Customer:
“I’m thinking about switching my senior horse feed regiment to your product. He’s a 22yr old appendix paint 17 hands tall. I’ve gotten him up to a healthy weight he was thin when I rescued him. My concern is I’m feeding a lot of senior grain and I’m worried about the amount of sugar. I’m feeding 6lbs 2x day senior grain and 3lbs 2x day rice bran, good quality hay and bottom ground pasture. I would like to be able to give him less grain and still be able to get him the high calorie intake he needs. He also has a lot of arthritis in his hips. Which of your products would work best for him? I am blanketing him when temperatures drop below 40 degrees.”
Answer by Ph.D. Equine Nutritionist, Kelsey Johnson Nonella:
I would recommend Simplete Senior. It contains a full dose of Horse Guard, probiotics, and joint support in a 2 pound dose for a 1000 lb horse. So your guy weighs around 1250 you would want to 2 1/2 pounds. You could also consider adding some alfalfa to increase his caloric intake.
I have the trifecta (not in a good way) with my OTTB and am looking to simplify what I feel like is my chemist shop at feeding time. He was severely underweight when I got him two months ago and he has been on soaked alfalfa daily, ~7lbs of nutrena original, 3 lbs of empower topline, 1.5 lbs of empower boost (all which is more than the nutrena recommendation for daily intake), biotin, ulcer guard and msn daily while being on 24/7 pasture of 3 acres shared with my mare. He has gained most of it back but is still a little lean for my liking and needs to add more topline. He’s 16.3, has terrible feet and arthritis. His coat is gorgeous with dapples but I’d like to find a product that will push him to the “plumper” side for an OTTB and also scale down on all of the extra types of grain and supplements. My husband can’t keep up! Does the trifecta have enough calories to give him what he needs or should I be looking at super weight gain?
Lindsey,
Thank you for the question. Does your horse have a particular issue that it is recommended to soak his hay? If not, I would recommend not soaking his hay. If he doesn’t have metabolic issues, the NSC in the hay is actually providing him important energy that is being washed away when it is soaked. Soaking also washes away protein, and other vitamins and minerals. Here is a good article of soaking hay https://thehorse.com/151049/hay-to-soak-or-not-to-soak/ I would let him eat as much alfalfa as he consume. I personally have a mare that the only way I can keep him in an ideal body condition is to provide her ad lit alfalfa.
I will consider switching from Nutrena original, and the empower products to 4 pounds of stabilized rice bran and a 1 1/2 pound of Renew Gold or Glow, and Trifecta. This will provide him with a high fat diet(fat is 2.25 more energy dense than protein or carbohydrates). Make sure to make this change slowly so that his gut flora can adapt to the new diet. I usually make the change over a 2 week period. This change should provide your horse enough energy to help fill him out and also get all the great benefits from Trifecta, with the vitamin-mineral supplement, gut supplement, hoof supplement, and joint supplement all in one. I hope this helps. Let me know if I can answer anymore questions.