Honor your senior horse!

Cheval Aîné Honoré
Dr. Nancy Nicholson is sponsoring year end ribbon awards honoring any senior horses ridden
in at least one test in any QCDC show.
Mark your entry blank so your ride(s) can be recorded. Must give age of horse at time of ride.
Each horse/rider pair may receive a ribbon, so be sure you have your entry blank correct!
This award is at year's end and is separate from any other horse/rider awards.
A senior school horse that teaches many riders might get as many awards as it has riders!
All senior horses deserve extra loving! (And succulent snacks as appropriate.)

Dr. Nancy Nicholson with Vulkan (now 31 years and Max (now 21 years)
**MAINTAINING YOUR HONORED SENIOR HORSE**
• The role of *affectionate connection* might be overlooked, but senior horses need your presence as much as they did during active training. Even if the emotional life of horses may be enigmatic as far as scientific data have been accumulated, there is abundant anecdotal evidence that it is important. At the least, a serene understanding keeps stress at a distance for human and equine partners.
• *Equine companionship* of familiar herd members is also important for emotional health, circumstances permitting. Provide if you are able, a gentle play companion mini horse, goat, cat or dog (even a chicken, duck or goose may perform the “buddy” role). I am lucky to have Raynyday Smoke ‘n Mirrors, who has been the quintessential avuncular horse, even as a colt. Another poorly understood feature of equine mental and physical health is play as a behavioral phenomenon. Is it internally motivated, self-reinforcing pleasure, just plain fun? Does it create “excess resources” of energy, focus and good humor? Why miss the chance that play creates a positive environment for horses and humans? Curious features of play are explained in The Genesis of Animal Play by Gordon Burkhardt (MIT Press).
• *Routine turnout*: my horses prefer choices for their shelter. They have a limestone crumbles arena, pasture (snow in season), windbreaks, barn (with traction rubber matting) or run-in shed. If your circumstances allow, provide several options. Turnout whenever feasible is a general (but not absolute) preventer of boredom and the associated stable confinement vices of cribbing (windsucking), weaving, stall walking, stall kicking.
• *Exercise*: unless stall rest is recommended by your vet, elderly muscles benefit from just strolling around a paddock, even a small one. Light steady activity involved with turnout is helpful basic “pasture fitness” for aging horses. Use a good turnout blanket for cold, windy, wet, snowy weather. Old muscles are best kept warm and injure easily with slow recovery.
• *Regular deworming* is essential, including a wormer for tapeworms. You may also wish to have your horses on a daily wormer that inhibits internal migration of parasite larvae.
• *Regular vaccinations* as regionally appropriate are important protections as your horse ages. With climate changes, disease prevention is a moving target, including enteritis (for example, Potomac Horse Fever) and encephalitis (we have several strains). If there are reservoir populations of alternate hosts for equine disease in your region, take reasonable precautions for controlling their populations by at least eliminating their breeding sites on your property.
• *Protection from biting insects*, especially the mosquitos that transmit diseases such as West Nile Virus or strains of encephalitis is both a human and equine health issue. A rigorous manure control program will also help keep flies away from the barn.
• *Supply fresh, clean water* above freezing in winter, when horses drink at least as much as they do in hot weather. If you have a water trough, make sure it is defended against becoming a breeding site for mosquitos. Discs that come impregnated with Bacillus thuringiensis can be floated in the water, where the B. t. microbes will attack mosquito larvae. In summer heat, water needs to be changed at least once a day to prevent hay or other material from fermenting and spoiling (scrub buckets regularly). For older horses, maintaining hydration is an important preventer of colic episodes.
• *Freedom from stress* is critical as horses age and their resistance to disease declines. Reducing stress may take close observation of habits at home and away at shows. Make note of reactions to new or old features of the stable and paddock environment. Vulkan, competing actively at 29 (31), is very particular about which gates in his pasture are open or closed: he checks all gates on a regular basis (sentinel horse). He also has specific show behaviors: wants an initial tour of show grounds, performs stall inspection (including anointing the “new” stall with personal fluids) and a warm up routine with his dressage test pattern worked out in walk. Your horse will have its own preferences, which, if not involved with disobediences, would be wise to honor. Max likes a brief walk review of his test, followed by a bit of shoulder-in and half pass in trot, then a flying change or two in canter.
• A *health exam* is essential (including a check of the eyes for signs of aging) by veterinarian on a regular basis (not less than annual).
• *Regular hoof trimming* and care includes attention to daily cleaning combined with nutrition focused on hoof health. Hoof quality varies between breeds, so your farrier and veterinarian could be consulted on this matter. A couple of my geldings have the habit of wetting the location in their stalls where they like to stand, so I use a special extra absorbent pellet in addition to their bedding for the wet spots (my region has good softwood shavings available).
• *Saddling and riding may need rethinking as your horse ages*. Arthritic changes in joints and reduced elasticity in connective tissues (especially the back) are reasons to adjust the training routine. Your saddle may need monthly inspection for fit if your senior citizen’s back muscling undergoes change in shape or size. If your horse(s) have good bone and conformation, this will be a blessing as they age. Excellent bearing surfaces on joints combined with limbs that track accurately (remember the geometry of limb motions) distribute strains of activity more easily than for lightly built animals.
• *Give your senior horse access to hay, pasture or something to nibble on a consistent basis*. One thing I learned while nursing my horse that died of autoimmune liver disease was that he was unable to eat much hay, but could select from available grass species in his pasture, which kept him on his feet. His companion Smoke was also important in reminding him to eat and to drink. Even with his Alzheimer’s (diagnosis confirmed by necropsy), behaviors of forgetting to eat, staring into space and losing track of where he was, he could function while eating fresh grasses.
• *Regular mainentance of teeth* allows your nutritional program to work well. Any horse might develop the problems listed below, but they are especially likely as your horse ages (cribbers show asymmetric wear). - drops feed bits, hay or grass wads, - is reluctant to drink cold water, - mouth emits foul odor, - shows resistance to bit as a new behavior, begins head-tossing without obvious cause. The photos of Max and Vulkan at lower right shows their teeth at 15 and 25, respectively. They are naturally clean because they are on hay and pasture combined with age-appropriate feeds with minimal simple carbohydrates (sugars). Teeth are checked twice a year and floated if necessary.
• *Special nutrition* for low or high metabolism is important if your horse develops a crest, fat pads around the tail or begins to lose weight. Horses above 18 probably should get a senior feed especially formulated for older animals.
• For *joint health*, my veterinarian has placed my horses (including one that is 5 years old) on a glucosamine/chondroitin/manganese supplement of small molecular weight (easier absorption), a zinc/vitamin E/flax oil supplement (skin health) and free choice salt (white block NaCl, brown trace mineral block). Have your pasture and hay checked for nutrients! In Ohio we have acid rain and snow. By analysis in my lab, the acid is nitrogen acid from auto emissions (non-point source), not sulfur acid from power plants (point source emissions). The pH of the snow in my pasture this winter was 4.3!!! Natural pH of rain with the carbon dioxide of our atmosphere at 0.033 % is 5.6 - still acid (neutral is 7, basic is greater than 7) but normal for our geologic time (OK, current carbon dioxide levels measured at the Mauna Loa laboratory are now 0.038 and climbing, but you get the picture). Acid precipitation leaches nutrients out of the growing vegetation and the soil. Some simple ways to check for acid problems in your pasture and yard are: - moss in the lawn or pasture (ameliorate with lime) - your garden flowers burst into color when you sprinkle on epsom salts (magnesium sulfate). If moss and puny flowers or vegetables are diagnosed, your horses might also be magnesium deficient. Magnesim (different from manganese!) is important for cardiovascular health and for connective tissue maintenance. The fix for a suspected mineral deficit is to read ALL labels on feeds, supplements and salt blocks. If your horses get less than a gram (1000 milligrams) of magnesium from all sources combined, a trace mineral supplement may be in order.
Look at those great teeth! Max (L) shows no sign of asymmetric wear from cribbing or from temporomandibular disease. A horse with TMD is unable to be straight and must be seen by a veterinarian to solve the cause of the crookedness in the bite. Vulkan (R) just needs routine floating to keep those beautiful teeth ready to mow my pasture!