Feeding Sr. Horses. Tips Please

[RamblingCowgirl]

My family has two old girls, a soon to be 24yo BLM Mustang who is 1/4 or 1/2 draft {a Belgian stud was loose on the rage for a while} and a 20yo mini/shetland cross. Last time I looked on line I could not find much useful info. The have hay all the time an okay grass mix {hay was hard to find this year}, mineral block, utd on wormer. The feed we are useing is a 14% protien, 4% fat all around horse pellet. Glory the mustang also gets alfalfa cubes twice a day...I'm gussing around 1lb dry per feeding. She gets a 38 oz coffee can full of pellets. She always looks bony, but over the spring/summer/fall she never felt it. Now she does.

Farrah is a bit more tricky, she has/is a founder and could be in foal...would be due in mid may I think. I'm always thinking in the back of my mind don't over feed her I think she could use just a bit more of something tho, she looks just a bit rough just enough to make me wounder is she need something more. But I have never been able to find anything about feeding an old, pergo, pony, so it really been a guessing game.
When she had her foal last year I had her on mare & foal feed, and a mare & foal suplament...she was putting away almost as much feed a Glory is getting now. I have no plans to breed her any more. Just let her live out her days. I have had her from the time she was two. This last foal is a nice looking colt, grew like a weed. If she is in foal again I'll mix in mare & foal feed in the next few months, and increase the volume like I did befor.

But for Glory I was thinking of changing out alfalfa pellets for the cubes, or add pellets and increase the volume over all....or should she be on strait alfalfa pellets only? I'm really not sure. We are all also on a tite budget, so things have to stay rather basic.

I'd also like some basic info on feeding older horses, we have two soon to be retired brood mares in there mid-late teens.

Thanks for any help

ETA I'd put Glory at a 3 on the horse body condition score, and Farrah a 4

 

[goodhors]

If they were my horses, I would have the horse Dentist or Vet out to check the teeth. A horse with
bad teeth is not going to get full advantage of the nutrition they eat. A lot of the foodstuffs will just
go right thru the animal with not being broken down into smaller units for digestion.

If horse is cooperative, halter the animal and open the mouth, pull tongue out on one side of the
mouth. Horse can't shut their jaw, so you can look inside with a small flashlight. Do the molars
in back have one really high side? Maybe a jagged edge here or there? With a good grip on the
tongue, you should be able to put fingers inside the cheeks, feel for swollen or gouged out areas the
sharp teeth edges might be causing. Check both sides of the horse skull, run a finger over the molar
points. Maybe loose or missing teeth? A missing tooth allows the opposite tooth to get overlong,
grow into the gums to sore it up. Broken teeth have sharp edges that wear on other teeth.

When you let go of the tongue, look at the front teeth from the front. Do the upper and lower
teeth meet flat-edges together? Any uneven edges don't allow good biting for grazing, need to
be addressed by the tooth expert and flattened out. Same thing at the corners of front teeth, should
be flat edges together, not uneven or half overgrown.

Horses may have less or poor teeth from age. Dentist can tell you that, so you can plan a special diet.

If you have no idea how to check your horse mouths, then ask the Vet or Dentist to show you when
they come to check your animals. Depending on the animal, your local expert, how good or bad horse
teeth are, they usually only need attention every year or so. Kind of a health checkup to keep them
healthy.

I know so many feeding and behaviour issues that have gone away after dental care, that you would not
believe me on the numbers.

Then next would be doing an actual fecal test to see if horse is carrying worms. You will then know
exactly what kind of worms you are dealing with for using the correct wormers. Are horses on a regular
worming program? If not, you will want to consult with the Vet to get a worm program going that uses
a variety of wormers, so any worms don't get immune by only using one kind of chemical wormer.

Sorry, I am not a fan of "natural" wormers, haven't seen them do much good in most cases. Heck, your
fecal test may not show any worms, so you won't need to do anything! But until you do the test, you won't
know for sure.

With you removing "any excuses" from the horses, bad teeth, few teeth from age so they can't chew, worm issues,
then you turn attention to a nutritional diet. Not sure what kind of money you want to spend on them, sometimes
the budget is already stretched thin. Hay in your area is pricy, if you can even find any at all.

Horses do best on high forage diets. Forage is grass, hay, wet beet pulp, hay cubes. You want to try to fill
horses on forage, since that is what their digestive system is designed to manage best. Forage being digested
helps keep the horses warm.

Grain is seed foods, oats, corn, barley, being the most common. They can be mixed, ground, run into pellet form
for easier digestion. There are mixes sold by feed companies, with labels to tell you the food values of each ingredient,
for help figuring what quantities of values are present or lacking to make a complete diet.

There are tons of supplements you can buy, but you have to read labels here also, so you are not overfeeding the
small minerals when all things are added together.

Our older horses have done well on the wet beet pulp, small amounts of grain and good hay. If they have poor teeth,
they probably will do well on the wet beet pulp, wetted hay cubes and a senior horse feed that is low in molasses. Old
horses DO NOT need lots of useless sugar in their diet, so don't pay for it in your feeds. Quantity needed is going to have
to be worked out for each animal over time.

You will need to educate yourself on horse diet needs for your area. Here in the Midwest there is no Selenium in most
of the soil, so we need to feed Selenium with Vit E, because horse won't use the extra Selenium without the Vit E. Selenium
is required to keep the reproduction system working well, along with smooth moving muscles in working animals. Horses
in hard work will sweat off Selenium, and it is not replaced unless you give it to them as an additive. Other areas have
their own problems in excess or lack of minerals in the soils. You need to know your local problems to plan your feeding
program. Sorry, no exact "feed this to all horses" programs available! Most of the ones I see have way more grain fed
than what I think is needed. Suggested quantities are giving by the FEED MAKER who has a vested interest in selling their
grain products, so you can't believe them!! Have you checked with your local Extension Service to see if they offer any
livestock information, like for 4-H? It should be available, specific to your area needs.

 

[Karma]

Senior horse feeds tend to have more fat and are a lot easier for the horses to digest so they are getting more nutrients in smaller amounts than you would need to feed on a regular horse feed to mantain the same condition so even if it were slightly more expensive, you would probably feed less so may break even. We've also used them on younger horses that needed weight gain rather than upping their rations of normal grain. I also agree on having the teeth checked. Most older horses eventually need them done, if you've had them for a few years and they have not had it done I'd get the vet out to see if they need it. The vet can probably suggest a good quality senior horse feed available in your area and help you figure out what to feed the mare when he comes out to check the teeth. Hay pellets or cubes can be left to soak overnight in a sealed bucket which makes it much eaiser for older horses with poor teeth to eat. The pelleted senior feeds can also be soaked down for easier chewing.

 

[RamblingCowgirl]

The last time I check Glorys teeth all was well...wouldn't hurt to give them another look though. She has never had her teeth worked on, but any time I have check they fit well and are not cutting into her mouth...all in all they look good.
I was with a friend at his vets one day, and they were doing a horses teeth. And I'd seen it a time or two on some horse or vet shows.

We have started soaking her cubes. We've been bring in a dish and and running the tap until hot. With the cubes hot and mushy the supplements and pellets get soft. She seems to like it best that way.
My parents picked up a suppement. I'm not always here and have only fed it to her in the dark, so I'm not sure what it is yet. Going buy smell and what I could see from my cell phone light, it's all seeds that are ground. Smells a lot like oatmeal with flax and something else added to it. She has been getting it for a little less then a week now. Time will tell how it's going.

I think part of the issue was that one of my brothers didnt know that the minis would push her away from the feed. After we got that taken care of she started to get more fleshy.

 

[yankee'n'moxie]

Hello, a little late to the discussion, but I guess my $0.02 couldn't hurt, right?

I love beet pulp for my older mare! She seems to be doing really well on it, and I use Blue seal SBP 14-10. I just switched to that about 2 weeks ago, but she loves it, because you soak the whole business (not just the beet pulp) and it is easier for her to chew. I don't feed as much hay as most people say too, but she doesn't usually finish it right away, it lasts her almost all day. So really on the forage it is there from 7-3:30ish, and then they get more at 4:30. So all that to say, only feed what your horses want. Because if I gave my horses what everyone tells me to give them, they would waste A LOT.

Good luck!

 

[treeclimber233]

I fed my senior horse mostly soaked beet pulp and a pelleted complete feed for horses. She had access to hay most of the time. She only had her teeth floated once in her lifetime. She lived to be 36 years old. Their digestive abilities change as they age so the feeding needs to change too. I would change Glory's feed from cubes to pellets. Pellets are easier to chew.

 

[WhiskiRanch]

I own a 27yr old Arab gelding that Im still able to poke around in the arena and down the driveway on. Before he was put on pasture 23/7, he was getting alfalfa/grass twice a day plus a pelleted feed such as Purina Strategy (my apologies if Im not suppose to post brand names). in his grain, he gets a joint supplement, a weight gainer, as well as electrolytes and in the winter time, hot soaked beet pulp pellets. This past winter, having him on pasture 24/7 has helped him kep his weight up tremendously. Im not sure what it is but even in the dead of winter, he is getting straight grass hay and only enough grain to mix in his joint supplement and he is staying plenty plump. Every horse is different and my old gelding does best on pasture 24/7. He is also the kind of horse that will stop eating when he is full so foundering hasnt been a concern for me. He gets his teth checked yearly and has only lost one tooth so far. Also, he is pastured with my coming 3yr old gelding and that colt keeps my old man moving which Ifeel helps his overall health

 

[goodhors]

The advantage of feeding hay cubes over pellets, is the way that "roughage" is going thru the horse. If
an older horse can chew hay cubes,the wetted ones are a BETTER choice than pellets. The hay pieces
stay firm, so they rub the digestive tract going thru. Among folks I talk with, that is called the "tickle
factor" and is great about stimulating the parts of the digestive tract much better than the very soft
roughage like wet beet pulp or wet soaked alfalfa pellets.

With the hay cubes fed, all the hay in them is cut to length, not very likely to cause a choke for horse
with poor teeth. Cubes are softer fed wet than regular hay, but still have a bit of bristly feeling to them
after chewing and swallowing. It does make the poop firmer too. A horse with the runs from feed, may
get a bit dehydrated with the liquid being used in poop instead of their body. I never want a horse
dehydrating, that is when you get impaction problems.

I changed my older horse from a mostly wet beet pulp diet, to having the wet hay cubes and wet beet
pulp in different meals. I thought she looked pretty good on just the wet beet pulp, but adding the wet
hay cubes just made her "better" all over. More shine, perkier, better "bloom" to her. She was not ever
allowed to get fat, looked trim all her life, so we never had any laminitus isses to deal with. And less
bulk on her old legs made it easier for her to move around and stay active.

So I am a big fan of doing the wet hay cubes along with wet beet pulp, for older horses good health.
My mare's molars were not real good at the end of her life. Tooth person said she just "ran out of
tooth roots" with her great age. Fronts were still OK for grass grazing, but her chewing teeth were limited.
So seeing the noticable difference after adding the wet hay cubes to diet made me feel a lot better with
changing her food. She did hay cubes of alfalfa and timothy, which I had to search to find. Straight alfalfa
cubes gave her the runs. A 50# bag of cubes lasted quite a while, even feeding amounts equalling about
3 wetted gallons a day. About the same quantity for the wet beet pulp, with some Old Kent Senior feed, very low in
molasses. Molasses sugars also gave her the runs, and are hard on old horse systems. She also got about one cup of
oats and cracked corn, which really just went thru her, but was added "tickle factor" for her system. I thought
the cost of the hay cubes was real reasonable for my one old horse, over a couple years.

I would add extra salt to her food to make them drink more, to keep an old horse drinking well.
Especially important with so much roughage going thru them. Old horse could be lazy or hurting with old age
issues, about going to get enough drinks. Extra salt MAKES them more thirsty, so they drink better, hold
the water a bit more in their body system. Water retention is not so good for people, but is GREAT for
horses! Warding off that dehydration problem again.

 

[alsea1]

With senior horses I have had great results with simple beet pulp and good horse grain. To the ration I added some corn oil. No more that 1/4 cup or so.
I tried probiotics for a little while but could not tell if if was really worth the added expense in my case.
Elder horses need to be able to eat by them selves. Most of them eat slowly and just cannot compete.

 

[alsea1]

This is our senior girl. We think she is in her late twenties.