How the proper feeding of your Senior Horse will add years to his life and spring in his step

Even horses get old.

Think about it. What have you heard or seen about people aging?

Everywhere you look baby boomers and seniors are being educated about the benefits of eating right, taking the proper supplements, getting exercise. You know the drill.

What makes you think it’s any different for your senior horse?

Advances in medical treatment as well as nutrition mean that we have more senior horses with us than ever before. Many horses in their 20s and 30s continue to be productive individuals whose wisdom and patience make them a joy to have around. Older horses tend to have dental problems; often grinding surfaces have worn down so much that he loses much of his ability to chew fibrous food like hay. This can be a primary cause of an older horse’s inability to maintain good condition. Because of this, it is worth finding a feed which offers slightly higher levels of these nutrients, and is relatively soft and easy to chew.

Choosing soft, leafy hay with a higher concentration of legumes is also a good idea, as the older horse may have trouble chewing and digesting a stemmy, fibrous grass hay. A second cut grass hay is also soft and leafy if you can’t find legume mixed hay. And if the older horse has trouble maintaining his weight, especially in the winter months, the addition of some vegetable oil to the diet can provide him with more energy and calories.

Extremely aged horses, with little or no teeth, can sometimes be maintained by soaking hay and grain to make a mash. Hay cubes and beet pulp soaked in warm water for an hour or so before feeding become very manageable for the older horse to eat. Pelleted grains can also be soaked to make them much easier to chew.

Nutrient Requirements for Senior Horses

• Digestible energy (DE) in Mcal/lb1 Mcal
   
• Crude protein 10%
   
• Lysine.35%
   
• Calcium %.29%
   
• Phosphorus%.21%
   
• Magnesium.11%
   
• Potassium.36%
   
• Vitamin A1200 IU/lb
   
• Expected total feed eaten (lbs/100lbs body weight) 1.5% -2.5%
   
• Hay to grain ratio of total feed daily80% hay & 20% grain

Hay Types for Senior Horses

There are two different kinds of hay that can be fed to breeding stallions; legume hays (Lucerne) and grass hay.

Legume hay is almost always the preferred hay for young growing horses and lactating mares. This is because they have two to three times the protein and calcium of grass hays, as well as more soluble (non-fibrous) carbohydrates, beta-carotene and vitamin E.

Types of legumes are alfalfa, red clover, crimson clover, ladino clover, alsike clover; birds foot trefoil, lespedeza, cow peas and vetch.

Legumes are generally more costly, and in some parts of North America might be infested with poisonous blister beetles. Because of these two reasons some might feel safer feeding grass hays.

Grass hays are often less dusty than legume hay and their modest protein content makes them a better choice for mature horses not being used for breeding. If feeding grass hay to senior horses a vitamin and mineral supplement should be added.

Types of grass hays are timothy, coastal bermuda, brome, orchard grass, blue grass, rye grass and canary grass. Timothy hay is the most widely grown hay in North America.

Alternative Hay Solutions

Hay can also be chopped, pressed into cubes and processed into pellets. Hay cubes and pellets come in a variety of sizes and textures, from soft and crumbly to quite hard. They can be all alfalfa; all grass hay, a mixture of the two, or even hay mixed with other products such as ground corn, oats, etc.

Grains for Senior Horses

Grains should be fed at least two times a day. If the amount of grain fed at one time is more than 8 lbs. (3.5 kg), increase the frequency of feeding to three times per day at approximately eight hour intervals, but maintain the same total daily intake.

As most of us know, the intake of an excess quantity of any type of grain can result in dire consequences, including life threatening colic, laminitis and founder. Feeding grain to senior horses is a good way of supplementing their nutrient demands beyond what their hay provides.

Remember no single grain will provide all the nutrients horse needs, even when fed in combination with quality hay. So adding a good vitamin mineral supplement is essential for senior horses.

Commercial grains come textured or pelleted. Textured feed is a mixture of grains with a touch of molasses. They are usually formulated with a mixture of grains (oats, corn, barley,etc), and generally supplemented with a mixture of vitamins and minerals appropriate to the type of horse it is designed for (performance horses, breeding stock or growing horses), a commercial grain provides what a single grain can’t.

Pelleted feeds can be all hay or pellets containing hay and grains, usually 10 to 25%. Pelleted feeds may be differentiated from each other by their crude fiber content, which is given on the feed tag. The lower the crude fiber content of the feed, the greater its energy content and the lower its roughage content. Pellets consisting entirely of roughage contain 27% or more crude fiber. Those containing primarily roughage with some cereal grain (oats, barley, and corn); contain 18% to 26% crude fiber. Grain by its self can contain less than 15% crude fiber. Pelleted feeds consisting primarily or totally of hay may be fed without any additional hay. 

Extruded feeds look like dry dog food and are made by the same process. Extruded feed is about half as dense as pelleted feeds or textured feeds made with the same ingredients. Because extruded feeds are less dense, you get less feed value per bag – often at the same price. 

Because pelleted and extruded feeds are made up of feed ground into particles, they are, in a manner of speaking pre-chewed. This makes them much more digestible choice than whole grains or hay for very young or old horses, or for any horse with a mouth or tooth problem. Pelleted and extruded feed can also be soaked into a mash to be fed to senior horses.

You also have to be careful when switching your senior horse to extruded feed; because it is less dense you will feed more to maintain your horse’s weight. It is important to weigh your horses feed to get the correct amount to feed. Don’t rely on the coffee can method of measuring.

Balancing the Senior Horses Diet

A senior horses’ daily diet needs to include many different nutrients in all the proper amounts of energy, protein, minerals, vitamins and amino acids.

Before you can balance your senior horses’ diet you need to know a few basic things:
Is your senior horses’ condition good, too fat or too thin? Not sure then see what condition your horse is in by looking at our equine conditioning chart.

• What feeds are available to you?
   
• What is your senior horses’ body weight? 
  You can use a measuring tape sold at feed stores.

It’s worth knowing your senior horses weight because you use it to determine how much feed your horse should be getting each day. The total weight of feed per day should be between 1.5% and 3.0% (look at section nutrient requirements and see what it says for expected total feed eaten % body weight/day) of your horses’ body weight. 

Using this rule, a 1,000 lb. thoroughbred (for example) would need between 15 lbs. and 30 lbs. of total feed (forage plus grain). This leeway allows some adjustability, for example, if our thoroughbred was overweight and only in light work, you would lean toward the lower end of the scale at 15 lbs a day. If on the other hand, he was in top physical condition and was competing in a high intensity sport like endurance racing or upper level combined driving he might require closer to 30 lbs. of feed a day to provide him with the energy he needs.

This rule does not apply to nursing foals that will only eat between .5% to .75% of their body weight in solid food while they are nursing.

Weanlings might consume up to 3.5% of their body weight per day.

In order use this rule effectively, you will have to weight your horses’ feed. Most people use the coffee can method of measuring grain (this horse gets half a scoop, this one a whole scoop). Weighing your horses’ feed does not have to be a daily routine. You can have different containers for each horse – weighing their feed so it fits a particular container or marking the container. You weigh the grain using a kitchen or bathroom scale. (Remember to subtract the weight of the empty container you use to scoop your grain into). To measure hay you can open a bale and on a bathroom scale weigh each flake of hay. Once you have all the weights you can get the average weight of a flake of hay. For example there are 12 flakes of hay in a bale and the weights are 3lbs, 3.5 lbs, 4 lbs, 5 lbs, 3 lbs, 3.5 lbs, 4 lbs, 5 lbs, 4.5 lbs, 5 lbs, 3.5 lbs, 4 lbs. = total weight of 48 lbs. To get average weight of one flake – 48 lbs divided by 12 flakes = 4 lbs. per flake.

• Rules of Good Feeding
   
• According to life stage and condition of horse.
   
• Feed according to body weight of horse.
   
• Feed for work done, not for future Make sure they have access to fresh clean water at all times.
   
• Feed work the horse is about to do.
   
• Feed plenty of roughage for healthy gut function. Look at grain to hay ratio.
   
• Feed by weight not volume of feed; weigh grain and hay.
   
• Feed at the same time each day.
   
• Feed little and often so as not to overload the horses’ digestive system. Keep grains to 4 lbs. – 5 lbs. per feeding.
   
• Use high quality feeds. Do not feed dusty or moldy feed.
   
• Make any changes to the diet gradually so as to reduce the risk of digestive upset like colic.
   
• Don’t exercise immediately after feeding. Allow 2 to 3 hours after feeding before working the horse and do not feed until one hour after working.

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