cause of death - thoughts?

[kezeli]

There have been quite a few sport horses and dressage horses still compeating at 12-20 and winning, 17 is a very viable age for a hunter/jumper, in fact I would much trust my daugther to an old experienced horse of that age than any young thing. Its really unfair to both your daugther and her horse to make 17 an OLD horse, at that age they are still often very useful and can be very steady/reliable. Not always though, we had an old school horse that couldn't be ridden off lead line as he thought he could still buck and would fall down!! But he was 36!!

[Intrinsic Worth]

For the Moment was still doing Grand Prix's in his 20's. He was Grand Prix Showjumper of the year in his 20's as well.

Event horses regularly compete into their late teens.

[Discovery]

I agree with Kezeli, 17 is not old for a jumper

just to prove it...here's my old pony at 20




he acted like a 3 year old lol

[Intrinsic Worth]

George Morris would have bought that pony in a heartbeat

[austique]

Yeah...my point was that not all horses age the same and 17 is within what most vets to be considered geriatric. My sister's show mare died of natural causes at 16 and yes she was autopsied and it was deemed merely a fluke of genetics.

[valerie]

Horses on the whole are living longer, just like us human beings. The life expectancy has changed a lot. Yes, some do age faster than other but for the most part, I think we are doing a better job of trying to feed them more like they were meant to be and the care if just better than it was 50 years ago or so

[wilf]

Milk Thistle grows everywhere! Most racetracks have it growing in odd places next to Dandelions and the like. If you break the stem it oozes a bitter milk like substance which might be the elixir. I often pick Dandelions at the track for the runners but I keep the roots and dry them in an oven then grind them into a powder; makes great coffee!

[Tairaterces]

merely a fluke of genetics

Are you telling us that on the death certificate it says:

Cause of Death: "merely a fluke of genetics" ? ? ? ? ?

I just laughed myself to tears with that one . . . . .

[nancy4487]

My mare, Honnee, just had her 25th birthday. She acts and looks like six.
Perhaps it was the extensive eventing, showing, fox hunting that we did. Now we are happy with 3 hour trail rides through the woods and jumps whenever we find them. At our ages-she has more guts than I do.
This is one sturdy mare.

[BJ]

Thanks Louis, I'll stick to plenty of clean fresh water, good hay, pasture, and 3 buckets of sweet feed a day. My human experience with supplements has not been all that great either.

Milk Thistle IS good for the liver.