The University of Kentucky’s C. Oran Little Research Center is home to a herd of senior horses used for the school’s Aged Horse Research Program. There, veterinarian and clinical faculty member Beatrice Sponseller, Dr.met.vet, Dipl. ABVP, is responsible for the herd’s health and wellness.

Each day, she checks in with the farm staff after they finish the morning feeding to see if they noted any issues with the horses. Then she can treat them as needed and call in the farrier or equine dentist to address foot and dental concerns.

While some of the horses in the herd are perfectly healthy, many have age-related conditions such as pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), insulin dysregulation, and equine metabolic syndrome. As such, they can be at risk of the painful hoof disease laminitis, hoof abscesses, and PPID-associated soft tissue injuries.

“We see a lot of eye problems here, and that’s fairly common in general in the equine population,” says Sponseller. “We get the occasional infections that can be more difficult to treat in these horses with PPID since they are immune-suppressed, and then dental issues. Horses have teeth that continuously erupt and, as they age, they get shorter and shorter until they run out of the teeth and cannot really grind and chew hay anymore.”

These horses need specific dietary changes to maintain their body weight, making body condition something her team pays close attention to when assessing the herd.

“We have very good farm staff here that do a great job looking at these horses and making sure that they’re in good body condition. They pick up any issues really early,” said Sponseller. “So it is truly a team effort, and everyone comes together to make sure that these horses are taken care of.”

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  • Alexandra Beckstett is a lifelong horse owner and an award-winning writer and editor. She is the editorial director of EquiManagement and MyNewHorse.com, prior to which she spent 13 years with The Horse/TheHorse.com.

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