How Much Should You Ride an Older Horse?

Many people wonder what workload an older horse can maintain. Can it be ridden the way it always has been should you give it a lessrigorous workload or should an older horse be ridden at all? Chances are unless your horse is very frail and elderly your horse will benefit from light work regularly.
Exercise With Your Senior Horse
Regular light exercise will help your horse maintain its health 1 Your horse might not be as agile nor as supple as in its younger days so keep this in mind. A horse that has worked all of its life however may not benefit from becoming a complete pasture potato either.

Sliding stops allday trail ridedrives or jumping may have to go by the wayside but regular light riding may be beneficial. Just as with human seniors exercise can help keep its muscles strong and its joints flexible.

Many people are only able to ride our horses on the weekends but your senior horse would probably be better off ridden lightly a few times a week rather than just one long hard ride on Sunday afternoon. It may be time for a performance horse to become a kids horse that carries a lighter load a few times a week.

Perhaps an older rider that just wants a quiet hack is a good match for a horse nearing retirement. Of course some horses dont know they are older and act like silly 2yearolds. So the type of semiretirement suitable for any given horse has to be based on its capabilities. Most often light work is good for the horse.
If you do work your older horse a bit longer or harder than you expected to remember that it may take a bit longer to recover. Its muscles dont recover