August 2, 2009

Do You Have An Antique Horse?

Michelle Beagle, Registered Veterinary Technician, Redwings Horse Sanctuary Board of Directors

Goldie

Goldie was rescued by Redwings and lived to be 43 years old.

Older horses today’s have a lot going for them. Often they are still eager and capable of going for a ride, and some are even ready to work hard for a living at an old age. When your horse can’t be ridden anymore, don’t give up on the oldster. Putting a horse “out to pasture” is an antiquated practice; the old guy or gal usually can’t chew grass well, let alone get nutrition out of it. Giving them the care they need for a long and healthy life involves only a few simple tasks.

As your horse supported you for many wonderful rides, he’ll need support from you through his older years, and you can start with his diet. If your veterinarian determines that your horse has all his teeth and they can still manage fiber, the pasture remains a great option for your older horse where he can get exercise, sunshine, and often companionship. But if his teeth are smooth or falling out, you need to make some feed changes, even to the extent of taking your horse out of the pasture.

Your veterinarian or equine nutritionist can help you determine and understand your horse’s nutritional needs, and what each kind of food contributes. Take note of the recommended fiber size for your horse. An old horse needs fiber as much as a young one, but the size of the fiber passing through his digestive system needs to decrease as the horse ages. Older horses that can’t chew fiber properly can suffer from serious and even deadly impaction colic because the fibers remaining from their poor chewing are too large. Long, poorly chewed grass can pull water from your horse’s system and create dehydration, blockages, and colic.

You can run hay through a clean wood chipper to cut it into smaller pieces, effectively pre-chewing it. Hay cubes (available in alfalfa, oat/alfalfa, and timothy or grass hay) or Alfalfa and Molasses (also known as A&M) have even smaller fibers that could be your horse’s healthiest option.

Some older horses truly can’t chew anything at all, yet these horses can be kept fit, active, and healthy by feeding them pellets—an extremely pre-chewed form of feed. You can even wet them so they fall apart easier in their mouths. Your nutritionist or veterinarian may recommend adding senior feeds to oat or alfalfa hay because senior feed alone can be too rich for your horse. They may also recommend other fiber sources, such as beet pulp, wheat bran, or soy husks.

Pay close attention to the medical needs of your older horse. Watch for problems such as drinking and urinating too much, lameness, a winter coat that doesn’t shed in the spring, and manure that doesn’t look right. Blanket him in the winter and make sure you have him vaccinated regularly.

While I have learned much of this information from veterinarians and nutritionists, I have also experienced elder equine care first-hand. I rode my appaloosa until she was 30, and she lived until she was 32 on the kinds of diet I’ve described. I also inherited an antique of my own who looked like a pitiful wraith. He had been in a pasture full of four-foot tall fescue and oat grass—lovely stuff for a young horse. However, he was dying in that sea of grass because none of his teeth could come in contact with any others, leaving that grass completely unprocessed for his stomach to extract nutrients from. I started him with proper nutrition, and he gained 400 pounds in a few months and lived another six years until his arthritis became too much for him. He was humanely euthanized at his own home.

Deciding when to euthanize a horse is extremely difficult, but your trainer and veterinarian can help you know when the time has come. Sometimes the horse tells you by going off feed and becoming depressed. Humane euthanasia performed by a veterinarian is quick and painless to the horse, allowing him leave this life with grace and dignity.

Citation: MLA

Beagle, Michelle. “Do You Have An Antique Horse?” Redwings Horse Sanctuary. 2 Aug. 2009. <http://redwingshorsesanctuary.org/horsecare/antiquehorse.html>

Citation: APA

Beagle, Michelle. (2009). Do You Have An Antique Horse? Retrieved from http://redwingshorsesanctuary.org/horsecare/antiquehorse.html