Maintaining Weight in the Senior Horse

By Cathy Atkinson

Rescues are frequently asked to take in senior horses. Sometimes their condition has deteriorated so badly that they have been seized by authorities, but other times they are surrendered by owners who are frustrated by their inability to keep them healthy and usable. The typical senior horse who comes into rescue is over twenty years old and sometimes as old as thirty or more. He is very thin and has a dull coat. He looks like the old expression “one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel.” Yet rescuers restore these horses to top condition in just a few months. If their owners knew how to do so, no rescue would be necessary. Learning how to maintain a senior horse’s weight isn’t tough – but it may mean letting go of some of the conventional wisdom about horse care that you grew up with.

Most of us have heard statements like “he’s just skinny because he’s old,” and indeed, that is what horsepeople believed for many years. Now we know that weight loss is always connected to physical conditions, and most of those conditions are curable. One of the most common causes of weight loss is bad teeth. The senior horse may need dental work and/or he may need to switch from hay to hay pellets that have been soaked in warm water to make a mush. With proper care, a horse like this will return to good weight in record time. The chestnut mare below illustrates a horse who simply needed a change of feed to return to excellent health. Her rehabilitation only took a few months.

Another reason an older horse may be skinny is that a horse’s nutritional needs change as he ages. The same horse who maintained his weight well at age 10 on local grass hay may need higher protein and better quality hay, grain, and supplements to look the same at 25. There are many supplements on the market that encourage weight gain, such as Weight Builder and Cool Calories. Simply adding a quarter cup of corn oil to your horse’s feed provides an extra helping of fat, and results in a nice, shiny coat. You may have to experiment with different supplements to find the right one for your senior horse. Supplements like probiotics that help a horse digest food efficiently are also very helpful, particularly when rehabilitating a debilitated horse and with horses who crib or windsuck.

With an older horse, it is very important to stay on top of worm control. Your senior horse should be dewormed every 8 weeks and the type of dewormer should be rotated so that all worm groups are controlled. An excellent article on deworming with a rotation schedule is available at this link:

http://www.alphahorse.com/worming-schedule.html. Many older horses also do very well on a daily dewormer such as Strongid C, which is easy to administer since it tastes good and can be added to grain. A horse full of worms can eat and eat all day and still be ribby and poor. Deworming regularly is an investment that pays off in reduced feed costs and improved health. It also drastically reduces your risk of an expensive colic episode.

While it’s definitely a good thing for a senior horse to live outside and be able to walk around and avoid stiffness, he does need more TLC than your 5 year old. A senior horse should always have a waterproof blanket in cold, wet weather as well as some kind of shelter to get under a roof (or a thick tree cover) and out of the wind. Some horses love to come into a stall at night and lie down in soft shavings; others hate being confined and will stress out and lose weight if you try. You have to work with your individual horse’s preferences. Your senior horse may need to be separated at meal times to ensure he gets all of his food and supplements. If it is difficult to separate your horses, you may want to invest in a set of feed bags. They hang on the horse’s head like a halter and are a wonderful way to ensure everybody gets exactly the feed they are supposed to have. Many senior horses are thin for no other reason than a younger horse bolting his own food and then chasing them away from theirs.

A horse in pain will have a hard time maintaining his weight. Indeed, many horses with chronic arthritis, navicular disease, ringbone and related conditions have a perpetually ribby look to them. Even if your horse is totally retired, it is simple kindness to put him on a joint supplement like MSM or Glucosamine if he is stiff. More severe cases may need periodic injections of Adequan or Legend, or an occasional dose of Bute in severe weather or at any time his condition seems to have been aggravated. Horses should not be kept continually on Bute as it is very hard on their stomachs and may lead to ulcers, but occasional use is fine. A chiropractic adjustment or massage may make a world of difference to a chronically lame horse. A side effect of hind leg lameness is that the back is often very sore from compensating. Finally, it is important to be able to draw the line. When a horse’s lameness has progressed to the point where he does not even seem to enjoy his food and he cannot keep weight on, or he has begun falling, it is time to let him go peacefully.

If all else fails and your senior is still thinner than you’d like, invest in a blood panel. This does not have to be a terribly expensive proposition; many vets will pull a basic panel for approximately $100. The blood panel will reveal problems you cannot diagnose any other way, such as thyroid problems and insulin resistance. After discovering my 27 year old had exactly those issues, we changed her diet and was round and shiny again the next year. Money well spent!

Every horse’s problems are like a puzzle – there is a solution, but it may take some trial and error to find it. It is a great feeling when you do solve the puzzle and once again have a senior who looks wonderful! Rescuers don’t have any magic tricks to restore horses like the one below to health. Proper dental care, diet, supplements, and pain management are things every horse owner can master.

Make a commitment to keep your senior horse looking and feeling wonderfully, so that you can enjoy him for many years to come!

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