35 year old mini

BiologyBrain · May 15, 2019

My husband and I just inherited 22 acres of farmland that just so happens to come with a 35 year old mini mare and a 4-5 year old mini jack (his gelding is scheduled for May 20)! We also picked up our ‘miniature’ Curly filly and celebrated her first birthday! Yay! The little 35 yo mare is really small IMO, but seems healthy. When the vet comes out to geld the jack, I’m going to have her look at the mare too. Anyway, she’s just out on grass with the jack and seems to be doing ok. I just know that age has it’s negative effects on their teeth & digestion. She’s quite the firecracker...the jack *really* wants to make happy with her & she gives him 2 hooves of ‘No’! We plan on introducing the filly to the old mare and gelded jack in the near future (after all his swimmers are gone). I’ve never had a horse this old before...my oldest horse was 28 and he was injured by my then 2 year old QH filly before he had to be put down. I don’t want to risk injuring the mare, but I would like to be able to put the littles all together and away from the ‘bigs’ (our biggest is 13-2HH) to prevent injuries. I’m thinking if the old mare can keep the frisky jack off her back, our fairly tame, but larger, filly shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I think the filly will mature between 38-40”. If I had to guess I’d say the old mare is between 34-35” (the jack is about the same height). What would you guys recommend?

The photo of me sitting on the ground is with the filly. The other is me with the jack with his old mare friend looking on. For reference I’m 5’6” and from the ground to my hip bone is about 36”. The last one is just me showing off my little filly’s good nature!

BTW the old mare’s name is Molly the Pony (said similarly to My Little Pony). The jack’s name is Dave (the donkey). The filly is Annie Get Your Gun or Annie Oakley.

madmax · May 15, 2019

I have a 36 year old mare that was one of my brood mares when she was young and she gets along just fine here, is sound but worn teeth. She does anything she wants here, been there done that, and if your Molly is anything like my mare she might be a good teacher for your filly! Sounds like you will be having a lot of good times ahead.

Cayuse · May 15, 2019

She looks REALLY good for 35. My only concern about turnout with others would be if she had some arthritis. That will put them at the bottom of the pecking order sometimes. It just makes it harder to them to defend themselves and easier for the others to push them off their chow.
The other thing I think off is with her being older, the possibility of her being insulin resistant or maybe having Cushing's. If the vet thinks she might be insulin resistant you might have to limit her grass turnout.
I love the older horses! Its nice that you took her in along with her buddy. They are lucky!

Ryan Johnson · May 15, 2019

I agree, she looks wonderful for 35. Hope you have heaps of fun with them

When your vet comes out , it wouldn't hurt to have her teeth looked at. Its a big reason why horses drop weight as they get into their senior years.

BiologyBrain · May 23, 2019

The vet came out & verified that Dave the Donkey is coming up on 5 years old. She gelded him with no issues. She said we need to keep an eye on his twisted tooth to be sure it didn’t get cavities and start causing him issues. She also looked Molly over & verified her age as best as she could. She checked her over and said she was doing very well & could live for quite a while longer. Now I’ve just got to wait 2 months before I can bring the filly out to be with them. She said since he was 5 it would probably take that long for his hormones to decrease enough that he won’t be trying to mount the filly.

Luckily, so far my daughter hasn’t had any issues with these non-Curlys. I guess 5 years of allergy shots and constant allergy medicine is working! I don’t know what we’ll do if she starts reacting to them though.

Thanks!

chandab · May 23, 2019

BiologyBrain said:
Luckily, so far my daughter hasn’t had any issues with these non-Curlys. I guess 5 years of allergy shots and constant allergy medicine is working! I don’t know what we’ll do if she starts reacting to them though.

Thanks!

Not sure about the mini, but donkeys have different hair than horses, or at least it seems so to me, so perhaps that is why less issues with allergies around the donkey.

BiologyBrain · May 24, 2019

The allergist thought the allergens in the hair/dander were the same, but didn’t look it up or verify it. She just told us to keep an eye on our daughter when she’s around the non-Curlys.