Caring for older horses goes back to the basics of the interaction between equids and humans. Today, there are questions as to whether the horse/human relationship is beneficial to the horse. The increasing longevity of domestic horses is one clear indicator of our commitment equine welfare and wellbeing.

Horses in the wild typically only last some 8 years, succumbing to debilitating lameness, starvation, or accidents. A well-cared-for domestic horse will often live comfortably beyond 25 years. Human stewardship of horses has a clearly positive impact when it comes to longevity.

Personal Recollections of Older Horses

This was not always the case. While I can remember that our family horses lasted into old age, usually some issue like colic would claim them long before.

When I started working in equine nutrition, we did not see many older horses. I certainly did not have the long conversations about daily care and management that are common today. Specialized retirement farms and senior nutrition simply didn’t exist.

Now, it is common for owners to ask for help caring for their older horses. They go to great lengths to ensure the wellbeing of their equine companions.

Most of the cases we see are quite straightforward. If the horse is thin, we evaluate the current diet and increase the caloric intake and digestibility. Sometimes there are other challenges such as insulin resistance or Cushing’s disease (PPID) that need to be handled in collaboration with the horse’s vet.

However, there are some horses that, without tender loving care, simply would not be with us today.

Turning Point

There is one case that was a turning point for my understanding of the extent of care necessary to keep older horses happy and healthy. A veterinarian called me very worried about her childhood horse, which she retired when she started University. Now over 30, the horse was not doing well.

The vet had sent him to a farm where he had his own large paddock and plenty of grass, but he was thin as a rail and obviously nervous and unwell. We went around in circles trying different feeds and other options. However, she was out of the country doing her master’s degree and the farm wasn’t set up to handle special cases.

Finally, in exasperation, I told her to send me the horse. I would try to work out some sort of plan.

Older Horses, One Example: The Little Stud

The horse came down the ramp. I saw in front of me one angry little stallion, with every bone visible. I had that interior “uh oh,” and thought that we were going to have serious difficulties. Nobody wants to invite a troublemaker stallion to a quiet stable.

I started by giving him hay and watching him chew. He would pick at the hay, but chewing only made a ball of fibrous mass. He certainly was not able to break down the hay into anything he could swallow and absorb. I tried mashes, but he was constantly watching and trumpeting at any and all horses that would pass. I needed to find a way to calm him down and to get enough calories or nutrients in him to get us on the right path. So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

As he was a stallion, I thought that he would need a herd of mares to feel happy. I work with several ethologists, and they encouraged me to put him into a safe but social environment. Luckily, we have good fencing, so I put him a small paddock and surrounded him by mares all around, each in their own enclosure. After some initial whinnying and excitement, I saw that he was walking importantly up the fenceline, surveying “his herd.” The mares were patently ignoring him, the way mares normally act, of course. But, he seemed much happier. The next step would be to get enough calories in him.

Work and Rest

He was “working” during the day, so paid no attention to the mash we placed in his paddock. At night, I took the most enormous bucket I could find and made a concoction of 12 kgs (about 26.5 pounds) of mash and fiber pellets with oil and 25 liters (nearly 7 gallons) of water. Standard ration protocol went completely out the window. It was so heavy that I could only just manage to drag this huge bucket into the stable.

Well, you know, that little so-and-so munched and munched throughout the night. I walked into the stable the next day to find a clean bucket.

As he was eating so slowly, we could throw out the rules limiting meal size. As the mash was fiber-based, his stomach was not overwhelmed.

After a couple of weeks going out with his mares during the day and the enormous mashes at night, he turned into the most charming teddy bear of a horse. He had a more than acceptable body condition score and was clearly happy. His previous problem was that he was hungry and isolated.