How to Feed and Care For the Senior Horse

a higher alfalfa percentage.
Increasing the grain ration or adding beet pulp rice bran or vegetable oil to the current ration may help the horse take in more calories. Splitting the daily ration into several feedings of no more than five pounds per feeding is suggested. Weighing or taping the horse on a regular basis can help to catch weight loss in its early stages.
Keep in mind that age and loss of muscle tone may give some older horses especially broodmares a bony or thin top line spine and top of ribs but these horses still have plenty of flesh over their neck and hips and thus are not truly underweight.
Be sure to evaluate the whole horse when estimating condition in older animals.
The Overweight Senior
Age related changes in metabolism decreases in training and exercise and various health conditions may cause older horses to become overweight. Fat horses may find it harder to get up and down easily and extra weight puts a strain on arthritic joints.
Steps to reduce the chubby horses weight include encouraging exercise as tolerated using a grazing muzzle during turnout hours and feeding grass hay instead of alfalfa.
Many overweight horses dont need the calories in a sweet feed but still require a full complement of vitamins and minerals. A supplement can provide necessary nutrients without an overload of energy.
MANAGING THE SENIOR
Exercise
In general exercise should be encouraged as the horse is able to tolerate it. In most cases turnout is preferable to stall confinement taking care that younger pasture buddies are not allowed to run an older horse to exhaustion. For ridden or driven exercise warmup and cool down are essential. Older horses lose muscular strength and fitness as do aging humans and each horses exercise program should be tailored to the individuals condition. While a younger horse can sometimes be idle during the week and perform moderately strenuous exercise on a weekend with few ill effects such a program is likely to result in stiffness pain or more serious consequences for the outofcondition older horse.
Daily check
As with any horse the older equine should be seen daily. A light grooming is a good way for owners to keep up with injuries weight changes and problems with teeth or hooves.
Access to feed hay and water
Older horses often end up at the bottom of the herd hierarchy with younger animals blocking hay and water supplies. Senior horses may need to be