This photo of my girl and I is one of my favourites, just us enjoying the sunshine.  I'm sure you've all seen it before, but my point is when this photo was taken she was well on her way to being 30 years old!

She has been with me for 22 years and has played various roles - happy hacker, dressage, jumper, western, natural horsemanship, practice horse for my massage studies, she was one of my case studies during Covid, and now a model for my business.  She has been a challenge at times, but also immensely rewarding.

So, this being said, I wanted to use this section of my blog to talk about horses that are very special to us, the veterans.

The question is, when is a horse a veteran?  I remember growing up that horses over 15 were classed as veterans and then it went to 18, now it is more like 25+.  Horses are living longer thanks to advances in nutrition, joint supplements, veterinary treatments, the list goes on. 

I have treated horses that are technically "veterans" but are still successfully competing and happily being ridden.  I think this is absolutely fantastic! 

Age really is just a number.  A veteran horse does not need to be retired off as soon as he/she hits "that age".  We must be guided by our horses and determine when we feel the time is right to retire them and then to ask, what does that retirement look like?