so good, so polite, and so gentle, you will not realize that the horse has turned for home. And when you've reached stall number four and have donned her with grateful rubs and peppermints you may then realize, in the three seconds it takes you to walk from barn to house, that your ride totaled a mere eight minutes. But doesn't if feel so fine to dismount unsore?

The older equine's creativity is increased ten fold when pastured with the younger, less bright members of the herd. And of course, every good four-year-old learned his or her manners from the seasoned warlords of the paddock. Mr. Age may not be able to hold his own forever in a game of specialized boxing but he will gain the young one's respect--intellect being his weapon.

For those of you who still doubt me, please consider. When your gelding of twenty-three stands aside gazing at imaginary hay mounds and the others line the gate waiting to be led like dull-brained sheep to their stalls, it is not because your gelding is short of hearing, deaf to your pleading calls, or lacking in better vision. No, the older horse has a very sharp, keen, and poetic sense of amusement. And wherever the fresh air flows between their manes and the setting sun awakens the crickets to be their minstrels, there the lofty beings of the farm shall stand…despite their master's blaspheme at the horse's inability to walk twenty feet.

The older horse is quite content to create its own enjoyments, however dull they may seem to the young. And while their bodies may have slowed and given up on barrel turns and meter high obstacles, the aged equine will continue to muster its creative intellect to better the advancements of the equine race and teach their younger counterparts a thing or two about being a horse.

In the midst of brief rides, slow progressions between paddock and stall, and wholly unattractive gray hairs, the older horse will always return to you. To wash your hands in the drool of their calm grazing, and to clothe you in stringy winter woollies.

They've slowed from the days of the horse trials and given up on carpeting another wall with ribbons. They no longer seek to dismantle their stalls themselves or silence the neighbor's dog once and for all. Because of their age they have limited themselves to only have one thing left to give. And while it may go unnoticed from time to time it never ceases to flow and you will always have from your aged equine love in the fullest- a companion and friend to the end of their days.

"Talk to me, I have nothing to do but listen, and comfort."

 

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