Old Aged Friends

At Hanley we love our old equine friends. Aged horses and ponies are to be treasured. They exert a wise calm atmosphere and are great for younger horses and ourselves. Old horses should be nurtured and retire gracefully.
We consider an older horse to be 15 years plus. Although your equine friend my act much younger in years or seem older in body or personality. For this reason please treat each horse individually for nutritional and care requirements.

Many horses and ponies compete well into their twenties and even thirties. You will notice at Olympic and advanced competitions most of the horses are in their teens and many in their late teens. This is due to experience and the calmer nature they have gained in their older years. 

Older horses and ponies can be separated into working / competing and retired. Working /competing need higher amounts of all their feed to compensate for extra energy needs, along with muscular breakdown, as well as their age.

The Hanley formula is ultra- filtered into very digestible amino acids and peptides ( 50 or less amino acids joined together ) this is very easy for your old horse to digest in fact it is absorbed straight into his blood stream with no work from him to break it down.
With all equine feeds it’s the quality we should stay focussed on not the quantity or price. This is most important when feeding old and young horses.

The tables below are for maintenance purposes. If your horse is in lighter condition move slowly up to double the amount in the table and stay on this for 6 – 8 weeks. This is a loading period and ensures your horse is saturated with amino acids. After this period take amount back to the maintenance dose in the table.
For handy feeding tips see Feeding Information page

Feeding the older horse/pony in retirement ( not working )

Please note: This is a guide only you will not poison your horse feeding 50 grams extra or less. Please feed as required or call Philippa Hanley 021943282 for a talk

Feeding the older horse/pony in work

Please note: This is a guide only you will not poison your horse feeding 50 grams extra or less. Please feed as required or call Philippa Hanley 021943282 for a talk

Additional recommendations for older horses

• Choose highly digestible feeds for older horses and keep feeds damp and soft.
• Give them a good look and touch over once or twice a month. They love a good brush on their old tired muscles. This is a good chance to thoroughly check out covers in winter and any issues like skin rashes / lesions, scouring, rubbing halters or covers.
• Keep your vet involved with yearly checks and an old horse appropriate worming programme.
• Teeth at least every year.
• Feet every 6 - 12 weeks for a trim, don’t make walking difficult by leaving for years between trims they spend all day on their feet.
• Extra roughage in winter to keep them warm. The breakdown or fermentation of roughage ( chaff/ hay/ fibre ) produces heat in the hind gut so helps to keep them warmer in winter.
• Shelter in summer is important to keep them comfortable. Some shade in the heat of the day. We hose our horses and dogs off on the hottest summer days they object at first then love it and run around kicking their feet up.
• Check troughs aren’t frozen over if you live in the colder parts, these require breaking free everyday.
• Enjoy your older horse they won’t be around forever and they love every minute you spend with them.