Question

I have a 27-year-old Quarter Horse mare that is unable to eat hay or grass. When she tries, it balls up in her mouth, and she spits it out. Is there something we can do to help her be able to eat hay and grass? She is able to eat all of the other feeds I offer her (beet pulp, chopped up timothy hay, alfalfa pellets, senior feed). She was very skinny when I purchased her two months ago, but she has put on some weight. I owned her for about 20 years, sold her for three years, and then purchased her back two months ago because she was so thin. Is there anything else we should be giving her?

Answer

Your mare is lucky to have you in her life again. She is balling up and spitting out hay (called “quidding”) because she has probably lost a significant number of molars (those teeth at the back of her mouth) and cannot actually chew the hay like she should to be able to digest it properly. Unfortunately, this will probably not get any better.

The ration you are currently feeding looks like an excellent alternative diet for the mare in light of her inability to chew hay.  It is important to keep adequate amounts of alternative forages like the chopped hay, alfalfa pellets, and beet pulp in her diet to keep her digestive tract functioning properly.

As long as your mare is steadily gaining weight, this diet should serve her well.  It appears to be meeting her nutritional requirements. The only minor adjustment to the diet you might consider is to add more selenium; about 0.5 mg per day would meet the optimal recommendation in our diet analysis.

If her manure becomes too loose, you may consider adding some type of yeast product to the diet.