Older horses frequently develop multiple chronic pain conditions including arthritis, navicular disease, and back pain that require proactive management to maintain quality of life.
Chronic pain in aging horses represents one of the most widespread welfare challenges in equine management. Horses are stoic animals that evolved to hide pain as prey species, meaning that significant discomfort may be present long before obvious lameness or behaviour changes alert owners. Annual or biannual veterinary assessments including gait analysis and musculoskeletal examination enable earlier pain detection. The cultural tendency to attribute stiffness and reduced performance in older horses to normal aging delays treatment of conditions that respond well to intervention. Proactive pain management that maintains comfort and function also extends the period during which horses can engage in light work and social interaction, supporting their psychological as well as physical wellbeing.