How best to manage old mare?

[lifesabitchandthenyoudie]

My beautiful old girl (PBA) is 30 and in 'good' health; she lives out at grass with her two friends.She had her teeth done a few months ago and has lost quite a few, but I think she's lost more since. I'm finding half-chewed mouthfuls of grass around the field, and she's not put on much weight this year - haven't needed to manage her weight at all this summer! She's generally well in herself, I think.

My main worry is that she won't manage hay over winter... I'm going to cut a patch of her field short and fence her in so that she might manage the grass better, and also offer hay to see if she eats it. I'm obviously giving her feed - soaked fibre beet and pony nuts, but she surely can't live on this over winter? She'd have to be kept separate from her friends, too.

What have other people done with their very old ponies?

ETA: PBA and New Forrest, so she's pretty hardy.

I have known several ponies do really well on a winter diet of big buckets of fast fibre/speedibeet with supplements plus lots of short chopped hay/haylage

Thank you, did you get the chopped hay from somewhere, or chop it yourself?

Soak some grass nuts for her.

My old girl (33) started quidding hay 5-6 years ago, at which point she had a couple of years of haylage rather than hay (Silvermoor do a specific veteran haylage which is short chopped which was good), then when she wasn’t chewing that well I moved her onto a soaked grass nuts + Hifi senior as her forage (plus a bucket feed). She has continued to eat grass throughout though.

If she can’t chew grass and can’t be turned out with her friends as needing a forage replacement, if she was mine I’d be starting to think about her quality of life and whether it would be fairer to pts. I had a conversation with a vet when she first started having chewing issues where they asked had a thought about key QoL indicators without which I should start thinking about pts which I found helpful as giving me something definite rather than watching a slow decline (for me it was 1)able to eat grass, 2) maintaining good body weight, 3) field sound, 4) able to get up after lying down).

Thanks @Astronutter, you have put it very well. I'm currently focusing on how to manage her eating, but very mindful that her qol must remain paramount. Longer term, if she can't chill out with her mates I'll be calling it a day, I think.

Even worse is that, where they are now, the hay is put on the hard standing over winter; (they have free access to a large bale) but she would have to be kept in the little paddock, to eat her forage. It's only nearby, but wouldn't be much fun for her 😥. I'm starting to look for somewhere better, but there isn't much available here... it's so hard, isn't it?!

It is horrible - it’s at the forefront of my mind at the moment as I’m saying goodbye to my old girl in a couple of weeks time while the weather is nice 😢as her arthritic legs won’t cope with another winter.

You know your girl best and what she needs. Are there any yards that offer retirement livery near you, as they’ll be more likely to have other horses with similar feeding needs she could be turned out with?

If not, rather than go in small paddock 24/7 would you be able to separate her several times a day with her a mush feed/ forage replacer for 15-30mins? If she’s easy to handle for example and you leave feed in the small paddock for her would others you share the field with be willing to pop her in there when they go to check/bring in their horses and let her back out when they go? That way she has more regular access to forage while still getting social time.

Also, thinking about it, you don’t mention whether you’ve had a dentist out to see her since she started quidding. If not, I’d be doing that ASAP, as best case scenario its due to a sharpened edge or loose tooth that if that is dealt with will mean she’ll go back to scoffing grass and hay!