From: Ellen
Dear Jessica,
I hope you can help me make a difficult decision. I find it hard to formulate my problem in a good way so you can answer it by mail, but I think it boils down to this question: When should one decide to retire a horse?
Let me try to explain the situation: I own an about 30 year old mare. She is in very good health, enjoys to be ridden and finds herself young enough to spook and run away with me ;-). (By the way: I can handle that now, thanks to you! But I can tell she is getting older... (I am so glad she isn't reading my mail ;-) She would be terribly offended!))
The owner of the barn bought a 10 years old gelding a few weeks ago and she offered me this horse because she thinks it will be a perfect successor for my old mare. I never really thought about a "next horse", but she is probably right that I should start considering it. Though she doesn't say it out loud I think she thinks my mare just too old to ride. In general she thinks it is strange that someone would want to ride a horse that takes a quarter of an hour to warm up, another quarter of an hour to get started and only after that much time is ready for "real dressage" ;-) . (Just to be clear on this: I don't mind at all!!!)
Now I have ridden this gelding about six or seven times and I am not quite sure about this horse. Not that it isn't a nice horse; he has great moves (I admit: much better than my mare) and is not bucking or doing anything really nasty. But he just doesn't listen very well to me... My instructor tells me I tense up to much and should "just relax". She says I should give it more time and that this gelding will respond better to me in time. She tells me I am "too used" to riding a sensitive mare and geldings are just a little less responsive (especially in the beginning).
If I decide to buy this gelding it will automatically mean I will have less time for my mare. And when my mare is ridden less, she will get stiffer and less comfortable. So maybe it would be better to retire her completely? I don't want that, but would it be fair to her to ride her when she is less comfortable? She is turned out 24/7 when possible, due to the rainy weather and swampy fields, this means she is turned out the whole day in summer and 3-4 hours in the winter. This is not enough to keep her supple, I have to ride her for that.
What I really, really want is some miracle cure that will make my mare 10 years younger! Any chance you can provide that? ;-)
I feel terrible about leaving her in the field and watch her deteriorate. But I also feel terrible about riding a too old mare! She seems to enjoy being ridden. But am I being selfish? Should I let her get stiff (and really old) in the field?
I hope you can give me some wise advice. Thanks for everything you're doing for us!
Kind regards,
Ellen
If your mare, at age 30 or thereabouts, requires only a 15-minute warm-up, then she is an absolutely amazing animal. Generally speaking, by the time a riding horse reaches that age, the necessary warm-up involves three-quarters of an hour or more, unless the rider intends to do nothing but a slow walk. Your mare seems to be very fit and sound, and functionally much younger than her chronological age.
This problem is one you will have to decide for yourself. I agree with you AND with your instructor - and, to a certain extent, with the barn owner. I think that it is a good idea for you to begin considering (and riding) other horses, especially if you want to move up the levels in dressage, but I also think that as long as your mare enjoys being ridden and you enjoy riding her, you should continue to ride her even if all you ever do is warm up - or meander around the field for half an hour.
Alas, I can't make your mare 10 years younger, but it sounds to me as though she already behaves and moves like a mare 10 years younger. ;-) I also can't give you more time to ride each day, and I think that this is probably the real dilemma here. If your total riding time is limited to an hour or so each day, that isn't enough time to warm up, ride, and and cool down two horses - especially if you groom them and tack them up yourself.
Mares are, typically, more sensitive/responsive than geldings, but keep in mind the fact that you and your mare know one another very well, and you and this gelding are still strangers to one another. It's very possible that when you have ridden him for a year or so, and taken many lessons on him, and the two of you have learned to understand one another better, you may find that he is much more sensitive than you thought at first. Relaxation is important for both horse and rider, and I agree with your instructor that as you relax and get to know this new horse, you will begin to build a relationship with him and learn to perceive him as himself - at the moment, you are thinking of him and reacting to him, not as an individual, but as a horse that isn't your beloved mare, doesn't feel like her, doesn't know you as she does, and doesn't respond as she does.
If your mare is very fond of you, and very fond of being ridden, then she will probably deteriorate faster if she isn't ridden and/or doesn't see you as often. But at some point - maybe not this year or next or even the year after, but eventually - you will undoubtedly stop riding her. When that day comes, she will need to have a better winter turnout arrangement than the one she has now. This might require keeping her somewhere else - perhaps somewhere at a considerable distance from her current home - just so that she can have 24/7 turnout with companions in a large field. In terms of her overall health and fitness, she will be better off if she is free to move about all day and all night, instead of having 3-4 hours of turnout and spending the other 20 hours a day confined to a stall. Under those circumstances, of course she derives a great deal of physical benefit from the hour you spend riding her each day! But when you eventually retire your mare, NOT to a stall but to a nice field somewhere, you may be surprised to see how fit (not "riding fit", but "pasture fit") and supple she will be when she has freedom of movement around the clock. Old age brings on a certain amount of stiffness, but if she is out with compatible horses in a large field, she will move around a great deal in a 24-hour period. Her entire existence will be, in effect, one long warm-up - the constant walking will be wonderful for her circulation, for her respiratory system, for her digestive system, AND for her muscles, bones, and support structures. Just as with humans, "retirement" doesn't have to mean "bored, uncomfortable, and ageing fast". If she is able to participate in constant, non-impact exercise (walking), day in and day out, she may still be flexible and happy in another ten years. :-)
You can't keep your mare from becoming old, but arranging for full-time turnout somewhere nice with other, compatible horses will enable you to give her a good chance to be strong, flexible, and cheerful instead of weak and stiff.
Then you'll be able to ride the gelding without feeling guilty about your mare's comfort level, and without having to keep one eye on the clock at all times. One more thought before I end this: There is one point on which my opinion differs significantly from that of the owner of your barn. Not only is a half-hour warm-up perfectly reasonable for your mare (and yourself), that same half-hour warm-up would NOT be inappropriate for a 10-year-old horse. The better the warm-up, the better the ride, and the longer your horse - any horse - will last. Given what you've said about your mare's condition at age 30, and her eagerness to be ridden, I think that you should ride the gelding, if you purchase him, in much the same way that you've ridden your mare. The practices that have kept her sound and cheerful for all these years will probably have the same effect on the gelding. The "work" part of each ride may be more demanding than it is for your mare, but the benefits of a systematic, thorough warm-up will be the same.
Jessica
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