Senior Horse Feed

Perry17

Songster
Sep 17, 2017
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I have a 19 year old, 15 hh, quarter horse gelding that I am trying to choose a new feed plan for. He is retired and has the field to roam, but I don't work him any.

He usually is fine on just pasture and hay. But now that it is getting cold, he is just getting free choice hay. This is the first winter I have noticed him loosing a little weight with that diet, I guess his age is finally starting to show.

Today I went out and picked up some shredded beat pulp, more alfalfa pellets, and planned to get some whole oats but they were out.

Tonight I mixed about 1 1/2 cups of dry beat pulp and 2 cups alfalfa pellets. I covered them with water to soak, and fed it about an hour later. This is the first time he has gotten this mix, so it still gives me time to play around with it some. Planning to add some whole oats to that mix once they are back in stock at the feed store. Will most likely do that mix twice a day until I can see how it works and start tweaking it some.

What do y'all give your hard keepers or seniors? What would you reccomend changing in the feed I just started using? What amount of each type would you give?

I have always just fed a regular horse feed if I ever need any weight gain. But in my area, it is cheaper to mix my own, so I wanted to give it a try.
 
When was the last time you had his teeth floated? That should be the first thing done when an older horse is losing weight. Beet pulp adds fiber, but won't boost calories. Alfalfa is good for putting on weight.
 
We had a vet come out and check him a few weeks ago when they came to disbud the goat kids. They checked his teeth and said they were good (he had them done a couple months ago). He has been dewormed. They just said to maybe start giving him some grain.

He isn't skinny or anything, but I have noticed he has lost a little weight from what his normal condition usually is. And since he is only going to get older, I thought I might as well start looking into a feed mix that I can start giving him year round.

He has been getting about 8 cups of alfalfa pellets soaked for about a week or 2. But I haven't noticed much change, so I thought the added fiber from the beat pulp might help. Will the oats do anything? I know it's a common feed people use but I have never used it on mine.

The beat pulp, alfalfa pellets, and whole oats were just a few things I saw when I researched it some. There were a lot of mixed answers though. What mix do you reccomend?

The feed store carries wheat germ oil, rice bran oil, and some others. Would you reccomend adding any of those?
 
I've got an old stallion who is getting really picky in his old age - some days, he turns his nose up at the hay for some mysterious reason known only to him (everybody else eats it fine) and he just can not afford to miss meals. He is out on pasture 24/7 but even in the summer when there's actually grass out there, I feed him twice a day. He gets two pounds of alfalfa pellets and 2 cups of Purina Senior feed, twice a day as well as his hay. (Which he may or may not eat that day, depending on his mood or whatever!) This is keeping him in really good condition. He *always* cleans up the alfalfa pellets and senior feed.

A friend of mine had a horse in his 30s, and he started losing weight, so what they did was buy a bag of everything they could think of, had it set along his stall wall with a matching bucket above it, and every time someone walked by, they would check all the little matching buckets above each feed sack and fill it if it was empty. You see, this horse HATED beet pulp. He HATED rice bran. So those things that you would normally feed, he would not eat. But by seeing what he DID eat, the owners figured out what feeds to buy and which to ignore. That's a big part of it, like it is with my stallion: putting good nutritious feed in front of them does no good if they turn up their noses and refuse to eat it. You have to find something they WILL eat.

If your guy is not picky at all then you have hit the jackpot and you can figure out what is easy and not too expensive. Mixing it yourself is great. I don't soak my feed, I just feed it dry and my horse is cool with that. I don't know if he would eat it soaked, again, he's picky.
 
My boy is a garbage disposal lol. He eats anything and everything.

One big problem I have with him, when I do start to feed some type of grain he will completely stop grazing and just beg at the fence all day for feed, even in summer with a thick lush green pasture. Then would drop weight because he was too stubborn to go graze, so I learned to just cut the grain out of his diet and that has worked for these past few years.

Most the time he will still eat hay year round, even with added grain. So that's why I have put off adding grain until now when the pasture is gone, not much grazing to do this time of year anyway so I let him be a little picky.

Another thing is he eats super fast, and when he is done he follows me around to pester me for more as I make my rounds feeding all the other livestock. He isnt pushy, but kind of just gets in the way lol. So I have been soaking it, then watering it down more so it takes longer for him to eat. He will eat it dry, a little wet, soaked, and with an inch of water on top haha.

Today was his first time trying the beet pulp, he didn't love it like he loves alfalfa pellets. But he still happliy ate it, so I'll see how that goes lol.
 
Oh, you're so lucky that he's not picky! That's great!

One thing I do for horses that eat fast: I find some big round rocks about the size of a softball, clean them off well, and put them on top of the feed. They have to pick around the rocks to eat. It takes longer to do that and they can't bolt their feed that way. But if the soaking works for you, cool! I suppose my rocks are sort of like those "slow feed" nets, that have tiny holes and make the horse slow down while they eat hay.

Yeah, some of them are just beggars! It's really aggravating when they follow you along the fence line, calling out, trying to get your attention, begging for treats instead of EATING. :barnie Haha, been there, done that...
 
Knowing him he would try to EAT the rocks lol. But I'll have to try that tip with the goats.

Glad to know I'm not the only one with a begger! :lau Hahaha It drives me crazy. Guess I will have to fight that battle again in the spring.



Another thing with the oats, I have seen where people say they don't like them because it makes them hot? But as lazy as he is, it might do him some good to have a little pep in his step.
 
If you want to add oats, I would recommend steam crimped or rolled oats. Whole oats generally "pass thru" without getting digested very well (you can see them in the poop!). Steam crimping or rolling allows the horse's digestive system to break them down and use them.

Oats CAN make some horses hot, but it depends on the horse, and the amount fed.

You need to be WEIGHING what you feed him, and feed by weight, not volume. The calorie counts/nutritional value on all feeds are based on weight, not volume.

I know you said he had his teeth done, but who did them? Was it a power float with power tools or just a hand float? Was a speculum used? There is a HUGE difference in the quality of the float... Did the dentist/vet/tech stick their hand in and feel all surfaces for sharp points and loose teeth?

Has he had a FEC done lately?
 
I read that crimped or rolled oats loose nutrition faster than whole? And whole oats here are half the price, so that was the decision process behind that. But I did see where they are rolled or crimped to be more digestible, so I thought if I soaked it with the rest of his feed they might soften some and be a little easier to digest. Even if I have to soak the feed longer than normal, would that have any effect on it at all? Might just play around with it and see how it works.

I am still confused on what Oats are even added for? Protein? Calories? How much is a normal amount? I am going by a feed mix I found online, but thought I would make adjustments depending on what he needs. So I am willing to change up any of it.

This is the pricing I am looking at in my area:
Whole Oats 50lbs $12
Rolled Oats 50lbs $21
Alfalfa Pellets 45lbs $13
Beet pulp 25lbs $13
Premixed senior feed 50lbs $20+

I went by a cup of dry shredded beet pulp is about 1/8th lb. From what I read it said just to start off with about a 1 1/2 cups, and go from there?
I haven't weighed the alfalfa pellets yet, but I will today. Just thought I would start off adding a little bit, since normally he is fine on just hay, and slowly working it up until I figure out how much he needs.

Yea the vet I use for my livestock is a traveling horse vet. His main customer base is race/show/rodeo horses, so I trust him fully with the horses. He is the one that checked his teeth a few weeks ago. And the one that told me he just needs some extra calories. He has had a fecal twice earlier this year, both times showed a low egg count. The vet didn't think he was wormy, but I wormed him anyway in the past few weeks just incase.

The one who floats mine is a traveling farrier/dentist that I have been using for 10 years, he was recommended by my vet. They both reached in and felt the edges of his teeth.
 
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A tip on weighing: I have a certain scoop I use. I put various amounts of various feeds in it, weighing to see how much it is. I recorded it so I would know what a half scoop was etc. That's how I know how much alfalfa to feed, and how I know how much it weighs: I don't weigh it every day, I weighed it several times and found out where "two pounds" was on that scoop. Since it was super easy to find the mark (lines up with the handle, when leveled) it makes it easier to feed the proper amount.

I buy my alfalfa pellets by the ton, and pay $300.00 for a ton. That is 40 bags weighing 50 pounds each. So I'm paying $7.50 per 50-pound bag, because I buy in bulk. I actually go through this quite fast as I also feed lots of other animals, and I store it in my barn up on pallets to keep it off the ground, and covered with a tarp to keep it clean and dry. But when you're starting out and trying to figure your ration, it makes more sense to buy it a bag at a time. Once you have it figured out, look into buying in bulk, as long as you have a safe place to store it.

I too would suggest crimped or rolled oats. Another option, that is generally a lot cheaper, is rolled or crimped barley. Barley is very useful in putting weight on a horse. It's not widely available, however. I used to feed it but can no longer find it in my area, and we do have several mills here. Believe me if it ever starts being available again I will be using it.
 

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