SARAH: "I have an elderly horse who I love so much,
and I was wondering how I can make life for him a bit
more comfortable as he ages.
He is a 28--" with a question mark--
"year-old Appendix Quarter Horse.
He is retired.
He gets turned out into an indoor arena
every night with other horses.
And he's in his stall from maybe 9:00 until 3:00.
We often have young lesson kids work with him.
No riding of course, but he gets hand-walked pretty much
everyday--
just a few laps around the property.
And we groom and bathe him often with the kids.
He is quite skinny and is a sad sight.
We feed him twice as much hay as the other horses.
And he gets grain once a day and an assortment of supplements,
still can't seem to put weight on.
Any tips on fattening him up and making his life a little better
would help so much."
DR LYDIA GRAY: Life already sounds pretty good,
but we'll try it.
SARAH: It's very wonderful, just very sweet.
DR LYDIA GRAY: "Assortment of supplements"
was an interesting way of phrasing it.
SARAH: It's how I would describe my SmartPak.
It's an assortment.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So when I look at a situation like this,
the first thing I want to make sure they're doing
is working with their vet.
So get the complete physical exam.
Make sure there's no underlying health condition.
A horse this age-- what?
20s?
SARAH: 28 she thinks.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Could have Cushing's, could
have a variety of things that they're unhealthy enough
to make them a little bit run down
or make them into that hard keeper.
And so if you bring their health status up a notch,
maybe they'll put on weight better
or they'll extract the nutrition out of their food
that they should be.
SARAH: Even things you might not expect like teeth problems.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Could be teeth, could be parasites.
Could be simple things, could be hard things.
But get the vet out.
SARAH: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: When the vet is out have them show you,
if you don't already know how, to do a body condition score
and to assess the weight-- in some way
measure the weight of your horse-- can be a tape.
And then record those in a journal.
So that now you have an objective measurement
of your horse's health.
SARAH: Is this getting better?
Is this getting worse, rather than just,
"ooh, I wish he'd gain weight."
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right.
Because we're going to give you some things to do.
And if you're not following them--
I did A, and is he better or worse,
then you don't know if you should continue that or try
something else.
And the thing I always tell people
is try one thing at a time.
Because if you--
SARAH: It's hard to resist.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I know it is because you want
them to get better right now.
But if you throw the kitchen sink at them
and then the horse gets better, you're like, uh-oh.
What was it?
Now I have to do everything.
Now you're taking out one thing at a time.
So they said the horse gets hay in front of him all the time.
SARAH: It does.
Yeah.
Twice as much as-- well, they said twice as much
as the other horses.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh.
SARAH: So that is a good point.
DR LYDIA GRAY: OK.
So when I have a thin horse, I like to keep food
in front of them all the time.
I don't know if they have a situation where
they can do that.
But that would be ideal.
And I would keep grass hay in front of this horse
all the time if he has the teeth for it.
And then I would begin to add some alfalfa hay in--
if he can tolerate it-- because it has more protein and it
has more calories.
SARAH: While we're on the subject of the hay in front
of them all the time, I just want to throw in some things
here.
Because my horse, Cody, is 29.
And he is not underweight, but he's close.
He's probably-- he's a four.
He's not a four and a half where I'd
like him to be on the body condition scale.
And so with him, he's a hay waster.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh.
SARAH: So if we throw five flakes into his stall,
he'll eat one, and then just pee on the rest.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yep.
SARAH: And so what we do instead is we give him
one flake at a time in a Small Hole Hay Net
so that he's eating it, has access to it,
and doesn't have the ability to just trash it
all over the floor of the stall.
And you get more out of what you give him.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The interesting thing
with putting the hay in the hay net
is you think it would slow them down.
It does, but that phenomenon makes
the thin horses gain weight and thick horses lose weight.
SARAH: Interesting
DR LYDIA GRAY: It brings everybody back to normal.
SARAH: I like that.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So that was a really good suggestion.
If his teeth aren't that great there's always
the option of chopped hay, hay cubes, which probably you
want to soak, hay pellets.
So still getting that long-stem forage in there.
He might be a horse that needs to transition
to a complete feed, which is the hay and grain in the bag.
And read the label on these, because you
don't feed small amounts like three to five pounds
of a regular fortified grain.
You might need to feed 15, 18, 20 pounds of it,
of course, spread out over the day.
Then you can add in other, I guess
I would call them supplements, or other things
to help hard keepers or senior horses add weight.
My favorite, of course, is beet pulp.
You knew I was going to say that.
I like this because it is between the nutrition of hay
and grain.
And it's a fermentable fiber, which
the horse's hindgut excels at.
And they get energy from that and then calories.
So a lot of horses that are underweight
gain weight with the addition of beet pulp.
There's rice bran if you want to add fat, so
moving to a new section.
There's one way to add fat.
You can just add straight fat too.
And now it comes in a solid, so it's not as frustrating as oil.
Because oil gets thick in the winter and hard to pour.
And then it can go bad in the summer.
It gets hot and it goes rancid.
And it doesn't taste good.
And it's not great.
SARAH: And depending what type of oil you pick,
it can also have downsides.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, it can be very high in omega--
like corn oil is very high.
The ratio of omega 3s to omega 6s, it's inverted.
So that that's-- you're just adding inflammation
to your horse and probably doesn't need that.
SARAH: Not something a senior needs for sure.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Definitely not.
So I like the powdered fat.
I think that's-- older horses become less efficient as they
age.
Digestive system is one of the organs
that becomes less efficient.
And so some digestive support like probiotics,
prebiotics, yeast--
very good-- enzymes can help them,
as I said earlier, extract the nutrition that you're already
giving them, but they're just not getting.
And then I like that he gets turnout.
You probably don't have grass which
is why they don't put him on it, but, boy, pasture just
adds bloom to horses.
And if there's any way you can get him
outside for turnout, that would be ideal.
I can't tell from hearing this if he gets outside
for some fresh air.
SARAH: He gets hand walked around the property they said.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, OK.
That's good.
SARAH: So that's a good opportunity for some grazing.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Oh, yeah.
But everything-- reduce the stress in his life.
Look at all aspects of the environment.
The vet's great to walk around with you.
Look at the food quality and quantity.
Look at the grass.
Look at the property.
Look for stress.
So is he having to fight off other horses
for his fair share.
Sometimes that gets overlooked.
Does he have a buddy that he's friends with?
Because as a horse, being isolated makes you nervous.
So I think there's some--
SARAH: And people too.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, everybody.
I think there are some things that need looked
at that's not in this question.
And then there's some opportunities
to add some nutrition to this horse that can make
him enjoy his golden years.
SARAH: That's right.
All right.
Well, I hope that some of those solutions work out for you.
And that you guys have many more years ahead of you.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
SARAH: He sounds like a wonderful horse.