Mixing my own feed for a difficult keeper

Question
I have a 16yr old saddler mare. The seems to lose weight at the drop of a hat. I feel that the 12% feed is doing the trick. She's not gaining weight. How can i mix my own feed that would be beneficial for her? Her hoover are also terrible. I was advised to add a quarter cup oil to her feed. Ps: i don't want to feed oats as i don't want her to get hot. We only ride for about half hour every second weekend. Hacking. Your help will be much appreciated.

Answer
Hi Althea,

Thank you for your question.  Feeding hard keeping horses can be a bit of a trick...because there is generally an issue at the root of their inability to maintain weight (unless of course advanced age is problem).  I can appreciate you not wanting to feed cereal grains like oats, and in fact those cereal grains can sometimes be at the root of weight gain issues.

For a horse the age of your mare, undergoing a light workload, meeting dietary requirements should be easy to do.  Because she is not working hard, not growing and not in foal or lactating, her maintenance energy/protein/mineral/vitamin requirements should be quite low.  Because she has weight issues despite this suggests that she might either a digestive disturbance or a metabolic disorder.  Before we jump to conclusions about metabolic disorders, lets see if we can fix her digestive system and make her an easy keeper.  I would suggest that you start with a good quality prebiotic/probiotic like LifeForce Formula from Alltech or SmartDigest Ultra from SmartPak Equine (both are available on-line directly from the manufacturer).  A quality product like this can help 'reset' the digestive tract and improve feed efficiency and turn your hard-keeper to an easy-keeper...and will ultimately improve hoof quality.  Of the suggestions I have for your horse, this is probably the most important one.

As for a home made ration, I would start by incorporating beet pulp into your feed program.  It is a little hard for me to say how much exactly because I'm not sure what type of forage you have available.  If you have quality, nutrient dense, pasture or hay...you may not need to feed more than a kilo (weigh dry then add water) per day.  If your forage is only of marginal quality then you may want to feed more beet pulp.  Although many people think of beet pulp as a sort of grain, the horse's digestive system sees beet pulp as a really good quality forage...and a horses diet can do well on large quantities of beet pulp (in extreme cases up to 25% of the daily dry matter).  You may have to evaluate your forage and adjust feeding rate accordingly.  Now I'm not sure what kind of horse feeds are available where you area, but if possible look for a protein-based mineral/vitamin supplement to top dress your beet pulp with (for example, Purina's Enrich 32).  The beet pulp will bring energy for weight gain to the diet, and a product like the Enrich 32 will round out the protein, mineral/vitamin requirements in your diet.  You can follow the recommended feeding rates on the bag, based on your horses body weight.  You can safely add a cup of oil per day to the beet pulp and mineral, which will again bring a bit more energy to the diet.  I would prefer that you fed soya or canola oil instead of corn oil if at all possible.  You could also consider feeding a high fat supplement like the Purina Amplify Nugget instead of the oil if that is easier.  

So in summary, beet pulp + oil or high fat supplement for energy AND protein-based mineral/vitamin for the rest of the nutrients.  You will also want to make sure your horse has access to salt regularly...and if you can add loose salt (start with 1/8 cup per day) to the feed, it's better than a salt block.  If you have a particular feed company that you would prefer to work with or that is more readily available just let me know and I can make more specific recommendations.

I hope that helps.

Thanks, Corlena