feeding advice for my veteran please :)

[CrazyCob]

Hi,
My little cob turns 20 this year, he's generally quite good for his age but i want to make sure he stays that way as i'm worried his age will start to show.
At the moment I feed him apple chaff and badminton fibre plus nuggets (because this is what my mum's horse is fed on) with garlic and glabal herbs old age supplements. He does ok on this but reacently i feel as though he's lacking that extra umpfh so i've been thinking about putting him on veteran cubes.
When i googled differant veteran feeds they all say that they are ideal for building condition/ good if the horse looses weight, which is one thing that Skittles dosent do a lot of tbh as beng a cob is a good doer so i dont really want to put him on a high calorie feed.
do you think it is worth me switching to veteran cubes or will it just leave me with a barrage baloon instead of a horse?

x

 

[AngieandBen]

My cob is 20 and a good doer too; He gets Fast Fibre and a handfull of low sugar chaff, Codlivine joint supplement and Magnesium Oxide ( he is barefoot )

He does very well on this, is ridden for about two hours four times a week; he is lacking in energy ( he is the right weight atm ) but I put it down to the warm wather and the fact that he isn't clipped.

I wouldn't feed apple chaff tbh, it has around 17% sugar, just a high fibre, low sugar, low starch one would be better. Carry on with the nuggets, and perhaps add a multi vitamin and mineral.

If he's not underweight and he's feeling well, I don't see the need to feed veteran stuff

As long as you are working him ( always feed according to work done, not work you may be doing ) you could try something like Pasture Mix to give him some sparkle , not sure of the sugar/starch content though )

 

[blood_magik]

my 20yo wb ballooned on 16+ so i switched to "normal" feed - pony nuts, chaff, speedibeet and various supplements (oil, garlic, superflex and naf veteran supplement).

he seems to have the right amount of oomph at the moment but needs to lose a bit of weight still..

 

[sarahann1]

Thanks to the (fab) advise on this forum I moved my big lad who is 23 onto sugarbeet and alpha oil. Does him great, plenty of omph and his weight is great (he was skinny). Alpha oil is really conditioning though so watch for fat, normal alpha is less fatty, hifi even less fat.

 

[TGM]

If he is only recently starting to lack 'oomph' then it is possible that he may be getting stiffer with age, rather than it being a feed related problem. If the vet is out to your yard soon then might be worth him having a quick look and/or have a chat to him over the phone. You could consider a joint supplement or a feed balancer that incorporates joint supplement ingredients.

If your horse tends to be a bit porky then I would avoid high calorie/high cereal veteran feeds, as you don't want to risk laminitis.

 

[Puppy]

You could consider a joint supplement or a feed balancer that incorporates joint supplement ingredients.

Just what I was going to say. I'd say the most crucial part of my 25 year old's diet is Topspec senior balancer. It may be worth you looking into