Neither the author, the publisher nor any others involved directly or indirectly in the creation of this book, can accept any liability for accidents or damage of any kind that may occur as a result of actions and/or decisions which are based on the information provided in this book.

Translated by Konstanze Allsopp

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Photographs: Dr Jochen Becker, Anneke Bosse, Dr Kathrin Irgang, Claudia Jung, Christiane Slawik

Title photograph: Christiane Slawik

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

www.cadmos.co.uk

ISBN 978-3-86127-965-5

eISBN 978-0-85788-688-0

Introduction

At the beginning of my training as an animal physiotherapist, my own horse often acted as the trial subject when I was practising massage. After I had further improved my abilities and my horse had learned to recognise the advantages of an owner who had the ability to massage, I was asked by an increasing number of horse owners if I could massage their horses as well. They remarked on the fact that my horse always looking so relaxed and, by the way, they had an older horse standing about which they didn’t really know what to do with any more. But surely massage would do no harm.

That way I received my first older horses as patients. Many of these ‘oldies’ remained with me for many years and were provided with massages by their owners at regular intervals. Their quality of life improved considerably. I showed the owners certain exercises and they thus suddenly had something they could perform together with their horse. They enjoyed the new experience and those rare moments in time when the feeling of ‘well-being’ was the most important thing. I, on the other hand, was astounded time and time again by how fit most of the old horses became over time. Almost all senior horses enjoy magnetic field and thermal treatments, and massages in particular. Often an almost meditative calm is created between man/woman and horse. I left such treatment sessions with a positive feeling of well-being and looked forward to the next session.

If the trainer has the opportunity to accompany older horses over a considerable length of time, he/she also learns that each horse reacts differently to developing age-related infirmities. Some horses are perfectly capable of turning the situation to their advantage if they can no longer see or hear properly. It is, after all, difficult to ascertain how advanced such an impairment has become. Therefore the owner tends to treat an older horse with greater care. An owner who feels insecure in what to do often permits certain types of behaviour that would not have been acceptable in the past and would quite often have been punished. Many horses realise this very quickly and use this insecurity to their advantage. In many cases, the ‘veteran’ will only have to do a minimal amount of work and will receive large amounts of titbits for making this small effort. The owner simply rejoices in the fact that his/her old horse is still in such good condition, and allows it to get away with all manner of misbehaviour without feeling guilty.

If you only get to know a horse in the latter period of its life, it is quite possible that you will be present at its death. Over the years, I have accompanied many older horses on their last journey. If the horse has signalled its pleasure at seeing the therapist at every massage appointment, it can be difficult to say farewell. Animal physiotherapy has its limitations here; it is possible to significantly improve the quality of life, but it is impossible to achieve immortality. What the horse owner is left with is many wonderful memories – of long hacks, joint success at shows and gymkhanas or other activities, which forged the partnership between the horse and human being.

Therefore, you should not start to neglect your equine partner when it gets older – and this is one of the reasons why this book was written. It is designed to show you ways to retain your older horse’s joie de vivre for as long as possible. The reward is calmness, peace, intimacy, but also, in particular, the special strength which older horses are able to give us. I wish you and your ‘veteran’ a wonderful time. If you have questions or have collected positive experiences, please do not hesitate to contact me on the website www.tierphysiotherapie-berlin.de.

I would like to thank all those who have helped me transform the idea of writing a book about older horses into reality. I would particularly like to thank Dr Kathrin Irgang and Klaus Lübker, who proofread the text and provided me with their extensive expert knowledge regarding the correct feeding of horses.

Claudia Jung

August 2008

Inhalt

Introduction