When it gets really cold, some of my horse feed freezes into a solid block, making it difficult for me to scoop. I can deal with that, but is it safe for my horses to eat?

My 11-year-old Miniature Horse mare weighs about 225 lb (102 kg) in moderate body condition. She spends about a third of her time in a drylot. She’s fed 2.5 lb (1.13 kg) of orchardgrass/timothy hay daily as well as 175 g of concentrate (a mixture of two types), 20 g wheat bran, and 35 g ground flax. She’s fed a pre/probiotic and a liquid vitamin/mineral supplement. She has a salt block in her stall and paddock. She's not a big drinker, and this concerns me. Her feed is mixed with 2.5-3 cups (600-700 mL) water and half an apple. She won’t tolerate more water. I would like her to be on a simpler diet. She is prone to mild colic. After the most recent bout in mid-December, my vet and I agreed to have a gastroscopy performed. The mare is currently sound and otherwise healthy.

I just purchased a bag of All-Phase for my 20-year-old Quarter Horse that is an easy keeper. He is overweight and because of this ended up with a fatty hump on his neck. Now his mane has started to fall out over the hump. Will All-Phase give him the necessary nutrition, in combination with his hay, without extra starch or fat? I'm wondering if adding EO-3 to his diet would be beneficial or counterproductive. Again, I’d like hair growth, not weight gain. Could you please provide recommendations?

My 12-year-old Quarter Horse gelding (15 hands, 1,080 lb or 490 kg) is in good weight. I provide him one bale of mixed grass hay daily  in a drylot. The hay is composed of many grasses (timothy/orchardgrass/bromegrass/canarygrass). I give him 1 lb (0.45 kg) of ration balancer and 1 lb (0.45 kg) of senior feed daily. I also give him quite a few alfalfa pellets as training treats throughout the course of a week. While his weight is fine, he is losing muscle tone. He he has shown no blatant signs of tying-up like sudden lameness, but I’ve observed exercise intolerance and muscle soreness. The muscle soreness is so bad at times he cringes to the touch. Any advice?

While I await the results of lab tests, I have begun looking at feeds suitable for a horse that I suspect has PSSM2. He has experienced muscle sensitivity and exercise intolerance, but I have not seen any overt signs of tying-up, like sudden reluctance to move or discolored urine. Will Re-Leve be beneficial to him?

I have worked with horses for 40 years, and I have noticed that the health and appearance of the average horse has degraded in the last two decades. I believe this is directly related to the quality of feed. In the past, horses were fed cereal grains and hay. Now, they are fed leftovers or by-products of low-quality feedstuffs. In order to get our horses to be healthy, we must add supplements, and still we search for holes in our nutrition program. I offer my horses a high-quality feed, balancer pellet, and good-quality grass hay almost round-the-clock, but they do not look as good as they did 10 years ago. I cannot find a feed that is not full of wheat middlings, soy hulls, rice byproducts, and so on. All I can figure is that the protein quality is low. Are these ingredients capable of making horses fit and healthy like oats, corn, and soybean meal? What ingredients should I look for in a feed?

Sky is my 13-year-old Morgan gelding; he stands 14.3 hands and weighs 780 lb (355 kg). He is moderately thin now with visible ribs and a loss of topline. He spends 22 hours each day in his stall and a couple hours with me engaged in grooming, hand walking, and some low-level exercise (longeing, driving, etc.). He has soaked hay (13% NSC) available to him all day. In addition to the hay, he receives a ration balancer, salt, flaxseed, and supplements for joint and gastric health. Sky once weighed about 840 lb (382 kg); with a diagnosis of PPID, he had to go on a diet to lose excessive fat and that included being removed completely from his pasture. Reducing caloric intake and adding pergolide about a year ago has resulted in weight reduction but also a loss of topline and muscle atrophy. How can I help restore him to a healthy condition without excessive fat?

Even though my 23-year-old Paint mare Dot is in moderate body condition now, I would like her to gain some more weight, especially on her topline. The winters in this area are tough, and I want her well conditioned for the extreme cold. I blanket her in the winter, but sometimes that is not enough, especially if she is thin. Dot is not picky about her grain (2 lb or 0.9 kg senior feed, one feeding) but can be temperamental about her hay, which I offer freely. She also gets a few handfuls of alfalfa pellets once daily as well as supplements for joint, respiratory, and hindgut health. She eats slowly, so I would prefer a smaller volume of concentrates, but I am open to anything. Her weight has decreased in the past three months. She has never had a lot of fat, even when she was young, and  I have not been riding her in hopes that she maintains her current weight.

My nine-year-old, 1,200-lb (545-kg) Thoroughbred gelding was just scoped and found to have grade 3 gastric squamous ulcers. He’s just coming back into work after a three-month layoff following a puncture wound. Before the injury, he was ridden four to five days each week and shown ocasionally as a hunter. He is fed a high-fiber performance feed, alfalfa pellets (1 lb, 0.45 kg), alfalfa hay (1 flake), grass hay, and a few supplements (biotin, probiotic, and a hyaluronic acid/lion’s mane extract product). I’m considering a grain-free diet to help in terms of maintenance, along with the standard omeprazole treatment upfront, but I am worried about keeping weight on him in the future, as he can be a hard keeper. Energy under saddle is not an issue. Can you help?

I own a 10-year-old Quarter Horse mare diagnosed with recurrent exertional rhabdomyolysis (RER) via bloodwork with two episodes of tying-up in the past eight months. Both episodes were associated with a short period of no work and a weather change. She had dark-colored urine after both incidents. Her diet consists of brome/orchardgrass hay, available at all times, and a handful of sweet feed with salt mixed in. Supplements include dried raspberry leaves (to even out estrus-related behavior), prebiotics, and probiotics. She’s an easy keeper and generally calm except just prior to running barrels and poles. How should I manage her going forward?