Six Steps to Keep Aging Performance Horses Healthy

Find tips on how to extend horses’ “health spans,” maximize performance years, and maintain a good quality of life.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Six Steps to Keeping Senior Performance Horses Healthy
Decades of research and experience have provided veterinarians with more tools and tactics to keep aging horses healthy and active longer than ever. | Photo: Courtesy Kristen Janicki

Riding, owning, and loving a senior horse can be bittersweet. You’ve had years, maybe decades, of experiences together, and while he’s still spry at the moment, you know that, eventually, old age will catch up to him. The good news is decades of research and experience have provided veterinarians with more tools and tactics to keep aging horses healthy and active longer than ever. It just takes a little senior horse health knowledge, medical support, and a good care team.

At the University of Kentucky’s senior horse care mini-symposium, held Sept. 28 in Lexington, Marian G. Little, DVM, described a step-wise approach to maintaining aged performance horses’ health and wellness. Little is a Paris, Kentucky-based technical veterinarian for American Regent, Inc.

A 2015 National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) survey confirmed what many equine industry members had long observed: The percentage of the horse population aged 20 years and older has increased to 11.4%, up from 7.6% and 5.6% in 2005 and 1998, respectively, Little said. This means there’s a growing need for care tailored to senior horses, many of which are still actively competing and/or teaching novice riders

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Erica Larson, former news editor for The Horse, holds a degree in journalism with an external specialty in equine science from Michigan State University in East Lansing. A Massachusetts native, she grew up in the saddle and has dabbled in a variety of disciplines including foxhunting, saddle seat, and mounted games. Currently, Erica competes in eventing with her OTTB, Dorado.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
297 votes · 297 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!