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You think a horse in this condition ought to be ridden?  Bearing  
weight?  Doesn't sound like it to me.  Yours doesn't sound lame, just  
creaky, can you ride a lame horse?  I can't.

I'm all for riding arthritic old campaigners, but stopped riding my  
old man at 26 when he started tripping as if there was a catch in his  
knee.  Then one Bute and Ester C a day the rest of his life.  6 more  
years like that, but he had good quality of life, could get up and  
down, enjoy turnout although he did miss the work at first.

Lynne
http://www.photo.lynnesite.com

p.s. sorry about your staph infection, Laurie!

Hello LAD,
I have a 24yo retired endurance horse that was getting creaky until I  
started riding him once a month last year. He had not been ridden for  
5-6 years so we started out at the walk and still just walk. Has done  
both of us a world of good. I no longer feel sorry for him because he  
is improving and I know in my heart that he loves being out on the  
trail again. I sit on his back looking over those ears pricked  
forward and remember how we used to fly down the trail. It has become  
more and more difficult to keep him at a walk going home but I use  
that surge to tell me that this is the best thing in the world for  
the both of us. I figure some day he will start to fade instead of  
surge going home and that will tell me that "decision time" is  
coming, until then us 2 old poops will continue enjoying our walks  
down memory trail with no regrets or decision worries. I say put that  
new saddle on old Champ and start walking.
Don Huston

On Sep 2, 2007, at 9:02 AM, Don Huston wrote:

> >  It looks to me that this new added lameness, it is in his back  
> > end--up --hip or back.   He is walking with a sway /unsteadiness  
> > it seems in the back.He places his back feet  by lifting them sort  
> > of higher , hesitating then places them in front of each other  
> > causing a exaggerated sway  in the
> > back. Like he is walking a tightrope with his back feet. --When he  
> > walked
> > down the slope. He stopped part way and gave a ugly ' back off"  
> > look to the
> > young horse who was  quietly following him , till the horse turned  
> > off the path and went another way.


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