FEEDING GERIATRIC EQUINES

As horses age, their digestive system tends to become less efficient & their nutritional requirements can change. Most important of all is providing adequate good quality forage. Worn, missing or badly spaced teeth prevent forage being chewed properly & “chewed” hay for example is deposited as quids below the haynet, & there is undigested material in the droppings.
It is essential to maintain a daily dry fibre intake of at least 1.5% of bodyweight to maintain healthy gut function. A 500kg horse will require at least 7.5kg of hay, & could eat 10 – 12kg per day – half a standard small bale.
Poorly chewed forage will be of reduced nutritive value. It is therefore necessary to provide forage in an easily eaten & digestible form. e.g. bales or bags of chopped fibre, and pellets & bricks. Typical ingredient are chopped alfalfa, dried grass, hay, & oat & wheat & barley straw.
These may have additional ingredients for enhancing palatability & energy, as well as suppressing dust & binding pellets, e.g. molassess, soya & rapeseed oils, flavours such as apple, mint & fennel, & limestone, & pellet binders.

Long fibre products need to be chopped short – no more than an inch or so – to be edible, and are required to prolong chewing to stimulate saliva production.

Grass, & possibly alfalfa, pellets should form a substantial part of the diet as they will supply much of the horse’s dietary needs.

Soaked sugar beet should be included unless the horse is suffering Equine Metabolic Syndrome, Cushings, Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy, or otherwise prone to laminitis. It is very palatable & its fibre highly digestible. It can be fed up to 30 – 40% of the horse’s daily – dry weight – food intake. If prone to these problems then a low-sugar product such as SpeediBeet should be used instead.
It may also be necessary to limit the grass intake, as this could otherwise provide too much sugar. Some of the grass nuts could be replaced with oat-feed pellets (the outer high fibre husk of the oat grain, with a very low starch & sugar content) or short-chop oat chaff.
Extra slow release energy can be provided by adding a cupful or 2 of rapeseed oil (supermarket vegetable oil is least expensive) or linseed or cod liver oil if your horse is arthritic. Avoid sunflower & corn oil - these are inflammatory.

As horses are trickle feeders those with teeth problems will require feeding several times a day, as early & late as possible, with hay, straw or grazing available in between to allow the horse to satisfy its desire to eat.

If your horse is underweight then extra nutrients can be added to the feeds to restore condition. These can include ordinary horse & pony nuts & mixes through to a range of balancers & mashes, all of which will require a degree of soaking to make them palatable. Straight feeds such as linseed, soya & copra plus a mineral & vitamin supplement can be added to a base of short-chop fibre & grass &/or alfalfa pellets & soaked beet pulp (low-sugar type if your horse has Cushings or is otherwise sugar- intolerant)

Feeds should be fed wet, for ease of consumption, & prepared in advance to allow the hard components to be softened. If teeth are sensitive to cold water, e.g. in the winter, it should be warmed first, otherwise intake may be restricted.

For advice for an individual horse complete the Nutrition Enquiry Form for the author to appraise.