feeding the very golden oldies

Tintara

My little old boy (pictured below two months ago with his mini me) is somewhere between 37 & 40 years old, was 13hh in his youth so is probably about 12.3 now, still has front teeth and a few molars and quite happily manages to nibble grass during the day. He gets about 4 kgs dry weight of soaked hay cubes, around a kilo of Studmaster, half a kg or so of flaked barley whenever I'm using it and Equimin. He gets 3/4 of this at night when no one else can get at it and the remainder in the morning before I let him out.

The haycubes do have to be well soaked - hot / warm water turns them into slush within 15 - 20 minutes and then I leave his morning ration soaking overnight in cold water.

I have had him on Copra in the past, also Sweetbulk, Speedibeet, mill mix and so on at various times but have found that he does just as well on the above - it's pretty well balanced and I firmly believe in the KISS principle when it comes to feeding horses . My 34yo 16hh Tb X gelding used to get the same only a lot more of it obviously and he too did well on it.

Narbeyda

How amazing so many old Arabaians.
We have a 30yo Arabian stallion with no teeth, he cannot graze or eat hay.
We can only give him one feed a day as we do not live out there.
But he survives on a 5kg dry weight of Cool Stance, GoStance, Weaner and Grower Pellets, crushed Lupins in any combination with a 20l bucket rough cut chaff (he sifts out the really long bits) all soaked in water to almost a slush. Takes him all day to eat it, so he does need to be kept on his own.
We did try Gumnuts but found they were far more expensive and didn't make any difference.
In comparison his replacement survives on pasture alone and looks magnificent.
Have to get my daughter to post pictures.

Tintara

Narbeyda, have you considered hay cubes ? My pony had to go back onto chaff (shandy & he sifted out the long bits too) for a couple of months when the hay cube supply dried up recently and although he was doing OK, he was starting to drop a little bit of condition towards the end so I was mighty glad to see the cubes back in stock again. When I first started him on hay cubes he noticeably put on weight quite quickly so they obviously get quite a bit of nutrition out of them, unlike chaff which just goes straight through. I soak his pellets in with the cubes so it all turns to a nice slushy mess and he has no problems whatsoever eating every scrap of it.

Bec1404

I've got another old arabian! She's 32 and doing really well. I also don't feed her hay, but she gets as much chaff as she will eat.

I dont weigh her feed now, I simply judge from her condition. She's a little fussy when it comes to food and wont touch copra or speedibeat - i think that she's a little set in her ways hehehe

She has lucerne chaff, lots and lots of wheaten chaff, and grower and weaner pellets, wet down to a mushy consistency with water and a dash of molasses. She also gets a vit/min supplement. In winter I give her a cup of RBO at night.

I think keeping the condition on them is also a management issue in the colder months. My girl is well rugged and stabled at night with boots to help her arthritis.

Babe the standy ROCKS

You cant go wrong with haycubes, speedibeat and grower & weaner pellets for the no teeth oldies. I also would be adding canola meal, and Full Fat Soya is another good source of calories. I have a 27 year old tb that has two hard feeds a day and hay 24/7 but he has good teeth so I`m lucky there.

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Gemgem

Our oldy toothless pony does well on slush. She is on a paddock all day and night but I doubt she actually gets that into system. She is fed on Speedi-Beet, Studmaster, FFS, Oil and loves feed time. She was so cute this arvo when I got home, calling out and hooning around the paddock like a baby, even though she is in her 30s I'm not the one who feeds her so I dont know why she was so excited by me but it was so beautiful to see her so happy

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BigRed

My boy (hes in my avatar) will be 37 this year he has cushings and is insulin resistant so I have to watch his energy intake, he doesn't have many teeth left either so I feed him copra, speedibeet, oil, chaff and lucerne chaff and a vit/min supplement he also has access to the paddock but I doubt he gets much down. I have read that some are feeding hay cubes wet, does it really mash that much down so the toothless ones can eat it?

pali

Hi Big Red,

yes, the hay cubes do mush up to an 'oldie consistency' but you have to soak them for quite a while. If you soak in warm or close to hot water apparently they mush much quicker. I tried it in colder water and it took too long.

and WOW to all the VERY OLDIES!!! hope I can still be posting in many years to come about my first pony = we're both the same age (32) but he seems to move around the paddock much quicker than I can some days!!

Zola

Hey everyone, great to see so many oldies still going strong! I havent been on here for sooooo long, but am searching for advice, and knew this would be the best place!
I have an old mare, 30+, who has been quite ill of late and lost heaps of weight. She has just regained her appetite and Im looking at getting heaps of weight on her before winter sets in.
At the moment she is on Gumnuts, lucerne and white chaff twice a day, with boiled barley added at night.
I was looking at adding stockgain, but it was suggested to try speedi-beet on another forum. After reading about it Im up for giving it a try so was wondering where its available?? I usually shop in Donnybrook and Bunbury. Anyone know if its available anywhere here?
I would also like to increase her appetite more, has anyone heard that ACV will increase this??

Thanks in advance,
Zola

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Tintara

Zola, definitely try Speedibeet but I would also go the hay cubes route; honestly, the difference in my pony within a month or so of putting him on them really convinced me of their value to oldies. Chaff goes straight through them because they can't chew it but the various hays in hay cubes are so finely pulverised that they seem to be able to get a fair amount of nutrition from them. When they're also soaked to a mush, the water absorbs nutrients which they can then digest more readily as well.

Big Red, fully soaked haycubes look like very well processed manure (and dry they look like doggie ahem 'manure' ...... ). Fortunately though they don't smell like they look, either wet or dry. In warm or hot water they only take 20 - 30 minutes to break down completely but I leave them overnight when using cold water.