My seven-year-old Andalusian gelding (16.3 hands; 1,400 lb or 640 kg) is in moderate body condition (score of 5). I show in low-level dressage but also trail ride a lot. Right now, he is stalled 19 hours, in the drylot four hours, and in the pasture for an hour. As grass growth slows, he will be on pasture completely when he’s not stalled. He’s fed grass hay, 2 lb (0.9 kg) of a low-starch feed, a protein supplement, and a four-in-one supplement for hoof health, joint support, antioxidant relief, and probiotic. He came up lame recently, and the vet found minor inflammation of a stifle. Radiographs showed an OCD lesion as well as possible calcium deficiency. While the vet addresses the stifle, can you review his diet for possible calcium deficiency?

Vanna is my five-year-old event mare that needs to gain weight (BCS 4). She’s turned out in lush fields 12 hours each day, and gets first-cut orchardgrass (6 lb or 2.7 kg) in a haynet when she’s stalled. Each day she’s also fed senior feed (4 lb or 1.8 kg), alfalfa pellets (a few handfuls), canola oil (3 cups or 750 mL), and a natural-source vitamin E supplement. Vanna is prone to ulcers and, though not confirmed, I suspect she might have PSSM2. My boarding barn has a one-feed, one-amount policy, so that complicates feeding. Because she has a difficult time putting on weight and muscle, I think a low-starch diet is best. I would like to eliminate the oil as it is messy, and it is hard to get her to eat all of her grain with the oil in it. Can you provide some help, please?

Ziggy is my new crossbred pony mare (13.2 hands; 700 lb or 320 kg; BCS 6). She is ridden daily as a hunter prospect. She is on full turnout with a few supplements. Even though Ziggy is a healthy young pony, she is an easy keeper, and I want to avoid laminitis as the spring grass grows. Would a hindgut buffer help her?

I have two young horses, a three-year-old Warmblood that will be started soon under saddle and a six-month-old filly with an estimated mature height of 17 hands. Is Triacton an appropriate product for them? Both horses are turned out 24/7 on good-quality forage, supplemented with baleage, dry hay, or short pasture in the winter.

I own a mature, idle Thoroughbred-cross mare with shivers. She has free-choice access to orchardgrass hay while the grass is starting to grow. The pasture grass is a mixture of fescue and orchardgrass. She is fed 1.5 lb (0.68 kg) of a high-fat performance feed twice a day along with vitamin E and flax supplements. Does she have an increased risk of developing laminitis as the grass intake increases because of her shivers diagnosis?

I recently bought a quiet, aged racking gelding to use as a trail-riding horse in the rural area in which I live. I am having a blast with him! Despite lots of hay and two grain meals a day (10 lb or 4.5 kg of a senior feed), he remains ribby. My well-meaning barn friends have flooded me with recommendations about how to change his diet to pack on some pounds, so I am evaluating my options on the nutrition front. Other than this, my friends have repeatedly suggested that he be seen by a dentist. When I owned my last horse in the early 1980s, I didn’t use a dentist. Can the state of his teeth adversely affect his weight?

I have an overweight four-year-old Warmblood mare that weighs about 1,400 lb (640 kg) and stands 16.3 hands. She spends an equal time in a stall as she does in turnout, year-round. She is fed 1.5 lb (0.7 kg) low-starch feed, 0.5 lb (0.2 kg) balancer pellet, and 22-24 lb (10-11 kg) grass-alfalfa hay with a salt block. She is fed biotin for hoof health and EO-3 (marine-derived oil) in the spring and fall for skin problems. Her work shifts from moderate/intense to light/idle as winter settles in, so she gains weight as winter wears on. She becomes stressed in new situations, and becomes irritated during girth-tightening and when grooming her barrel. As spring approaches, I am interested in matching her nutritional regimen with the demands of combined driving. I would like to address possible hindgut irritation. Is EquiShure appropriate for this? Would flax oil work as well as EO-3? Finally, the biotin has helped her hooves a bit but still she has chips and cracks.

I own a mature draft horse stallion. He consumes a five-gallon bucket of carrots in the morning and then another in the evening, split between two meals (5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.). I have fed carrots in this way for nearly seven decades, and my dad did so before me while owning over 100 head of Standardbreds and drafts. The carrots are a good water substitute in winter if pipes freeze, and they are a reasonably inexpensive feedstuff, as we live close to the marsh area where they are grown. These carrots are culls from those grown and harvested for human consumption and are discarded when they go through the assembly line. They are normally somewhat washed at least once. This stallion has eaten them since he arrived here as a yearling. The horses seem to do well on carrots, and they do put weight on with them. Carrots seem to change their coat color a little, their manure is loose, and they certainly enjoy them. My question is this: as I read more about nutrition, is there anything I should worry about in feeding this many carrots?

I have an eight-year-old Quarter Horse gelding that I barrel race. He’s the perfect horse except for one habit: he cribs. In addition to his concentrate and free-choice hay, he’s fed a vitamin E and selenium supplement. He’s kept in an electric-fence field with no trees or wood, so he now cribs primarily on the plastic water trough. I’d rather not use a cribbing strap. From a nutritional angle, what can I do to stop the cribbing?

I’m looking for advice on feeding a mare after surgery to correct epiploic foramen entrapment. She is a very nervous mare. What kind of feed would be proper for her? I thought about some high-fiber feeds, but these often contain flaxseed, which could lead to bloating or gas issues. Maybe you have suggestions?