Feed for old horse.

[Greyskull]

My horse is now getting older and having been a good doer in her youth and middle age, I am now facing the new challange of feeding a horse who doesn't hold her weight so well. I am expecting this to get worse as she ages further and her teeth become poorer. Currently the dentist is able to keep on top of her age related dental issues, however they have mentioned that she is starting to get diastemas. She still grazes well and eats hay without quidding. I'm wondering if now is the time to start looking into feeds trhat will suit her better as she ages. I don't think that her previous high fibre/low calorie feeds will be enough this winter. She is retired but is sound and is negative for cushings.

 

[meleeka]

I’d start with either grass nuts (if she’s never had laminitis) or Speedibeet and add some micronised linseed. There’s no real need to complicate things until you need to.

 

[Greyskull]

She had raised pulses once. Never progressed further than that as we took her off that paddock quickly which had very rich grass at the time.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a feed shop near me that has the Charnwood linseed, so I can get that.

 

[Griffin]

I had very good results with Bailey's Number 4 (Conditioning cubes) with an elderly horse who struggled to keep weight on.

 

[splashgirl45]

I fed fast fibre during the winter for my old girl and it seemed to help and she ate it with no problem.. or soak grass nuts to make them easier to digest

 

[Melandmary]

I have a 27 year old mare that drops weight very easily in winter. Teeth checked, no quidding but she just doesn’t have the same appetite as the greedy cobs. Following suggestions on here I give her 2 extra feeds a day of soaked grass nuts 1kg each with 50 ml scoop of linseed. And this was working quite well, she had dropped 10 kg over the last 2 weeks of freezing weather. I have read on here about using oily herbs so I am going to get some of those and add to the mush of grass nuts. I really don’t want to go down the route of feeding her conditioning feeds full of rubbish and molasses but she is getting incredibly fussy in her old age?

 

[Katieg123]

I feed my old man Equerry Conditioning Mash and he does great on it - used to lose a lot of condition over the winter and now is looking as good come spring as he did going into winter! He is also fed Simply Natural and two pumps of linseed oil.

 

[CazD]

Our 37 year old pony is fed speedibeet, soaked pony nuts, linseed and Rowan and Barbary soft and soak. She has very few teeth left and no meeting grinding surfaces. She cant eat hay at all and quids food all the time. She also has cushings. She loses weight really easily but on this regime she is doing well.

 

[meleeka]

Cushcare has been a bit of a revelation for us. Pony can’t have unlimited soaked feed as she won’t be separated from the others for long, but she’s doing brilliantly now.

 

[Green Bean]

As you will see in one of my posts, I have recently started my almost 16 year old on Allen&Page veteran vitality. It has linseed and beet in it so no need to buy different feeds. It is a soak feed so when water is added, it breaks down to a mush so good for those with teeth problems. Another good one is Keyflow golden oldies - fine for laminitics and those prone to ulcers. It also breaksdown to a mush.
I recommend both, just had to make the change from golden oldies as my horse ate it for a year and then changed her mind, that is just her and not a reflection on the feed