Help me with hay for the senior horse

[NoHopeNoScope]

I recently moved my 27 year old horse to a new facility, and I have a lot more control over his feeding regimen. I also am more aware of what he is eating and what he isn’t eating. His teeth were just checked, and the dentist felt that he should have no issues with hay. However, the horse feels otherwise. He isn’t quidding, but he will not touch timothy hay. We tried the most beautiful, softest timothy/alfalfa blend I have ever seen. He ate about 75% of 1 of the flakes and hasn’t touched it since then. He will sort through alfalfa to eat the soft, small pieces but leaves behind all the stems. Sometimes I will pick out as many of the stems as I can before giving him the alfalfa, but let’s be real… who has the time for that. It is also KILLING my allergies to do that. He is currently getting 10 pounds of triple crown senior per day, ~7 pounds of triple crown timothy cubes, and ~7 pounds of alfalfa cubes on top of 3 flakes of alfalfa a day that he obviously isn’t eating all of.

Should I try something like Standlee Chopped Alfalfa and another chopped hay? I can’t do hay cubes 4x a day just due to logistics. I don’t know why he won’t eat the super soft amazing timothy/alfalfa blend… I’m not sure if I am spoiling him with too much alfalfa, so he doesn’t want any other hay. But he also loves the timothy cubes, so I don’t think that is exactly the case. I’d like to find a way for him to have some sort of free choice he can eat 24/7, but that obviously isn’t possible with the cubes and not possible if he isn’t touching any of the hay I am giving him. I keep it in a big tub for him to push around and get all the small pieces on the bottom, which has helped with wasting hay. I hate wasting hay, so at least I can pull what he doesn’t eat and give it to the other horses.

Also, how much hay cubes (dry) is ok to feed at once? I worry about how long it takes him to eat it and the cubes going bad… Especially the alfalfa that takes at least 6 hours to soak.

Open to any and all ideas! We are currently trying to put some weight on him, which was impossible at his former barn with their feeding restrictions.

Thanks in advance!

[rcy]

my 28yo does well with chopped tim/alf.

[LCDR]

Based on my own senior horses’ tastes, timothy hay is rejected. Timothy mixed with any other hay gets nibbled at but never finished. Straight alfalfa is rapidly hoovered up and finished, but stems are not touched until all the leaves are consumed. Orchard grass might as well be just dumped directly in the compost bin. I am currently trying bermuda, the Ametza brand compressed bales, since it is very fine and I am hoping my older horse will develop a liking for it before she starts with dental problems. I am mixing it 50:50 by weight right now with alfalfa , and that mix is always finished, alfalfa leaves first, then alfalfa stems, and finally the bermuda. Have not gotten to the straight bermuda trials yet.

[spencerlucy]

I added chopped Timothy/alfalfa to my then 24 year olds diet after colic surgery - we had had a particularly dry growing season that year and although normally my barn has the most beautiful hay that year it was uncharacteristically stemmy and tough and he wouldn’t eat it. You can feed it as is or dampen it but it doesn’t have to be soaked like hay cubes or pellets. Once the barn hay went back to a softer grass hay we moved him to feeding him a small bucket (think those round ones we all use for bathing etc) at night check along with his beet pulp to keep his tummy full. He moved to a retirement spot this year and is out on pasture 24/7 so hasn’t been getting chopped hay since he arrived but now that the pasture has dried up for winter we are adding it back into his rations as his teeth aren’t what they used to be.

For convenience sake I get the Dumor Chopped Timothy/Alfalfa mix in the 40lb bags from Tractor Supply and he does well on it. I know some people have said it can be dusty but we overcome that by feeding it slightly dampened or with his beet pulp. The cost has gone up dramatically in the three years since I started buying it - it was $12/bag and is now $22/bag! My wallet is grateful he did so well on pasture all season but I anticipate going through about 1 40lb bag every 5 days over the winter so the total cost will be around $140/month but Bob is worth it.

[clanter]

have a mid twenties mare who prefers TEFF pellets, she has access to TEFF hay but usually plays with it more than eat it (whereas all the six other horses eat every little piece). I just calk it up as to her being her and not fret as long as her weight remains stable.

[RhythmNCruise]

Have you tried the Standlee regular Timothy compressed bale? It’s certainly pricey, but I’ve found that my gelding thinks it’s the chef’s kiss of Timothy hay. Granted, he’ll eat most hay willingly, though he does get a little picky from time to time. The Standlee is very green and soft (like…falls apart in handfuls soft).

The chopped alfalfa is also very popular with my guy. I mix a double handful in with his soaked beet pulp and ration balancer mash.

I would say you can’t go wrong trying some of the Standlee alfalfa, Timothy, or alf/tim products for palatability, but they’re pretty expensive to feed free choice. Though it sounds like your fella is getting plenty between the TCSr, Tim cubes, and Alf cubes (24 pounds a day, right?) Is his weight good? Are you just trying to get him something to nibble/graze on all day? It may be that he’s not hungry enough to make the effort for the “lesser forages” lol. I’d feed him what he cleans up. If that’s a pad of good Standlee timothy or alfalfa with each meal, then that’s all I’d do as long as he looks good.

[Bonnie2]

A lot of hay is baled with a preservative and some horses will refuse to eat it no matter how beautiful it looks to us. I would try different batches of hay and if you find one he’ll eat stock up! I find Triple Crown chopped forages are very well received by most horses. Pricey but they eat every bit.

[candyappy]

Why not just feed him all alfalfa and drop the Timothy ?

I boarded for 13 years in CA and that is all the horses ever got except for occasional oat hay.

[frisky]

My horse is 30+. She always has a pile of leftover hay in her stall. She nibbles. She gets high quality/tested orchard with varying Timothy mixed in. I used to supplement with some Alfalfa but the barn does not have it. when she’s down on weight, I’ve been known to buy chopped or compresses alfalfa.

I have come to the conclusion over the last 10 years that my horse will eat a little bit of lots of things, but she’s too fickle to eat a lot. She gets a fair amount of beet pulp, which she generally loves. Every now and again, she’ll shrug at beet pulp and not finish it. This will go on for a few weeks until the weather changes or whatever and she loves her beet pulp again. She also gets TC senior and some alfalfa/timothy hay pellets mixed in. Any hay pellet will do for variety. At this point she’s actually chubby in the winter and she has few teeth. I will just keep rotating different food stuffs when she becomes less interested, not relying on one thing for calories.

[Demerara_Stables]

Do you have access to peanut hay? I was able to get it in central Florida about 15 years ago. IIRC it was lower protein than alfalfa. It’s basically all leaves and no stems. I used to get it for shows as it took them forever to eat it (kept them busy in their stalls) and wasn’t super high protein so they didn’t get wild. It has a pungent smell but the horses loved it.

[quietann]

@RhythmNCruise

Though it sounds like your fella is getting plenty between the TCSr, Tim cubes, and Alf cubes (24 pounds a day, right?) Is his weight good? Are you just trying to get him something to nibble/graze on all day? It may be that he’s not hungry enough to make the effort for the “lesser forages”

I was thinking the same… He is getting so much other, tastier, easier to eat stuff that hay is just not all that attractive to him. If he has some hay just to nibble on as he pleases, he’s probably getting plenty of nutrition from the other stuff – so hay can just be an “enrichment toy” for him.

ETA: which Senior is he getting? Is it a “complete feed” meant to replace forage, or a regular senior feed?

Also – have been hearing, that a horse should not eat more than 0.5% of its body weight in concentrates at one meal, so 5 pounds for a 1000 pound horse. If he just nibbles and takes a long time to eat his meals, and is finishing them, he’s probably fine with what he’s getting.

JB is our resident feed expert, so I hope she chimes in.

[NoHopeNoScope]

Thank you for all the responses! I am trying chopped alfalfa and the chopped TC Safe Starch. I couldn’t get the regular chopped TC hay yesterday, but I will be able to next time. I mixed the alfalfa and Safe Starch together and gave it to him over night—about 3-4 pounds worth. I’d say he ate around 70% of it and spread the rest around his big feed tub (I use a water trough to keep him from getting it in the dirt).

@RhythmNCruise we are actively trying to put weight on him. I moved him to a new facility 4 weeks ago and did a massive overhaul of his feed situation. He was needing groceries, had constant firehose diarrhea if he wasn’t on Metronidazole, and was just not happy. Since moving him, he has zero diarrhea (fingers crossed it stays this way), has gained some weight, and is a much happier guy.

@candyappy I can do that, and I might if he cleans up the chopped alfalfa and only sorts through the TC chopped mix. I do worry about giving him too much alfalfa with enteroliths, but it seems like a lot of horses do fine.

@Demerara_Stables no access to peanut hay that I can find, unfortunately.

@quietann it could be that he isn’t desperate enough to eat anything else. He gets Triple Crown senior. It is a complete feed. He gets 5 pounds TC senior in the AM and 5 pounds TC senior in the PM. I have been giving him ~7 pounds of TC timothy cubes midday and then ~7 pounds of alfalfa cubes at night. I don’t know if the 7 pounds of cubes is too much at once, but he takes close to 2 hours to eat it all anyway.

[Callista17]

I have another feed question! Sorry!
25 year old ottb (26 tomorrow;-) ) She needs weight. I have had different vets look at her and her teeth- she’s lost some & they aren’t great, bloodwork done 3 times- nothing remarkable.
She nibbles on the timothy hay I give her. I’ve tried different cuttings, different types- orchard grass, different dealers- meh. I will always make sure she has this available.

She LOVES grain and soaked hay pellets. Right now she gets 4.5 lbs Purina Senior 3xs a day (complete feed), plus 3 oz rice bran oil.

I tried chopped alfalfa hay- she literally flings it out of her bucket at me. Hates it.

I’d like to give her soaked hay pellets. She loves them. Even if she and I both don’t love cubes, they are tolerable, and I am willing to do them.

The huge issue is 5lbs per meal limit. I have her at home, but I do need to work and can’t always focus on her. Plus, she has her social schedule to keep up when she goes outside.

I really am struggling. I can POSSIBLY do 4 meals, but that’s hard for me (getting up earlier, staying up later)…
Any suggestions?!? Ty!

[Callista17]

P.S. She’s like the Kooky Old Horse post below but won’t eat chopped hay😆

[quietann]

Is she eating all 5 pounds at once, or nibbling and then going out visiting/napping etc and then coming back to eat more? If the latter, she may do fine with more than 5 pounds at once.

[Callista17]

Nope, she’ll stand there and finish it.

[quietann]

Oh, that’s too bad!

My BO has a mare who gets 4 meals a day, and then has a pellet dispenser that gives her little bits at a time all through the night. It was not cheap ($750ish???) but has helped the mare maintain her weight. She has colitis, I think, and cannot eat regular long stem hay.

[Callista17]

Oh my! Wow. I think she’d break something like that. When she’s determined, she’s determined!!!

I’m not sure if I should try something else chopped? I can increase grain to 5lbs per meal…More supplements? I don’t want to upset her tummy. I’ve tried probiotics, but that didn’t change anything.

[frisky]

I would add beet pulp to each meal. My horse gets 1-1.5lbs mixed with each meal (3x) and it makes a difference.

[foggybok]

24 lbs of feed should be enough assuming this is an average sized horse, so it might just be he’s not hungry after all that. At 10 lbs of the senior feed alone, you are in the range of feeding for horses not eating hay. You can increase the palatability of the hay by switching to some high quality alfalfa or find a grass he likes.

If the diarrhea is resolved and you are still not getting weight gain, you might need to add more calorie dense feed. The hay pellets don’t have high calories, so you could feed more of the complete feed (although you are near the top of the range for TC senior) or switch to something like Triple Crown Senior Gold, which has ~1800 Kcal/lb. Regular TC senior is 1546

Beet pulp instead of hay pellets would help a little as it has slightly higher caloric count.

Timothy hay cubes tend to have a lower caloric value.