Page 56 - December 2016

Be aware of body condition score (BCS) on older horses in order to make nutrition adjustments as needed since they may have trouble keeping weight for many reasons, such as having to compete with younger horses for feed, poor teeth, changes in metabolism, or less efficient digestion. Chance (pictured before and after) regained most of his lost weight after only two months with green grass and a high quality senior horse feed containing ascorbic acid to provide extra vitamin C.
forage. “If an old horse, because of poor teeth, is not getting feed adequately chewed, we have to ‘chew’ it for him,” says Duren.
An older horse that’s not keeping his weight may not be getting enough fiber, says nutrition- ist Kathleen Crandell, PhD, of the Kentucky Equine Research. “The biting surface of his teeth may have changed and become wavy or he may have lost teeth and can no longer grind forage properly. He may do fine on green grass, but loses weight when you feed hay in winter.”
This is when you need alternative forages, such as hay cubes or chopped forages - some- thing in which the breakdown process has already started reducing particle size so teeth don’t have to do it all. “Ultimately, some horses need pellets containing forage that is ground up and doesn’t need much chewing,” says Crandell.
“There are benefits in using chopped hay or hay cubes since there’s still some length in that material, which helps keep the digestive tract functioning more normally than with finely ground forage,” says Crandell. If a horse’s teeth are so bad you must resort to pellets, soak them in water so they become a mash and fall apart. Then, they are easier to eat since cubes and
pellets are often quite hard, and this decreases the risk of choke.
Duren recommends completely covering the pellets or cubes with water so they soak it up and become soft. “Once the feed is fully moist, I don’t add any extra water; the mass of pellets or cubes just grows in bulk as they take on water,” he says. When using alternative fiber sources like beet pulp, these are soaked also.
“Dental issues are a serious concern in older horses in terms of nutrition,” says Pratt Phillips. “The forages you feed must be really good quality and easily chewable. The hay should be low in ADF (acid detergent fiber), which is one of the values you’ll find on a hay analysis. The ADF com- ponent includes the lignin and cellular structure (the stiff, firm part of the plant, which is harder to chew). You need to find a soft, pliable type of hay,” she explains. You might also look into alternative forage products like chaff or hay cubes that the horse doesn’t have to chew very much. “Some people think of hay cubes as being very dense and firm (and some of them are), but there are a few products that crumble readily; you simply touch them and they fall apart. The horse doesn’t have
to chew these as much,” she says. “Beet pulp and
rice bran are also high in the type of fiber the horse needs, while being easy to chew, and they contain some good digestible energy. The horse still needs fiber for proper digestion. The research compar- ing younger horses to older horses regarding fiber digestibility showed that the ability to digest fiber is reduced in older horses. This could be because older horses don’t have adequate dentition to start the breakdown process, or because the hindgut is not as efficient in fermentation of fibers as in the younger horse,” she explains.
Monitor Body Condition
Be aware of body condition score (BCS) on older horses. This is measured from 1 (emaci- ated) to 9 (obese), with 5 being optimum for most individuals. “Cats tend to lose weight when they get old, whereas older dogs often get
Stephen Duren, PhD, an equine nutritionist at Performance Horse Nutrition, says horses age at different rates and the nutritional definition of old is when they can no longer eat a normal diet and maintain body weight. It is then that you should reconsider their diet, and he suggests you start with a forage that “chews for them” since it can be difficult for older horses to masticate their feed.
When is A Horse old?
Horses age at different rates. Duren says there is also an emotional definition of when a horse is old - when he retires from a career. He may be put out to pasture just because he’s no longer being ridden. “There’s also a nutritional definition of old, when he can no longer eat a normal diet and maintain body weight,” says Duren. When the body starts to change, regardless of what is affecting it, that’s when you should think of the horse as geriatric and reconsider the diet.
Aging rate is affected by genetics as well as by the lifestyle the horse had earlier in his
younger days. “If he had good care all his life and was never used hard, ‘old’ may be mid- twenties or early 30’s. On the other hand,
if a horse had a strenuous career, he may be arthritic and have old injuries,” says Duren. An older horse may lose weight because
he’s stiff and not as aggressive in the herd, dropping down the pecking order and being chased away from the hay. Dental problems and loss of teeth can also be a factor and in many ways, a horse is only as “old” as his teeth. Some horses’ teeth develop problems sooner than others.
54 SPEEDHORSE, December 2016
equine health