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?

Palisades is my 15-year-old, 12.2-hand Welsh Pony mare; she weighs 600 lb (275 kg) with a BCS of about 7, complete with cresty neck. She’s fed 1 lb (0.45 kg) of pelleted feed and has full access to pasture all day. She runs out of energy at shows, so I’d like to know how much I can feed her without running into problems with a “grain-crazy” brain and without adding flesh to her neck. She sheds out normally in the spring, so I don’t suspect Cushing’s.

I own two horses, both normally fed soaked beet pulp shreds mixed into their textured feed. Recently, a neighbor fed the horses for me without soaking the beet pulp. The mare choked, the gelding didn’t. The mare is a scoffer, while the gelding is a grazer. This made me wonder whether there was a relationship between choke and speed of feed consumption. Is there?

Willard is my 30-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse gelding. He’s 15 hands and really chunky. I’d guess he needs to lose a few hundred pounds. His current diet includes 6 lb (2.7 kg) of timothy hay, 6 lb (2.7 kg) of alfalfa hay, and ground flaxseed. He is also on pergolide daily and bute when he’s especially sore. Does this diet work for a laminitic horse that’s probably also insulin resistant? If not, what do I feed?

Is there any one body condition score that is optimal for all horses?

I do low-level eventing and some trail-riding with my 14-year-old, 15.1-hand Arabian gelding. I usually ride twice a week, two hours each time. He stays at a condition score of 4 on a diet of 20 lb (9 kg) brome hay, 2 lb (0.9 kg) of a ration balancer, 5 lb (2.3 kg) of performance horse feed, and 5 lb (2.3 kg) cracked corn. He has been on this ration for over a year, and he has not gained any weight. He is a picky eater with a passable appetite; he doesn’t seem to relish his hay or feed. What else can I do to support weight gain?

I own a 14-year-old, 15-hand Arabian gelding in light endurance work. He’s an off-track racehorse and aside from free-choice hay I feed him a slurry of copra meal (1.25 lb; 0.6 kg), micronutrient pellets, ground flax (6 oz; 177 ml), and a gastric supplement twice daily. He’s in good weight. I have not had him scoped for gastric ulcers, though I suspect issues of some sort despite the supplement. I don’t feed salt or electrolytes as I am concerned about their abrasive potential on his stomach. Is this a suitable diet for him?

My friend and I are having a debate. She still believes that pellets are nothing more than compressed mill-floor sweepings that are bagged and sold as wholesome products. I argue that times have changed and pellets can be as nutritious and well-made as any textured feed. Care to comment?

I read a lot of articles that warn against keeping horses too fat. I was a teenager when Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973, so I’ve been around horses for a long time, and I’ve kept plenty in “spare-tire condition” with seemingly no ill effects. Is this just an angle for vets and feed companies to sell more goods and services?

Water-testing on a new property showed a nitrate level of 25 mg/L, which is above the EPA safety standard for humans, according to our local health department. The horses are fed orchardgrass and senior feed. Given the entire diet, does this seem like a reasonably safe amount for a horse that doesn’t have exposure to other high sources of nitrates?