Talk to me about aged horses living on hay pellets

[fordtraktor]

Can anyone share their experiences moving aged horses to a pellet-only diet?

My 31 yo pony mare is in fabulous condition, but the equine dentist was out today and says her chronic diarrhea is from her not having enough in the way of teeth left to properly grind her hay.

I have no problem financially switching her to an all-pellet diet, and am happy to do so. I have some concerns about how best to do it.

Do you let them eat grass? I was told that she can’t be on hay any longer because she can’t grind it well enough. I have a dry lot, but it is small and she would share with my mini-donk.

Getting ahead of myself a bit, but am also worried about next winter and keeping it thawed in sub-zero weather. Fingers crossed, she will still be with us then.

Tips/experiences/thoughts please? She is in excellent weight.

[Zigzag]

Where I board there is a 32 yr old pony and a 28-29 yr old paint. Neither have much in the way of teeth. Both have transitioned to Oat mill run pellets without much trouble. The vet thinks they get some value out of tender spring grass but midsummer tough grass they can’t eat well, same as hay in winter. Both are currently fat and sassy.

[SMF11]

I fed my toothless ones soaked hay cubes outside (they lived out 24/7) in Coleman coolers. I am in the hudson valley. The coolers had wheels so they could be pulled out to the field. They mostly stayed unfrozen, or just froze around the edges. A few times they did freeze solid, but not often.

There happened to be three ancient toothless ones on the farm at the same time, so they lived together and all got the cubes. They’ve since passed on and I can’t say I miss dealing with the soaked cubes!

[rcy]

is chopped hay an option? mine couldn’t chew hay so we switched her to chopped (trying to delay going all pellets as long as possible) and she’s doing great on it. she still gets her breakfast and dinner senior as well; have had multiple people she looks like she’s only in her late teens vs 29.

[mmeqcenter]

Had a senior boarded with me that started quidding everything. Could only get down soaked soupy hay pellets. I’m a big proponent of 24:7 hay which is basically impossible with a pellet diet, so I spaced out four feedings a day as far apart as I could. He ate it slowly all day, never really slurped it all down super fast.

I’m in Florida, can’t help with the freezing part.

He was okay to be out on short grass with buddies, just quidded the grass right out. I think there could be a choking concern on long grass though.

[clanter]

we had a pony live to 45, his last four or five years he was fed only Purina Equine Senior, nothing else. We did break his feeding into four to five per day which was not a problem since he had is own paddock.

[NoHopeNoScope]

Have you seen the Unbeetable Feed thread in Horse Care here? There is a new forage pellet that I, along with a lot of COTH, am absolutely obsessed with. It is very, very soft compared to other hay pellets. Not sure your pony’s history, but you might be able to get away with not soaking. My 28 year old has enough teeth to eat chopped hay, so I mix the forage pellets with that. But he would totally eat them on their own too. He loves it!

[nighthorse6]

My old pony eats Triple Crown Senior and Timothy Hay pellets soaked. He gets 4-5 meals a day, alternating between the two of them. He will graze although I don’t know how much he actually can get, because he doesn’t have much in the way of teeth. He can only graze on the short pasture though, if it’s too long he will quid it all out, same thing with hay.
He mostly lives separate from the other horses due to his feeding schedule. But he will hang out with my gelding for part of the day most days.

[trubandloki]

For winter feeding you can always feed the soaked soup in a heated bucket.

It will be a nuisance to keep clean, but it should work fine for feeding the wed feed in.

When my old man started having trouble with hay I went to soaked hay cubes. He did well on that.

[FjordBCRF]

If you are worried about him being on an empty stomach for too many hours, I have been thrilled with my iFeed Naturally auto feeder. I have used both hay pellets and the Unbeetable Forage Only in it. Anyways, it holds about 12 pounds and you can set it to dispense as frequently as every 30 minutes however much you want. https://ifeednaturally.com/pages/how-it-works

My gelding is an easy keeper and to keep him at a reasonable weight, I have to weigh hay nets and just be very aware of how much he gets. That auto feeder gives me so much peace of mind having it set to dispense about 4 pounds of Unbeetable overnight between dinner and breakfast.

[cnd8]

There is an old horse with virtually no teeth left at the barn I board at. He gets soaked senior feed, and then multiple scoops of alfalfa cubes soaked. He’s in good condition. He basically cannot graze, but the alfalfa cubes still count as long stem forage and he does well on them. He is still out to pasture and sometimes he tries to graze, but not enough to sustain himself.

[RMJacobs]

I had two elderly horses that had no teeth. They got a 50-50 mix of senior feed and Strategy. They also gummed a little bit of grass/alfalfa mix. They did fine on all that. Then the third one got older and had no more opposing molars. At first I had him on the same feed as the others. Once I boarded him when we sold our horse property, the BO thought he would do better if she added soaked timothy cubes. He still got a little bit of grass hay, but mostly just played with it. I moved him from Colorado to South Carolina when DH and I moved, and where I boarded him next tried Standlee alfalfa when he started refusing hay cubes. He was in a pasture with a ton of grass, but just quidded the grass. It made him happy to pretend to graze.

Rebecca

[Mango20]

I had an elderly pony who got to the point of not being able to eat hay. First, at about age 27, I started him on senior feed and chopped hay forage. Eventually he started leaving all of the stems from that behind so I switched him to senior feed, hay pellets, and beet pulp with no molasses. He did well on that combo for a few years, until he died at 33. The key for him was that I fed him more times per day to spread it out and not have to worry about a bucket of sloppy food freezing or getting covered in flies, etc., or having to separate him from the other horses.

I fed him 4 or 5 times per day, and he was turned out with my other horses and in a stall during the day or night, depending on the season. He loved to “eat” grass. I don’t think he really was able to eat much of it at all, because he just left a trail of quidded wads behind as he grazed, but it made him happy.

[cattywampus]

This prehistoric -looking creature transitioned to soaked pelleted diet 2 years ago (beet pulp, hay pellets and senior pellets). I’m in the Idaho panhandle, but she’s able to gum it up before it freezes in the winter. She THINKS she wants hay, and she pretends to graze in the summer, but it just quids out.

[fordtraktor]

Thanks everyone. Some great ideas here.

My main issue is that I was told she cannot have hay because the way she is chewing it, it is too big so undigested pieces are irritating her colon and causing diarrhea. She’s in great weight on a ration balancer until now, but constant runs aren’t great for her I am sure.

I hate to isolate them in solo pens, but can’t think how else to keep her away from the round bale. I think I am just feeling sad for her having to be alone!

[Texarkana]

I had a toothless mid-30s TB who lived on an all pelleted diet. Senior feed and alfalfa pellets, although the last couple years it was just Senior feed.

As much as I tried to get him to eat cubes and chopped forage, it never really worked out for any extended period of time.

I let him have grass, although I’m not sure how much he actually ingested. I also let him access his pasturemate’s hay, although he couldn’t really do anything with it but quid.

He lived until 37, exclusively on pellets from 32 until the end.

[NaturallyHappy]

Thank you to everyone who shares stories about their older horses. I have one and I want him to live forever…

[cilla1]

My 34 yo is on chopped hay (the brand Is German, St.Hippolyt) It is the step before the pelletting process and it contains also leinseed and sunflower oil. No need to soak it. He also gets a small flake of regular hay (we choose the softest and thinner we can find) because he thinks he MUST have some hay. He also eats some senior food, unluckily we have little access yo grass otherwise we’d keep him on pasture

[fordtraktor]

Thought I would update this for anyone who is going through a similar issue.

The old girl is thriving on her new diet. Her diarrhea has cleared up completely and her poop is normal again. She is in good weight and is happy.

She is getting half a 5 gallon bucket of chopped forage, 6 qts of Unbeetable Forage pellets, and 3 qts of Triple Crown Senior AM and PM. I layer it in that order, and it fills the bucket up to the top. I haven’t weighed it, but it is heavy so I am confident she’s getting enough.

She doesn’t eat it all at once, but picks at the hay pellets and chaff off and on. Most meals she has about 1/4 of the bucket left, occasionally she eats it all. That makes me feel better about her new “lifestyle” because she is rarely without access to free choice forage even with the new hay-free system. Also – no soaking required! So I can reuse whatever is left for her next meal.

Thanks for everyone’s help!

[CowgirlCoffee]

When my POA gelding could no longer masticate hay, we moved him to a soaked diet of alfalfa/timothy cubes and pellets, and either a ration balancer or v/m supplement ( he was picky and often would stop eating one after a while, so we went through several!). No senior feed or beet pulp was necessary, he maintained his weight beautifully on this diet for 5 years until he passed away. He was always an air fern!

For a while, we were also giving him the “sweepings” or fine parts of hay until he developed aspiration pneumonia from choking on them. After that, he never got any hay or grass again.