Response

Question
Hi Samantha,
The horse is a 22+ yr. old Saddlebred.  He was purchased in Pennsylvania from a dealer before being taken to auction. That's about all that's know about him.
Thanks for  your help.

Pat  

Answer
Pat,
With a horse of his estimated age, and background of going through the dealer then going to auction ( I am assuming New Holland) I would be concerned about a medical realted health problem of some sort.  Will he eat grain, hay or other items? or is he really not eating anything?
If he will eat grain, I would reccomend you put him on a very high fat high fiber, high protein sweet feed.  Purina makes a wonderful feed called fibergized, and much older horses do very very well on it!  You want to give him very little at first, then after a few days, a regualar quantity of grain, then after about a week and a half, you should be feeding him about 2 pounds of grain per feeding (based on feeding 2 times per day) until his weight is what you would consider appropriate for his body size.  Now Saddle3breds should be long and lanky type builds, they shouldn't be really fat, or have a really round belly.  THen give him massive amounts of beet pulp!  Beet pulp is a wonderful source for forage if you need to supplement for that!  You want to put it in his grain and soak it for at least 4 hours!  Beet pulp, in order to be fully digestible and used to maximum potential, should be soaked in either warm or cold water, and can absor up to 10 times it's size and weight!  I would also include a joint supplement, being that I am sure he was a carriage horse, and worked on hard pavement in boreum studs which really tear their joints appart, and a good multi-vitamin supplement.
Get him going on a nice rich alfalfa hay, if he'll eat hay.  Get his teeth floated, and get a vet to do a senior horse profile on his blood work and urine!  After about 3 weeks or so, provided he has no medical problems that prohibit his weight gain, he should be a different horse.

I hope I have answered your question, and best of luck to you, your friend, and this very fortunate horse!  I myself have taken quite a few saddlebreds out of New Holland!

Samantha