Question
I own a big (17-hand; 1,350 lb or 614 kg) 19-year-old Warmblood mare that I ride lightly five times a week. She stays too thin for my taste (a body condition score of 4). She gets three hours of turnout in addition to 4-5 flakes of hay and 2-3 lb (0.9-1.4 kg) of a low-starch feed. The mare tends to add weight easily, thus the feed choice. She was kept at a "low" weight while rehabbing a tendon injury, but she has been recovered from that for over a year. She doesn't look as good as she did pre-injury through her topline, her muscle looks flabby, and her coat is a bit dull. Does she now need a senior formula? Does she need different nutrition now?
Answer
Age is not the only determining factor when contemplating a change to a senior formula. The current feed is still a suitable feed for your mare, but the small amount of feed you’re offering her isn’t supplying optimal nutrition. The feed was formulated to provide complete nutrition when fed at a higher rate (5 lb [2.2 kg] or more per day).
There are many ways to balance the mare’s diet, but I will go over two methods, both of which will provide optimal nutrition, improving her condition and enhancing skin and coat health.
The first method would involve increasing the amount of feed to match the manufacturer’s recommendation based on weight and workload. I estimated that 6 lb (2.7 kg) per day would be a more appropriate amount. This would provide your mare with the additional calories and nutrients needed to build muscle and increase body weight.
Another method to correct the diet is to offer a vitamin/mineral supplement or a ration balancer pellet, which is a low-intake feed that contains a concentrated source of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Horses on a small amount of feed often benefit from the high-quality protein supplied by these products to help promote muscle development. Balancers do not add a lot of calories to the diet so you may also need to increase the amount of hay offered to achieve increases in your mare’s overall weight. This type of program provides you with flexibility to always meet your horse’s energy and nutrient needs through adjusting the ratio of the two feeds.
