Your horse has provided you with many years of pleasure and enjoyment. Now, as he enters his golden years, it's up to you to ensure that he enjoys them! Yet it's important to realize that as our equine friends age, they require special care in order to remain active and healthy. Armed with a little knowledge, you can handle the needs of your older horses.
• Make sure your older horse receives good dental care. Horses who have lived long, productive lives have teeth that show it. The teeth of most older horses are worn down. The structures become loose, gaps occur, and sometimes teeth are even lost. The result? Chewing is ineffective, and to make matters worse it is also very painful. How can you keep your aging horse's mouth happy? Schedule dental visits twice a year after your horse turns 15, and make sure to extract any loose teeth, or teeth that are causing your horse pain.
• Pay attention to your older horse's feed needs. Older horses chew their food less efficiently, and the result is they get poorer breakdown and less nutritional value from their feed. Thankfully, you can compensate by giving your horse high quality feed with the maximum amount of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Older forages, or those stored for long periods of time, will almost always have less nutritional value than fresh forages. To that end, stick with the fresh and avoid feed that's been hanging around for a while.
Foods that are easy to chew and digest include grain products that have been rolled, crimped, or partially broken down. Pelleted feed is also a good choice, as it is usually ground as fine as the average horse would chew it. If you want to go one step further you can soak the pellets in water, which will result in a gruel-like consistency.
• Say goodbye to parasites. While controlling parasites is important for horses of all ages, it is particularly important for older horses. Older horses are more fragile, and therefore have more difficulty fighting off parasites. A good rule of thumb is to use a paste dewormer in the broadest spectrum possible. Check with your veterinarian to make sure the compound will cover common parasites in your area, and is safe for older horses. If you buy an older horse, or an older horse comes to live at your farm for any reason, it's always a good idea to have a vet do a quantitative fecal exam to determine if parasites are present, and then treat accordingly.
• Exercise is the key to longevity. Maintaining muscle tone and keeping an older horse in shape is critical. Horses in moderate work in the later years have fewer injuries and illnesses than horses who don't get regular exercise. Also, you should be aware that if an older horse falls out of shape, it can be pretty tough to get them back to where they were! Stay on top of your horse's fitness, and you won't have to work so hard. While exercise is important to your aging horse, it goes without saying that the exercise should be moderate. Older horses also benefit from longer warm-up and cool-down times.
• Keep on top of your horse's veterinary exams. Horses older than 15 should receive vet exams twice a year to check their eyes, teeth, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems. Just like people, older horses are subject to age-related illnesses and injuries. The sooner you catch them, the better they can be managed.
By ensuring that the needs of your older horse are met, you can make his golden years enjoyable for both him and you!
