Older horse feeding

Question
I have a 22 year old Arab stallion. He has lost all but one of his front lower teeth now.His normal life was alone on 12 acres, not ridden, graze a little, grain morning and night, and stand at the fence sleeping or staring at the neighboring horses. He looked like he was 5.

He was introduced to two geldings in his pasture two months ago. He was getting bitten and pushed around and when I attempted to separate (it is not my farm)he ran and ran and screamed until the others knocked down the barrier between them. He has lost a significant amount of weight. I have changed from a 12% feed to senior feed. He is gaining and doing better. I used to feed an alfalfa mix during the winter to supplement his grazing. However with his teeth now about gone, I am wondering what my best option is. Pellets? Chopped alfalfa? I really want to separate him again from the others to protect him, but he does more harm to himself than good when I do that by running and getting so upset. I must also defend his food until he is done eating. He won't eat, if they aren't near. And when they are done, he is shoved out of his feed.
I know it is not the best situation for him. But, as it is not my property, I have to figure out his best interest with the other two there.

Answer
Hi Bonnie,

Thank you for your question.  When it comes to herd hierarchy vs companionship, horses are a funny lot.  They will pick having herdmates even if it means enduring the blunt end of the pecking order.  Stallions are not meant to be at the head of a herd, and are designed to take a little abuse all be it from a boss mare.  So you have a difficult balancing act to do in both protecting your older horse from the more dominant horses while still allowing him to be part of the herd that he has evolved to be in.  And it would appear that you don't have many options since you are not the property owner.

It sounds as though the majority of his weight loss can be attributed to the stress of changing his living arrangements, and stress really can induce weight loss for the worriers in the lot.  The switch to a senior feed is a good one, as a well formulated senior feed really will address the changes that the aging horse's digestive system comes across and a portion of what may also have attributed to his original weight loss.  Since your guy is loosing his teeth it will be important to find forage sources that are easier for him to eat, because you don't want to fill his diet with other nutrients...he needs the fiber.  Your best bet is to add beet pulp to his diet.  Beet pulp can serve as an excellent hay replacement in most cases, and especially yours.  The beet pulp has all of the nutritional characteristics of a forage while being very easy for your horse to eat.  Try feeding a few pounds per day (weighed dry then water added) to start, and you can increase it easily to as high as 7-8 pounds daily. Of course as you increase the amount of beet pulp you feed, you many end up increasing the amount of time you have to stand watch over him in the field protecting him from the others.  

I know of a few people who feed in groups who have started using feed bags at grain time, to help cut down on the fighting that takes place between horses...and it seems to work very, very well.  They have found that the horses are less aggressive towards each other and have a chance to eat calmly.  You simply put your grain in the feed bags and strap them to the horses heads until they are done eating.  Its a great management tool, because you can do other chores while you are waiting for them all to finish. This way he can eat in the company of others without the risk of being bullied out of his food. The only concern we've had with this feeding method is that the horses that bolt their feed have had choke problems with feed bags when fed high fiber complete feeds.  The way around this is to lightly wet the food 2-3 minutes before feeding, although if you're feeding wet beet pulp you probably won't have to wet the senior feed.  You can buy feed bags from many tack shops.  You may need to order them in as they're not generally standard stock, but the store's suppliers have them.  

You will still want to make sure that your horse has access to long stem grass or hay so he has enough 'effective' fiber in the diet, which is the stem length that increases chewing and soaking up of digestive enzymes...all to keep his gut healthy.

I hope this helps you around a sticky situation.

Thanks, Corlena