04/17/2026
I always encourage new horse owners to buy an experienced, gentle horse; more than often these traits come with age.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
So happy to see well-known horsey influencer, Katie Van Slyke buying an 18 year old horse for herself!
I am constantly having the “too old” conversation with people, and it does my head in.
Here’s the thing; we have ZERO idea how long our horse may live, or be sound enough to do their job.
I see just as many unsound 3, 5, 8, 12, 15 year olds as any older age. To be honest, I have the view that if they’ve been competing and stayed sound into their mid teens.. they’re likely to keep on being sound. Those younger horses may well be a gamble.
I’ve seen horses 💀 at any age, from days old to nearly 40, and from totally unforeseen reasons.
Now I’m not saying don’t buy a young horse, or something around that desired 8-12 year mark.
I AM saying that “old” depends entirely on the horse. And that unless it’s your ambition to be picked for a national team, or to resell the horse horse… maybe let it be a lower priority and choose the horse you fall in love with, that makes you feel safe, that is fun, that is sound and let age just be a number. And hey, it may even save you some money on that sale price for bucking the trend 🤷♀️
Picture of my “too old” horse, doing his first Grand Prix at the ripe old age of 20, having finished racing at 8, doing his last CCI5* at 19 and his last CIC4**** at 21 and being sound the entire time. Cause luckily nobody ever told him he was too old for such things!
