Feeding Older Horses
- Horses Inside Out
- Oct 13
- 5 min read
More and more of our horses are living longer due to better health care and owners who are happy to keep retirees. With older age however comes health challenges that need special care and, at some point, a special diet. In this article, Clare MacLeod, Independent Registered Equine Nutritionist shares her advice on feeding the older horse.
I discuss this topic in more detail in Chapter 7 of the Bare Bones of the Matter online docuseries. Veterans and Veterinary Care is the final chapter of this series and is a deeply emotional and important one, as Gillian shares the final stage of Freddie’s journey.
This may be a difficult topic, but it’s one that every horse owner will face at some point. As well as discussing the nutritional demands of veterans and the practical challenges of feeding older horses. Gillian is also joined by vet Matthew Barlow to discuss caring for older horses, covering common conditions such as Cushing’s, choke, strangles, melanomas, and more. Plus, Diane Gilby explores the ways in which ageing and weakened immunity reduce a horse’s resistance to worms.
The chapter also features a thought-provoking interview with Dr Nic de Brauwere, Head of Welfare at Redwings Horse Sanctuary. He offers valuable insights into end-of-life care. This final chapter of the Bare Bones of the Matter is honest, heartfelt, and essential viewing for every responsible horse owner.
Why Some Older Horses Struggle with Condition
As a professional equine nutritionist who has been working for over 25 years helping owners feed their horses for optimal health happiness and well-being, I've seen countless older horses struggling to maintain health and condition. It can be a challenge to feed these horses and they need a specialist type of diet.
As Freddie, Gillian Higgins’ wonderful Horses Inside Out poster horse aged, he needed some special interventions with his diet in order to maintain health and condition. I chatted to Gillian about his feed and helped confirm her choices for the very specialist diet he required in his latter years.
Many older horses often do well in the summer months on grass, then are prone to losing weight – sometimes a great deal of weight – over winter when there is less grass available.
This weight loss is mainly due to less efficient dentition and the main challenge for older horses and ponies is their teeth literally ‘run out’.
Horses’ teeth are ‘hypsodont’ meaning they continue growing throughout their lives and they will eventually grow right out. Just before that, they can become smooth, losing their rough grinding surface, and become short and loose.
Even with regular dental care from a vet or qualified equine dentist, an older horse or pony may still struggle to chew fibrous forage and, as a result, will lose weight. At this stage, they need not just their energy (calories) replaced, but also the fibre from their forage. Forage makes up most of the diet for all horses and over 90% in horses out of work e.g. older, retired horses.
With a correct and carefully structured specialist diet, old horses can easily maintain condition well into their 30s (and older) if they’re otherwise healthy.
Signs of ageing
A horse is classed as aged / veteran / geriatric once they show several signs of ageing, rather than at a specific age, because health and the ageing process varies widely between individuals. Signs of ageing may come at age 20, or they may not show until age 30.
Older horses and ponies may have less efficient digestion - maybe old parasite damage that affects their ability to absorb and/or process nutrients - but most lose condition due to dental insufficiency that limits how much they can eat, especially of fibrous forage like hay and haylage.
With age comes a natural decline in muscle (called sarcopenia) so don’t be surprised if your veteran can’t maintain muscle like they used to, despite regular exercise. They may also have reduced immunity and an increased risk of colic, some eye conditions and infections. As they age, their risk of PPID (Cushing’s syndrome) increases.
The key factor is to assess and feed each veteran as an individual, rather than use their actual age as your guide.
Weight loss
Any horse who loses a substantial amount of weight over winter even when offered ad lib forage – which would be your first strategy for any horse losing weight – is likely to have problems with their ability to chew. This dental insufficiency may not be helped with dentistry because it often involves an irreversible factor such as a loss of grinding surface, loose or lost teeth. What they need in this situation is to be fed is an easily-chewed alternative to the usual long forage. Of course, they will also require six monthly dental checks to ensure they are kept as comfortable as possible in their mouths.
Don’t automatically reach for conditioning feeds to put weight on oldies, because they are usually lacking in fibre as well as energy (calories). Many conditioning feeds – including some of those made for veterans – are high in starch and low in fibre, which can cause digestive upset and will not add condition. Conditioning feeds in small quantities on top of chewable fibrous forage replacers are fine, but they should not be used to replace forage.
Clare's tips for feeding an older horse
Pay particular attention to their overall health including monitoring signs of health, parasite control, dental care, footcare (especially when retired) and regular veterinary evaluations
Provide a suitable environment including adequate movement, careful choice of field companions, help with thermoregulation (shade, shelter, rugs & clipping if required)
Monitor their condition even more regularly than a younger horse with weekly condition scoring and weigh taping (or weighing if you have access to a weigh bridge/scales). Old horses and ponies can drop weight/condition very fast
Be prepared to adapt their diet quickly, in response to their individual needs
Replace long forage (hay, haylage) with more easily chewed alternatives if any signs of dental insufficiency e.g. weight loss (especially in winter), quidding and reduced consumption of forage
Use hay replacer chopped forages first, then when the horse struggles even to chew them, swap gradually over to high fibre soakable feeds such as high fibre nuts, unmolassed sugar beet and specialist mashes
Feed a good quality diet with adequate vitamins and minerals but do not overfeed energy i.e. maintain a slim body condition
Even if the forage is being partially (or completely) replaced, the principles of creating a balanced diet still need to be adhered to. You can find out how to ensure your horse’s diet is balanced with my help (please visit equinenutritionist.com)
Consider supplement use strategically, including those to support joints and mobility and digestive health when there are dental issues. Joint supplements do not have good high quality evidence to support their usefulness, but some owners report they seem to help. Be sure to select one with enough active ingredients per daily serving.
For those with PPID (Cushing’s syndrome), ensure adequate good quality protein, feed elevated vitamins and minerals and you could add extra vitamin C
If you are unsure about what to feed your older horse, enlist the help of a qualified equine nutritionist, they will be able to give you all the help and advice you need. You can find out more about the services Clare offers at - equinenutritionist.com
Don't forget to tune in to the Bare Bones of the Matter. This engaging and conversational 7-part series has been created to help horse owners deepen their understanding of their horses, while raising awareness about comfort, movement, welfare and the best practices for maintaining the highest standards in the equine world. You don't want to miss it.
Comments