Feeding Old Pony

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happyhacker1

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My neighbour has a pony aged around 30-35. He has poor teeth, but does keep condition fairly well. He's on 1/2 sachet of bute daily for arthritis, mixed with 1/2-1 scoop of Dodson & Horrell 16 Plus once or twice a day (depending upon weather). His paddock is bare (1 acre) so he's not getting any grass. He does has unlimited hay available, but seems to eat very little and kind of grinds his teeth from side to side,-most ends up on the floor. When I was looking after him recently, I bought a bag of mollichop and fed him around half a bucket of this mixed with some sugar beet, and a scoop of 16+, to give him more fibre in his system. I know that 16+ mix can be fed on its own, but presumably that is when the pony is eating grass and hay normally. Bit of a tricky situation now that the mollichop has run out and my neighbour hasn't replaced it and is just feeding the 16+ and sugar beet again. Am I worrying unnecessarily or should he really be having a fibre mix with this?
 
Our old lad had hardly any teeth and so couldn't really eat grass or hay although he did kind of gum it!! I had him on Baileys No 1 and sugar beet twice a day in fairly large amounts. He was pts at age 36 as he had cancer. The day we lost him he looked in amazing condition so we must have been getting it right.
 
There's a 30+ ponio at my yard who gets feed calm and condition, 16+ mix and sugar beet in the evening, big bowl, and coarse mix in the morning. Her owners rarely come to see her and don't really have a clue, so a lovely woman at the yard sees to her and she's of the opinion that if she's going to go, she may as well go out happy
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She also don't eat hay.
 
where i used to work they had an achent pony. She couldn't eat hay or grass as she only had 6 teeth and none of them met.
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I used to feed her sugerbeet, oats, flaked maze and bran. Half a scoop of each twice a day (even on my day off). She could just swallow it as i made shore it was very wet and had time to soak before i fed it to her. I kept her going and i even bought her a rug (which i left for her when i left the job). Everyone kept saying she should be put down as she was to old but she was still happy bless her. I have no idea what has happened to her now i don't work there. I just hope someone else took good care of her
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my veteran also has teeth issues. Lasy check he has around 6-8molars left, but this was about 4yrs ago & due to him needing sedating to check them we dont do it any more. & with his behaviour he has definately lost more!
Anyway he is feed (per day) 2sccops barley, 1.5sugarbeet, 2 16+ & 1.5alfa a oil. He has lots of alfa a oil in his evening feed so he takes his time with in & gets a good fibre intake, he has less in his morning so i can get him turned out.
Fibre is definately key in any horses diet, but due to physical changes within the gut they are more prone to colic & therefore fibre is paramount to keep the gut moving. My veteran always has hay on offer even is he hardly eats any. We have also found that he is much better on short grazing as he can swallow it with very little grinding (he has adapted to use his front teeth for that.)
If this horse is holdin his weight well he may be eating more that you think.
 
Thank you for replies so far, really helpful to have other views on this. He is 12.2 by the way - light-middleweight. He was bought from a horse sale 3 years ago because someone felt sorry for him and my neighbour took him on to eat the grass in their small paddock. He's a mixed breed, but he's intelligent & has been a smart pony in his time. He lives out all year, and has a rug on in the winter.
 
I too have a dentally challenged oldie!
She was having a hi-fibre cube mash (nuts soaked in warm water) mixed with a scoop of equilibrium senior but then she went off that and after much toil & trouble to find something she will eat she now had ReadyFibre Mash with hi-fi lite.
She will try to eat hay but gums & drops more than she actually chews & eats and I don't think she has as much trouble with grass...
The Equilibrium Senior is a great feed, really does what it says on the tin, just a shame she won't eat it now!!!!!
Where about in country are you? I have half a bin of Equilibrium going to waste...?
 
Sorry, but your neighbour is starving that pony. He needs soaked hard feed at least twice a day, bulked out with a chop (alfa-a if he can manage it, otherwise Dengie veteran), sugar beet. Until last summer I was caring for a 44 year old (13hh ish) who was totally unable to eat hay and I was giving her the above. Weight of food was 4lbs of hard feed per day, half a large scoop of beet (dry weight) and LOADS of chop - I managed to get an old-fashioned unmollassed chaff so that she wasn't getting too much sugar. It used to take her about 45 minutes to eat it all. The usual rules of feeding apply - 2% of existing bodyweight per day in order to gain any weight.
 
I haven't read all the replies but he really needs to keep his fibre intake up - 16+ is ok but if he was on a high fibre diet he could probably do without it.

Look at the Mollichaff Veteran chaff - is soft so easy to eat with little or no teeth but is also full of vits and mins they need as well as some linseed oil and mint and nettles etc so it smells nice to - the oldies here have it and all look great on it. The 38 year old has a trug full (dampened or with some speedibeet) in his shelter so he can munch on it as and when he wants it during the day/night and is refilled as necessary.

The other option is Allen & Page Fast fibre - again has been designed with oldies in mind so is easy to eat but is just fibre so will keep his gut moving, help keep him warm etc etc
 
All noted thank you, just wanted a general view of what other people are feeding and this has given me a good idea - before I put the pressure on, i want to be sure of my facts. I've had quite a few horses and ponies myself and I took his rug off last weekend and had a good look over him. He's fine, not too thin, has a good coat and a rug on. He is eating some hay, but not as much as I think he should eat, so I will be insisting on more Fibre G or Mollichop. Thanks to all for your help and advice.
 
My 35yo will only eat a max of about 2 kilos of hay a day, so I keep the weight on with Allen & Page Calm & Condition, Fibrebeet and Topspec Leisure time balancer.
 
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