Good Nutrition Nutrition is the key factor in maintaining the health of the aged horse. As mentioned before, it is linked to the ability to chew and digest, but the older horse is also prone to decreased digestive efficiency in the intestinal tract. One needs to choose feeds that are easy to chew, highly digestible and made with top-quality ingredients. There are few geriatric commercial feeds available, but one can select from the many readily available products to prepare a ration which meets the needs of the aged horse. It is extremely important that the best quality of feeds be used, saving a few cents on each bag of feed is false economy as more of the proper product will have to be fed to meet nutritional needs.
Older horses require a higher amount and a higher quality of protein.
Also, a readily digestible source of energy that does not overload their hindgut with too much starch, and slightly higher levels of certain vitamins and minerals are also needed. One can readily meet these needs by feeding the concentrate part of the ration in the form of broodmare or growth feeds. Three additives useful to the older horse ration are water-retention laxatives, probiotic digestive enhancer and corn oil. Bran and psyllium seed are two feed products which help retain water in the large intestine and these facilitate the proper flow of feed through the gut. If the fluid balance in the hindgut is not maintained, the gut contents dry out and can cause impaction, resulting in life-threatening colic.