Appetite: the first and clearest signal
A horse who feels life is still good comes to his feed with intent. He finishes his bucket, grazes with commitment, and treats hay as a project rather than a chore. Watch for the mechanics as well as the enthusiasm: dropping half-chewed balls of hay, eating noticeably more slowly than his companions, or leaving the bucket half done are changes in ability, not fussiness, and they drag his condition down over weeks. Appetite rarely vanishes in a day; it erodes — which is exactly why the trend, noticed early, is worth so much more than any single bad feed.
Lying down, getting up, and moving freely
Rest tells the truth about an old horse. A comfortable senior still lies flat out to sleep properly, and rises in one organised effort. The horse to worry about is the one who has stopped lying down — often because he doubts he can get up — or who rocks, scrambles and needs several attempts, or comes up stiff and reluctant to walk it off. Through the day he should still choose to move: to water, to shade, to the best grazing, keeping company with the herd rather than parking himself in one corner because the journey costs too much. Note how long he stays down, too; a horse who cuts his rest short is telling you the getting-up is already on his mind.
Comfort you can read at rest
Learn his resting face: ears soft, eye quiet, weight resting a hind leg, breathing slow. Set against that, the signs of a horse managing pain are repetitive rather than dramatic — pawing at intervals, shifting weight from foot to foot, sweating without cause, turning to look at his flank, or standing parked-out and tense. Any one of these on one afternoon is information; the same signs most days, or clearly worsening, are a conversation with your vet that should not wait. Signs of severe abdominal pain — repeated rolling, getting up and down, not passing droppings — are always urgent, whatever his age.
His interest in the world around him
Quality of life is also social. A horse who still nickers at the feed room door, trades scratches with his field mate, watches the yard’s comings and goings and has opinions about his routine is engaged with his life. Withdrawal looks like the opposite: standing apart, ignoring companions he used to shadow, indifference to feed-time rituals, a dulled eye. Old horses have quiet days and off days like anyone; what you are watching for is the direction of travel over a month, not the weather of one afternoon. Keep some pleasure in his week deliberately — a hand-graze on the good grass, a groom in his favourite spot — because his response to the things he has always loved is itself one of the clearest measures you have.
No single sign on this list decides anything — it is the honest total, gathered day after day, that families and vets weigh together, and earlier conversations are always kinder than crisis ones. When everyone who handles him records appetite, rest, comfort and brightness as Care Teams observations in KinsLe, the timestamps build that total without anyone having to rely on a worried guess at how long he has been fading.