Senior Horse Resources - Retirement Jobs

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Retirement Jobs:

Most Jobs Have Their Own Page, see Table of Contents at left.

Zoos Choosing a Stable

Real Retirement Other Resources

Del Camino has extensive experience caring for senior (age 15 and up) horses.  One of the rewards of operating a large riding academy was being able to offer well-trained horses the opportunity to retire from strenuous competition or other work, cease frequent travel, but continue to have plenty of appropriate exercise, social interaction, and affection.  Coupled with careful nutrition, farriery, and veterinary care, this environment enabled horses of many breeds trained in various disciplines to age gracefully and enjoy their golden years.

Aging people learn to wear hearing aids, and eyeglasses.  They learn to wear support stockings and dentures.  They drink Ensure and take Senior Multi-vitamins and MSM and glucosamine and chondroitin and baby aspirin.  They learn to use a cane, buy a special contour support mattress and gel inserts for their shoes and rub creams on their achy joints. They are active and enjoy working much longer than their grandparents. Grandma loves to do her volunteer work, even if she has to give up her knitting and uses audio books instead of reading.  If they are horsepeople, when they can no longer ride, they learn to drive.

And so it is with our senior citizen horses.  They are loved and valued team members at many stables. They are useful well into their twilight years, because we didn't wear them out or break them in their youth or their prime.  Years of training and experience does not go to waste, but teaches the next generation of horsepeople.

One of the missions of Del Camino is to help horse owners find timely information that guides them through this journey.  We want to keep our seniors as fit, as active, as contented as possible, as long as possible.  It can be done.

We dedicate our work to a few of many beloved Del Camino horses:  Freckles, who left us at age 43, Miss Cricket, who delighted children until age 38, Captain Oliver "Ollie" who fought Cushing's until age 32, and Brandy's Prince, and Smokey, both of whom had Cushing's which caused laminitis at age 26.

Thank you for having graced our lives, and taught so many people the joy of horsemanship.

How This Retirement Section Works              (Top of Page)

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	Topics progress from those for people caring for their senior horse, to those wishing to place their senior horse in a new job, and finally, how to prepare for and make arrangements to euthanize a horse to prevent suffering.

Retirement Jobs                          (Top of Page) 

Sometimes you can't give an older horse the gentle exercise and continued attention he needs.  He may be serviceably sound for light work, but no longer able to enjoy the strenuous sport you want to keep doing.  If he is still sound on the flat at the walk, trot, and canter, you may consider finding him a new job where his years of training and experience will enable him to enrich other lives as a teacher.  Temperament and ground manners are very important for these jobs. If your horse is very tolerant of rider and handler mistakes, being ridden and handled by many different people, and especially calm and easy-going, he may be suitable for rehoming as a school or therapy horse.

Many small liberal arts colleges and state universities have equestrian programs leading to two or four year equine studies degrees.  They offer boarding for the student's own horse, or school horses for the students to care for and ride as they practice basic stable operations, basic horse care, introductory western riding, introductory english riding, etc.  Some participate in inter-collegiate horse shows by fielding an equestrian team.  Based on our own students' first hand experiences at many of these schools, 9 out of 10 students are beginner riders when they enter as freshmen and cannot ride a hand gallop or jump a 3' course or complete a reining pattern or a first level dressage test by the time they graduate. They just don't get to do that much riding under expert instruction as part of their coursework.  The 1 in 10 that has their own horse and/or had expert training from a trainer or show coach before entering the program "tested out" of the riding classes.  The good news is that virtually all accept donated lesson horses, for their riding programs.  The lesson horses are usually sold when they can no longer canter.  If you want to keep track of your horse, you should have a Protective Bill of Sale that requires them to notify you when they are going to sell your senior.  Then you can help market him normally, or even re-purchase him to donate or retire him elsewhere.

Those that are sub-departments of state agricultural colleges usually also have breeding or even breaking courses, and accept donated colts or fillies for the students to work with.  These horses are necessarily sold once the project is completed.

Zoos                                                                          (Top of Page) 

Some zoos have riding lesson programs for small children. 

The Phoenix Zoo http://www.phoenixzoo.org/ has partnered with Arizona State Univesity's  Hunkapi equine pyschotherapy program run by its college of liberal arts and sciences psychology department. [Hunkapi got its start as a research project for treating autism and ADD/ADHD and has two other locations that offer parties, driving and adult services, in Gold Canyon and Litchfield Park.]

The zoo offers a lesson program using donated horses.  It is not a therapy program, it competes directly with for-profit riding lesson programs serving the local market.  The horses are retired to a farm for aged zoo animals that are no longer on display when they can no longer give small group lessons in grooming and very basic riding to children aged 4-8.  The facility is state-of-the-art.  The regular zoo veterinarians provide veterinary care.  Horse care and riding instruction is delivered by entry level keepers, mostly part-time high school and college students.  Some have had formal or professional training, with the skill and experience levels varying widely due to the turnover factor found at many non-profit volunteer staffed hippotherapy facilities.  Openings for horses are limited, just like any other lesson program.  Occasionally they will pay auction price for a horse if nothing offered for donation is suitable at the time an opening occurs. 

Choosing a Stable                             (Top of Page)     

Stables specializing in using retired show, pleasure, and ranch horses as schoolmasters are few and far between.  Most training stables are competitive barns specializing in training, showing, and sales.  While they may keep a horse that is "between owners" to give lessons to new clients until they purchase their own horse, most do not specialize in managing the health and work routines of older horses.  Visit the Therapy Horse Job page or Lesson Horse Job page for more detailed information.

DO visit in person any ranch you have placed on your short list after reviewing their website or brochure, and talking to the operator on the phone.  You won't be making this trip regularly, so make it at least once before your horse sets hoof on the trailer ramp.

Many special needs aged horses cannot live at pasture.  Some cannot eat grass.  Some would get beat up and run off the hay by younger horses.  Some need daily medication.  Some cannot regulate their body temperature well enough to live outside all day in summer heat or in winter cold.  Ensure any lesson or training stable you consider has small group covered pens, individual covered pens, and inside stalls as options.  Have the routine for turning out and exercising these horses explained to your satisfaction.  Remember that the customer horses that are paying for training or turnout necessarily get attention first in a busy barn.

Find out how hoof care and veterinary care is handled.  Your loved one will no longer be trimmed and shod by his regular farrier, and no longer be examined and vaccinated by your trusted veterinarian.  Many retired horses go barefoot, especially if they have good hooves are are working very lightly in groomed footing.  But they still need regular trimming, even if old hooves grow more slowly.  Others need shoes for support, in which case the farrier doesn't need any fancy techniques, but needs patience with oldsters who may not be able to stand for long periods with stress on a bad stifle, or arthritic hock, etc.

But see, senior horse owner, you really can't just rely on a good farm's statement "we will schedule regular farrier work."  Find out how long the current farrier has taken care of their boarders, and how often he comes.  If I could schedule my visit (since it may be my only one) on a day the farrier and even the vet will be there, that would be ideal. 

I would definitely watch more than one lesson, preferably both a private lesson and a group, or a youth and an adult lesson, to see examples of how my horse will be handled, groomed, tacked, warmed-up, ridden, cooled-down, and put away.

If you like one or two ranches, at the end of your visit, ask for a couple of references from people who retired their horse there.  Follow up.

For help evaluating a lesson horse program, we have saved our old webpage that described our intake of new schoolmasters and how they would be used and cared for.  It will give you an idea of what to look for.  Our old pages describing our lesson and lease programs for students may also help.

Real Retirement

If none of the retirement jobs we have discussed are appropriate for your friend, it is time to just let him hang out and be a horse.  It is time to visit with his pasture buddies most of the day, be groomed by you and enjoy his gentle stretches and massage to stay comfortable,  be inspected daily for possible injury, illness, or loss of condition or teeth, and get a treat.

The Retirement Stables page has information on retirement stables, and how to choose one, if you cannot keep your companion at home.

This happiness should last while he is still fit enough to enjoy it, a timeline no one can predict.  When rapid decline occurs, when constant discomfort or even pain invades him, you will know.  Your long association as friends and companions will have given you an "eye" and an empathy that is priceless.  No one else will have this insight into the change in his behavior, his demeanor, his eyes - not even your vet who has helped you maintain him for years.

When you reach this leg of the journey, please see it for the natural course of events that life is, and begin to prepare for him to leave you.  Please visit our Euthanasia and Memorials pages, so that you will be ready to help him across "The Rainbow Bridge" responsibly, just as you have cared for him all along.  Choosing to own a horse is something like a wedding vow, and the very best horsepeople are just as skilled at compassionate elder care, hospice, and end of life care as they are at any other.                 

Other Resources                             (Top of Page)

The Del Camino Products and Services catalog offers some horse products of interest to owners of senior horses.

Horse Welfare Statistics

Equinezone Horse Supply

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