Petss Cats & Dogs

Older Horse Care


Do you own an older pony companion in your meadow?  I’m sure they’ve such memories they can tell.  Regarding being considered a senior horse, if your equine is twenty or older they are a veteran or campaigner.  This age out of interest would make him equivalent to 60 year old human.

Your horse’s ageing course will differ, and will depend on his workload, breed, conformation, medical past and also the attention he receives.   Every equine is definitely an individual.  So the ageing process can be totally different. The thing you’ll want to pay the most attention to as your equine ages, are the teeth.

Horses naturally are grazing creatures, and their mouths are set up perfectly for that sloping neck hanging down to nibble, bite and cut off grass off and grind and chew it.  Through the years this continuous grinding wears the surface of the teeth down, and they drop out.  This can make chewing tricky for your horse and perhaps means if he can’t feed properly, he will begin to lose condition.  And that brings with it a full host of additional troubles. 

The smartest thing you are able to do for the mature equine is to have the Veterinarian check his teeth twice a year for any abnormal waves, hooks, wear, or sore gums.  Coping with these issues quickly will keep the horse in a position to eat for a whole lot longer.  In preparation, start him on mashes gradually so if he gets to the stage where he requires them on a regular basis, he is already familiar with them.

Between visits, check your horse’s mouth and look out for problems with chewing, like quidding, head throwing, choking or trouble drinking. Mature equines regularly have trouble consuming long fiber foodstuff.  You are able to solve this issue by changing to shorter cropped hay or add high fiber cubes as mash or straight.  If you remain aware of mouth issues, you can save your horse a considerable amount of discomfort, and you can save cash and problems further in the future.

If you’re searching for an older horse, you can find many horses for sale, ponies for sale and more on the Horse and Pony Directory.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 and is filed under Horses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.