Question
My 18-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding was idle for seven years until about a year ago when I started reconditioning him slowly. Now his exercise schedule consists of flatwork and some jumping exercises over cavaletti four or five days a week. He is primarily stalled but does get several hours of turnout each day on fair-to-middling pasture. His diet consists of hay (3-4 flakes orchardgrass and 1 flake compressed alfalfa), 8 lb (3.6 kg) of a high-fat, high-fiber competition feed, 2 lb (0.9 kg) ration balancer, and some supplemental antioxidants (vitamin E and selenium). With this diet, he’s still moderately thin, a body condition score of 4, and he obviously needs muscle development from poll to dock. He has low-quality hooves that are prone to chipping, and his coat, while soft, is dull and dry. It is noteworthy to add that when he was lazing about for seven years, he was easy to keep weight on, often requiring a grazing muzzle during the majority of the year. Can you have a look at his diet and offer suggestions, please?
Answer
The combination of feed and ration balancer is supplying excessive nutrient intakes, including some minerals and vitamins. While these levels of intake might be appropriate for some horses with higher nutrient needs, your gelding does not require them. For a horse in light work, 8 lb (3.6 kg) of feed is supplying appropriate nutrient intakes. If you feel the ration balancer is necessary, I recommend scaling back the amount of ration balancer to 0.5-1 lb (0.45-0.9 kg) per day depending on workload.
I am unsure how much hay he is consuming, as you provided his hay allowance in terms of flakes rather than actual weight. As a general feeding guideline, if he cleans up the hay offered, then offer more during stalled hours, possibly increasing the amount of alfalfa. High-quality legume hays, like alfalfa, typically contain more energy than grass hays of similar quality, so every mouthful has more calories. If he doesn’t eat much of the hay offered to him, then providing a different type of forage may be needed to ensure sufficient energy calorie consumption for weight gain.
Subtle digestive disorders can have a significant impact on overall health and performance. Gastroscopy (“scoping”) by a veterinarian is the best way to diagnose gastric ulcers. If gastroscopy confirms gastric ulcers, an appropriate treatment plan can be developed with your veterinarian. Oftentimes, this involves treating the ulcers with omeprazole and then choosing a research-proven gastric-support supplement to keep ulcers from recurring. Gastric support following omeprazole therapy is imperative, as relapse is common, especially when no other management changes are implemented.
While adding a digestive aid can help horses struggling with weight gain and may help reduce the incidence of subclinical digestive discomfort, dental health may also be an underlying factor based on his age and the limited management earlier in life. Older horses can have reduced chewing capacity without tooth loss or damage and may benefit from receiving a portion of their forage as processed products like hay cubes, hay pellets, or beet pulp.
As you work to quell any digestive disturbance, you may see an improvement in his coat and hooves. However, targeted supplements for hoof and coat health may also help. High-quality products supply essential nutrients at higher levels than most commercial feeds to improve hoof growth and integrity as well as skin and coat health.
Finally, consider having regular fecal egg counts performed by your veterinarian to determine parasite burden. Even if he has been dewormed regularly, fecal egg counts evaluate the efficiency of the specific products used and monitor the reappearance of parasite eggs. While there are limitations to fecal egg counts (including tapeworm and pinworm underestimation), the test could provide important management information.
