Older Horse Care

A tip for old horses and hay: When a horse gets old enough to start losing their teeth, they will stop being able to eat their hay. You will know because they will start losing weight, pushing their hay around but not eating much of it, and leaving chewed up wads of hay around on the ground. These are caused by the horse mushing the hay around in their mouth and wadding it up, and then spitting it out. If you start seeing these wads of hay in your old horse's pasture or paddock, chances are you need to switch over from hay to hay pellets. Some old horses also need the pellets to be softened by adding water, this turns it into a bit of a mash. The benefits of this are twofold: one, it gets more water into your horse (ALWAYS a good thing!), and two, it helps your older horse not to choke on their food (always a bad thing!).