Looking After An Oldie

[GTs]

So if I do move into this farms guesthouse and look after their horses one of their horses is 35 - a champ by anyones account. I really have not looked after any elderly horses, and just wanted to some insight beyond the obvious difficulties eating, maintain weight. From the sounds of things he is doing very well, lives out in the New England weather (up to -20C).

 

[The Original Kao]

i'm currently looking after a 30 plus welsh pony. he doesn't have much in the way of useable teeth now so most of his feed is what i'd class as 'mush'.
he gets grass nuts, a veteran mix in cube form, all well soaked with wet sugar beet and instead of hay as he just can't chew it, he gets chaff.
his teeth need checked very regularly also.
good luck with getting the new job

 

[GTs]

It is not really a job - we get free rent in the apartment above the barn if we look after their 4 horses. 2 are racehorses needing to be retrained, 1 is a childs pony, and then there is grandpa. Considering the workload will be shared between my gf and myself it sounds like the perfect amont of horse for it to be a fun hobby, rather than work.

We also get to a stall if we want to get our own horse - something like this:

 

[Sprout]

My old horse, who I lost a few weeks ago, was nearly 30.
He did struggle when the grass was short, due to his teeth, so I made sure he had plenty of hay as well.
I kept him well rugged in the winter otherwise he dropped weight quickly.
Towards the end, I had to keep him in a separate paddock to the others, as they were driving him around too much and his poor old joints couldnt take it!
Other than that, he was easy to look after, and could still manage to look like a race horse if there was a feed bucket around.
Hope you get the job, sounds great.

 

[Sprout]

Oopps, just read your next post, that its not a job - I always get the wrong end of the stick!!!!

Still think it would be fun.

 

[Fairynuff]

The old bloke who has been here for the last 6 years is now 35 years old. He has lost a lot of weight in the last year but still has a dappled bum the whole year round. I feed him little and often , sugar beet is fed on its own, giving roughage and calcium. I think it was Sportsnight who reported that SB, being a good source of fibre, should be fed without the inclusion of cereals as it , like hay, will take the cereals through the small intestine too quickly and into the large where STARCHES should not be.! I add cider vin, salt, maize oil and, above all, toasted soya beans to his teatime feed. Soya contains the essential enzymes needed to utilize proteins, without which youre as well chucking them to the wind. Hes wormed as normal, has a lovely deep bed, is well groomed every day and is fussed over and included in yard life. I suppose its like caring for an old human-lots of TLC, easily digested food and bowels kept working

. Good luck, hope all goes as you want

Mxx

 

[Three]

My oldie is 33 this year and it's the lack of teeth that causes the problems. He can't manage hay anymore, it just balls in his cheek. He now has ad-lib ReadyGrass when he's in at night during the winter.

My favourite feed is instant linseed; it's really helped him hold his weight. I add water to his feeds, he doesn't like mush so it's just enough to damp the linseed and soften the rest.

I've noted the tip re soya and SB thanks Morrigan!

 

[summertoots]

We have five 30 pluss oldies on our yard. One of them is 32 and still working, goes nuts if we try to retire him!
We have one old girl who we know is 35, and another who we have no clue as to her true age, but vet thinks at least 30!
As someone said feed little and often. A vetran cube fed soaked is a good idea, but you also get something called fibre mash over here that might be worth you having a wee look to see if you get it over with you. Its fed soaked in warm water and they love it, smells fantastic.
We also feed chaff in a bucket rather than hay/haylage. that way there is less chance of them quidding and waqsting the food and getting no benifit from it. We also give then a haylage net at night, but this is purely so they can chew if they want to, our reason behind this is purely to lessen boredom and it seems to keep the stress levels down.
They are a lot of hard work to look after, but they are happy, so worth it for us.

 

[dozzie]

Who makes instant linseed?? My old boy loves linseed but cooking it is a nightmare!

 

[Three]

I now use Simple System's one - http://www.simplesystem.co.uk/simpleproducts.asp.

It's cooked and powdered so is really easy to use. They'll advise you on the phone how much to use depending on your horses type, work etc.

 

[Fransurrey]

I don't do anything special, really, for my old shettie. Hay does ball in his cheeks a bit, however he doesn't lose weight until this time of year, which for him is a good thing! He lives out sans rug, but if you saw the depth of fluff on him, you'd understand why I'd never dream of rugging him in winter!

Most oldies get by perfectly well, with a little help. His only supplements are apple cider vinegar and omega 3 oils, added to some happy hoof, one feed a day.