The day has finally come when my 26 year old geldings teeth have finally had it. Noticed he was having trouble chewing hay last winter and when the vet did his dental exam in the spring, confirmed he had very little grinding surface left. He did fine over the summer, he still does well on grass, but with the cold weather I’ve started throwing a little hay for the others and for him to pick at. Right now he’s getting a few pounds of hay pellets, some beet pulp, and a ration balancer, plus the little bit of grass we still have. I guess my question is, should I just keep increasing the hay pellets and beet pulp as it gets colder? Since they’re forage based can I feed them at a greater amount per meal than I could grain? Or should I just switch over to a senior feed completely? Any thoughts would be helpful.
I have a 30 ish year old pony with expired teeth. She gets TC Senior Gold feed (high fat and low starch and sugar) that is augmented with soaked Timothy pellets or cubes and beet pulp. She also gets flax. For the overnight hours she gets a bucket of TC Safe Starch to munch on. She does quid it a bit but gets most of it in.
In the summer I keep her on the Senior feed and Safe Starch but can do away with the beet pulp and hay pellets. I consider the Senior feed to be the foundation of her diet, and the beet pulp and hay pellets are for additional forage if needed.
I would start a good senior feed - TC always gets my top vote, and the new Sr Gold is even nicer for a lot of horses - and aim for at least 6lb a day.
he’ll need long-stem forage to replace what he can’t eat from regular hay, so start as big as you can with chopped forage and see if he can chew that well enough.
If not, hay cubes - well soaked - are the next step down. Pellets are short-stem fiber, so use them for calories if you need to.
Beet pulp can be 40-50% of the forage requirements, BUT, soaked beep is SO high volume relative to its calories, that I wouldn’t feed nearly that much if you can help it. Chopped hay is a much higher calorie:volume ratio, then soaked hay cubes, as your long-stem fiber options.
I wouldn’t switch to just a complete Sr feed yet. See first how much chopped hay he can eat, then soaked hay cubes. But definitely consider 6-10lb of TC Sr or the Gold.
I board an old pony who can’t eat hay. He gets soaked senior feed and soaked alfalfa cubes and he is doing well on that. You could also add soaked beet pulp.
What about the chopped forage ? I know my local farm store has both Timothy and Alfalfa.
When my late gelding’s teeth failed him at 27, I switched him over to a mash similar to what you’re feeding - Grass/alfalfa cubes/pellets, beet pulp and a vitamin/mineral supplement. He had Cushings and was part welsh, so he was an air fern. I found that even a lb or two of senior feed made him very reactive and caused his hooves to get warm. He did very well on this mixture and remained in great condition for the last 5 years of his life.
I am in a similar predicament with my other 32 year-old gelding. He can still chew hay, but he is leaving more and more behind, preferring to eat his mash. Unlike the aforementioned gelding, he has always tended to be a harder keeper. I started him on a couple lbs of senior feed last year, as it was the only thing to help keep his weight on. He is currently getting 1 lb of TC Balancer and 2 lbs of TC Senior and a few lbs of alfalfa cubes (and free choice hay), but I think I may end up increasing the senior feed to 5-6 lbs and dropping the balancer at some point.
If your gelding is doing well on his current diet, then I see no harm in keeping him on it. At some point, you may notice that he needs more calories and then a senior feed may be appropriate.
I’m not a nutrition expert, but there’s a horse at my barn that has a similar situation. He’s TB that’s always been a hard keeper I believe, but now that he’s 30+ years old and has bad teeth, it’s gotten bad. We tweaked his diet 3ish months ago, and he’s looking and feeling great. He gets fed 2 qts Nutrena ProForce Senior grain, 2 qts Timothy pellets, 2 qts ProElite Omega Advantage, and 2 c rice bran twice a day. He gets 2 qts soaked Alfalfa cubes twice a day. He also gets 1 flake of hay in the morning which he picks at throughout the day. If he finishes most of it, I’ll give him a second flake to work on during the night, but usually he can only manage the one flake per day due to his teeth. He picks at his grain/timothy/alfalfa throughout the whole day and night, and doesn’t eat in “meals” per say. He’s good about pacing himself. He does end up eating everything though, it just takes him the whole day/night! He also gets supplemental Vitamin E once a day.
Several of my horses are elderly (I have rescues) and I’m pretty sure it depends on where you live as to what senior feeds are available to you. My old mare (36) gets as much alfalfa as she wants to eat the leaf out of. She also gets 3 lbs of LMF senior with gluecosemine each feeding. She receives carrots I break up (the juice carrots are often thin and easy to break and for the horses to chew) and top dress with her Pergolide and Butte.
If you are going to start yours on senior feed make sure you don’t just do it all at once, start with 1/2 lb and increase a bit until you are at about 6 lbs per day (depending on your horse’s overall keeping, easy or hard keeper) and check the ingredients and percentages of protien, etc. on the bag.
I had a 38 year old ex-Polo Pony (TB) that had no teeth at all. I bought him from the stable he was at because he was literally starving to death with mounds of hay all around him. I desanded him, wormed him and free fed him alfalfa/molassas (they didn’t make senior feeds back then) and he recovered his weight. I told my 16 year old niece he was off limits and she decided to ride him behind my back. He was feeling so good (at 39) he bucked her off.
Most of what you do will be trial and error and you will need to find the feed ratio that works best for your horse.
I wish you well and thank you for not “re-homing” your aging horse like so many do.
I like soaked hay cubes as they are considered, I think, long stemmed fiber, which pellets are not.
If your horse is doing well on present feed, I would keep that the same and just add soaked cubes or up the hay pellets.
My 31 year old horse couldn’t eat hay her last few years. She got a complete feed, hay cubes, and sweet feed. I know, I know, sweet feed is bad. But what do you do with an old horse that really, really wants her sweet feed? You feed her whatever she wants. 
She looked great right to the end on this diet.
My barn has a few horses that have practically no teeth. What seems to works is soaking hay stretcher (blue seal) and soaked hay cubes (semican mini hay cubes). The ones at my barn get this instead of hay, not instead of grain—however adding water to the grain that they do get makes it softer, so maybe they could stick with what they’ve had if its soaked?
Thank you all for the great suggestions and advice. Seeing as how a lot of people seem to have good experience with TC Senior, I think I’m gonna pick up a bag soon and start adding it to his feed as the weather starts getting chilly.
Most senior feeds are “complete” in that they include processed fiber, but the ratios vary. TC Senior or Senior Gold is good. Pro Elite, Seminole and Tribute also both have textured senior feeds that are good quality. I also agree with feeding soaked alfalfa cubes, and I have found that warming them makes them more palatable for my aged, picky gelding.
we have one pony who is “over 40” , that is all we know about his age, but we do know he is over 40.
He gets all the Equine Senior feed he can eat, that is pretty much the only thing he eats. We take care to blanket him as temps cool, keep him out of the wind (which rarely stops around here) Make sure he up to date on all vaccinations.
Vet sees him and just comments that he believe that he will never die.
I think you will be happy with it 
Not only is is lower NSC, pretty low starch, but it has a great digestive support package.
