keeping top line on an older horse

S

serena2005

Well-Known Member
Joined
9 April 2006
Messages
1,971
Location
London
Visit site
Hello,

I have a nearly 20 year old who is extremely young at heart! She's in full work. I just struggle to keep top line on her. As we are going into winter I can all ready see her loosing it but other than that her condition is good. What can I do to help her to keep her top line? She is feed a large scoop of conditioning mix and a bucket full of ready grass.
Hacking at the moment is very restricted.

Thanks is advance xx
 
Constant steady work, I don't think breaks work for oldies. linseed is good for weight. Decent schooling so they work the right muscles.
 
Is school for about 35 minutes maybe 3 times a week, hack once and lunge once usually 2 days off.

I just want to keep on top of it this winter so I don't spend all summer trying to get her condition back to where is should be, she was in a very poor state when I got her a few years ago and this feels like the first winter I'm going into to with the upper hand so I don't know really how to manage it haha!
I will try adding linseed oil to her feeding as she won't eat the micronised one. Is any oil good or just linseed?

@flicker - what stretches do you do?
 
My vet recommended a supplement called Equitop Myoplast for my horse's neuro muscular disorder which caused muscle wastage/loss of topline.
 
As said...proper work. My boy is 16, but when i got him he was score 2 on the scale i suppose and he didn't know what a muscle was. Hes up to weight and fittened, but was at his best just at the end of summer when he was fit but lost some summer fat and was pure muscle cause of the more pole/jump work he was getting. Winter coldness and ***** arena in winter and what not has made him deffo loose some weight therefor topline, but i try to work him at LEAST 4 times a week in good schooling, and one day a good hack. So i keep him ticking over and come spring i hope i can do more poles/jumping without him sinking and tripping. Hate my arena in winter!!
 
I would give a decent dose of natural vit E oil daily or twice daily if possible. There is no vit E in grass in winter, very little in hay and they don't store vit E in the body. You don't appear to be using a supplement so I would guess you are feeding very little vit E. A good dose will do wonders for the top line.
I would also give a decent amount of protein. I feed copra and alfalfa pellets (soaked) and all of my oldies look great on this plus vit E.
 
Different things ,
You might consider trying the equicore system .
And you might try feeding the supplement Myoplast I have only used this on younger horses one youngish ID who I just felt needed to increase muscle mass and it worked perfectly and on a horse who had KS surgery were he built up almost as you watched (he was of course getting the correct work as well ) and I used it on him again as he went on to break a rib and be very ill so I used it after that .
 
Our vet recommended soya oil to feed to our 25yo who is still on light work but starting to lose top line. Otherwise he gets speediest, conditioning cubes and oats (small scoop of each) twice a day
 
i would make sure she has plenty of hay or haylage to keep her guts working and maybe add speedi beet or fast fibre to bulk up her feed and give her smaller feeds but more often if you can arrange for this...
 
Equitop is spirulina + shed loads of sugar as it tastes nasty I wouldn't feed it because of the sugar :p
Shame she won't eat the linseed, oil would be better than nothing or copra? but otherwise I think work makes a huge difference, frank has definitely lost a bit since just hacking even though he would only do an hour schooling and half hour in hand work or lunge a week. If he wasn't hundreds of miles from me ATM I would see if just doing the in hand would help
 
You need to look at her diet in terms of it's composition, what percentage fibre for her GIT, carbs for energy, minerals and vit E for proper functioning of her system and protein to support soft tissue repair and immune system. My poor doer it turns out wasn't getting enough protein (as revealed by a forage analysis) so I supplement with amino acids such as lysine and methionine, soya meal and bran, which, surprisingly is 12% protein. As well as checking what is in his bucket feeds and adding the vitamins and minerals he needs to make up a deficit. It has made all the difference to him, his ribs are covered for the first time since I met him 6 years ago
If you don't know the baseline against her needs you might be throwing away vast amounts of money. Sarah at Forageplus helped with mine.
I presume you have had her tested for Cushings?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top