When should a horse stop being ridden? I ride a 21y.o mare she seems to still have quite some energy over the jumps but has gotten a bit slower.

Ride in till they don't injoy it every horse wants to finish at a certin time

she will let you know when she's ready to be retired

Thank you all for your answers!! I really appreciate it ☺️

I have a 27 y/o Arabian and he still jumps 2ff. It depends on the breed, confirmation, and if your horse develops arthritis

it all depends on your horse my sisters horse is the same age and she jumps her 3ft+

As long as the horse is active and happy he will be fine. There's a throughbread at my barn who is 31 and is still riden lightly.

Keeping a horse active & happy is very important. But just take in consideration that she may not be able to complete her job as easily as she used to, even if she still really enjoys it. If you start to notice that she is uncomfortable or uneven at all, that would be a good time to consider taking it down a few levels. That doesn't necessarily mean retirement immediately, but jumping is a very hard and impacting exercise, especially for older horses. :)

We use a 25 year old mare in our lesson program and she still has it in her. I would say when your horse has to be forcibly moved to do work that you should stop

When the horse can no longer comfortably do it's job

*mare

When it gets to the point your having to force her to move or you feel it's not worth forcing her to move or if she is in pain due to aging. We have a 26 y.o made at our barn who still runs barrels and fast. But there's also a 19 y.o gelding that is just used for rising lessons because he has bad arthritis. It just depends on the horse.

If the horse still is going u can keep riding. Until u think she is not wanting to go. I had a 22/23 who u couldn't till he was that old.