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.
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.
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