Question
My 30-year-old Quarter Horse mare is a smidgen shorter than 14 hands (142 cm). She weighs about 800 lb (364 kg), and she’s moderately thin (BCS of 4). She’s stalled the majority of the day (18 hr) but is in the paddock the rest of the time. Once a day I give Sally two flakes of hay, a scoop of senior feed, a scoop of generic sweet feed, and a scoop of cracked corn. She’s always been a good eater, though she tends to leave some of her hay now. She was once an easy keeper. As to her health, Sally has foundered slightly on two occasions and split a tooth, so she gets regular hoof and dental care. Why is she not holding weight?
Answer
As a horse ages, calorie needs often increase. A diet that once worked well for Sally may no longer meet her needs, and weight loss is the result of the calorie deficiency.
While the sweet feed and cracked corn are cost-effective sources of calories, they are not ideal for Sally because of their high starch content and the mare’s propensity to founder. I recommend replacing those two feeds with more of the senior feed you’re currently offering. Senior feeds typically contain fat (oil and rice bran) and fermentable fiber (beet pulp), and these energy sources are especially beneficial for horses that are sensitive to starch and sugar.
Take a few minutes to read the feeding recommendations on the senior feed. Once you have removed the sweet feed and cracked corn from Sally’s ration, slowly add more senior feed until she’s eating the recommended amount per day. Making these changes in her diet may take 10-14 days, even longer, but it’s best to switch feeds gradually for optimal digestive health.
Another concern with the current program is feeding one large meal per day. Is it possible to offer two smaller concentrate meals every day? Smaller meal size improves digestion and utilization of the feed so more calories are available to the horse for weight gain. Sally shouldn’t be given more than 5 lb (2.3 kg) in any single meal. Top-dressing with vegetable oil is a great way to increase the number of calories provided per meal without increasing meal size.
Older horses have reduced ability to chew long-stem forage such as pasture and hay, and they benefit from receiving processed forages such as hay cubes or pellets due to the shorter fiber length. Soaking these products also increases the horse’s ability to chew and utilize these fiber sources. Processed forage products should make up the majority of the horse’s forage ration (12-15 lb or 5.5-6.8 kg per day for a 1,000-lb or 450-kg horse) in situations like this. Hay and pasture can still be offered but not counted on as the main source of energy or nutrients.
