10/12/2026
🐴 STORY TIME: “Well… he’s just old.”
If I had a dollar for every time I heard this used to explain an underweight senior horse…
“He’s 22.”
“She’s almost 30.”
“He’s just getting old.”
“Old horses are supposed to look like that.”
🚨 No. Age is not a body condition score.
A horse turning 20+ does not automatically mean we should expect prominent ribs, a disappearing topline, sunken hindquarters, or chronic difficulty maintaining weight.
What does change with age is how we need to manage them.
That 25 year old horse may not be able to live on the same feeding program that worked when he was 5.
And this is where senior horse nutrition becomes so important.
🦷 FIRST — LOOK AT THE MOUTH.
Senior horses need routine, thorough dental evaluations.
Missing teeth, worn-out chewing surfaces, periodontal disease, painful teeth, wave mouth, hooks, loose teeth and reduced grinding ability can dramatically change how effectively that horse processes long-stem forage.
You can put the prettiest hay in front of him in the world…
But if he cannot properly chew it, having hay available does not mean he is actually getting enough usable nutrition from it.
🌾 SECOND — REPLACE WHAT THE HORSE CAN NO LONGER EAT.
When chewing becomes compromised, we may need to stop thinking of senior feed as simply “grain in a bucket.”
For some older horses, their soaked senior feed, forage pellets, cubes, beet pulp or other appropriate fiber sources become a significant portion and sometimes essentially all of their forage replacement.
That ration needs to provide enough:
• Digestible fiber
• Calories
• Quality protein and essential amino acids
• Vitamins and minerals
• Fat when appropriate
• And, most importantly, enough total pounds of feed per day
A little scoop of senior feed twice a day is not automatically a senior horse nutrition program.
The feeding rate matters.
The horse’s weight matters.
His body condition matters.
His dental function matters.
His workload matters.
And the rest of the ration matters.
💡 THIRD — DON’T ASSUME WEIGHT LOSS IS “NORMAL AGING.”
If an older horse is losing weight despite receiving adequate calories and an appropriate forage replacement diet, that is when we need to investigate further.
PPID, dental disease, parasitism, chronic pain, gastrointestinal disease, kidney or liver disease, malabsorption and other medical conditions can all contribute to poor body condition.
Sometimes the feed program is the problem.
Sometimes there is an underlying medical problem.
Sometimes it is both.
But “he’s just old” should never be where the investigation ends.
❤️ Our senior horses spent years taking care of us.
When they reach their 20s and 30s, our responsibility is to adjust their management to the horse standing in front of us not continue feeding them exactly like we did when they were young and wonder why they cannot maintain themselves.
Old horses may need more management.
They may need softer forage.
They may need soaked meals.
They may need multiple meals.
They may need substantially different calorie and protein intake.
They may need medical investigation.
But being old by itself is not a good enough explanation for being chronically underweight.
🐴 Feed the horse you have today not the horse you had 15 years ago.
— Klepinger Equine Dentistry & Nutrition
Where dentistry and nutrition work together.
“Science over Marketing”
904-327-9116
