Question
I have a 38-year-old Quarter Horse mare (14.2 hands; 800 lb or 363 kg), Kelly, in moderate body condition. Though her weight is good for her age, both my vet and I would like to see her gain some weight. Her muscle tone has decreased with age, even though I try to keep her on a light exercise schedule (riding three times a week, mostly at the walk and trot). Although Kelly has lost some teeth, her hooves, skin, and coat are healthy. She’s fed 21 lb (9.5 kg) of senior feed in two feedings per day, 6 lb (2.7 kg) of timothy-grass hay pellets, and soybean oil. What can I do to help her gain weight?
Answer
Providing an extra meal or two would be beneficial to reduce the amount of senior feed offered at each meal. Keeping meal size small (less than 5 lb or 2.3 kg) is best for maintaining digestive health and function, and ensures the horse gets the most out of the feed.
It can be challenging to provide sufficient calories to support weight gain in a form that will be eaten consistently. The upper feed intake for mature horses is typically 2.5-3% of their body weight. Assuming Kelly’s target weight is around 1000-1100 lb (450-500 kg), the current diet already falls in the upper range of that intake. It may be difficult to get Kelly to clean up more feed, if offered.
Adding more fat to the diet as oil, like you have, is a great way to boost calories consumption but not increase her feed intake dramatically. Stabilized rice bran is another popular, effective fat supplement for weight gain and can be added to the diet to replace some of the concentrate feed.
Does Kelly’s tooth loss prevent her from chewing hay? Alfalfa is a calorie-dense fiber source, so sourcing high-quality alfalfa hay with many leaves and few stems allows older horses to consume some long-stem forage.
Chronic pain can be a factor in weight loss so providing targeted supplements to help reduce inflammation and support joint health can be helpful in horses with arthritis. Finding the right joint supplement can be a challenge as some horses respond better to certain ingredients.
As an anti-inflammatory supplement, omega-3 fatty acids have shown positive results in equine joint studies and have several other advantages to being fed daily such as strengthening immune function, reducing overall body inflammation and improving skin and coat condition. EO-3 is a rich source of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA. Synovate HA delivers high-molecular weight sodium hyaluronate to joints to help maintain key levels and prevent losses. An added benefit of Synovate HA for high-motion joints is its anti-inflammatory properties. Synovate HA has research-proven value for horses in training to help maintain mobility and comfort during exercise.
Horses maintained on processed forage diets may benefit from receiving a daily digestive health product as they don’t receive the protective benefits that long-stem hay offers for gastric health. RiteTrac is a total digestive tract buffer that I recommend for horses being fed meals and short-length fiber products such as cubes and pellets. RiteTrac contains research-proven ingredients to provide superior support to the stomach and hindgut to promote optimal health and function.
Australian horse owners can find research-proven products for digestive support here.
