Any horse owners?

How did you go with getting the rug of your old boy PakrakMG? My big guy seemed to let me know when he no longer wanted his rug on a couple of weeks ago. He saw me walking to him with it and took off. Have not bothered since. Still gets cool at night so I bet some nights he wished it was on.

Worked with our pony while the girls were at preschool and DS was sleeping. He is so great. I rubbed an empty feed bag over him, strapped a rope around his lower belly area, walked him everywhere I could, even into the house and he did not bat an eyelid. So happy with him.

Smoke Jaguar, I think I know who you are, did your old name start with M? I know what you mean about breeding when there are so many already out there. Having the same issue with our dog, we want another pup but then that means more puppies to home and there are already enough dogs out there needing homes. I think it will be great to for your big kids to work on your shetland for bubs. Like a gift. I will have to check out that facebook page.

That's me :) Small security glitch, but it was time to change things around, anyway.
I like the way you think, Kazzo! Definitely like a 'gift'! I'll tell them that :)
I think I've decided to leave the mare alone, indefinitely. I just can't get past the ethics of it. If we just had geldings I wouldn't be considering it, but there's a uterus in the paddock and I fall for the same old thinking. She's gorgeous, but I'll let the kids take her as far as they can (the older two) and then do another consideration. The lady who sold her to me bought her to breed with but she didn't grow big enough for what she liked to breed in an Aust Pony. It's an annual fight in my head!
Hmmm, being preggers, out of physical action and looking at my horses is already sending me broke ;)
Our horses are rug-less and that's for safety as well as laziness on my part. At the farm it's hilly and there's many a time I can't eyeball the herd, so I'd rather know they're not wearing anything that can snag. My main riding horse is a liver chestnut, so he'll remain nice and dark till his coat gets the drift in December and he'll go all caramelly...again...never mind, I'm not taking him out in public any time soon! I've got an unlined canvas for the mare that hasn't been used yet - bought it after we got the float, which is half open. Naked horses are the go here - plenty of gullies and thermals and I love watching them stand in line, swivelling their bums to the wind changes.

No go with the rug. I bought a summer one today and put it on the gate for him to sniff. The wind has been shocking today and kept the temp down so I just gave him his feed, face and neck a brush and got his halter on.

Any tips for weight gain? I'm feeding him two full buckets per day - one is 1/4 gumnuts, 3/4 Lucerne chaff, the other is just Lucerne chaff. Also about a cup of full fat soy. He has 18 acres of grass to himself. He's up to date with worming. We go through a big bag of chaff in about 10 days. He's always been a tricky horse to keep weight on (previous owners said the same thing) but now that he's an old boy it's a constant battle.

Have you tried beet pulp? I know people who swear by this for their geriatrics :) And a constant supply of low-sugar hay. If teeth are problem, then soaked hay is easier to grind and digest.
What kind of pasture is it? If it's just for him are you able to hotwire some off and scatter some native seed mix around? He'll need fibre, and the grass may have too high a water content? What are his teeth like? The constant grazing on high-fibre forage is quite important in addition to bucket feeds, and not the other way around.
If your produce shop doesn't have beet pulp they can get it in.
I don't have any geriatrics (well, I do, but he's plugging along like the others, not having had a hard riding life), but plenty in my equine landcare group do!

Haven't heard of beet pulp. I'll ask at the stock feeds. Hay is a no go - he just won't eat it. Never has. Would go for the grains that fell out of it and leave the bulk. We went away a couple of months back and I forked out $22 bucks for a bale of Lucerne to keep him going while we were away. Came home and it was untouched, cheeky bugger. Lots of grass at the moment - I don't think we'd have much luck with seed given the amount of rabbits we have here. They're devouring everything. He doesn't have much in the way of teeth anymore - we water down his gumnuts so they're soft but I was watching him graze tonight on grass and he seemed to be grabbing mouthfuls without any issues. Grass is quite long so it's probably making it easier.

He's so fussy, makes things hard. Our other horse ate everything and anything which has it's own problems!

I have an oldie here I rode her at the royal in 1986.... Yep 86! I feed her Prydes Old Timer, it's good for maintaining weight and is good for vanishing teeth.
We are so all over the place with rugging here as some nights are cold and I have heavy ones on then the next night it's cold.

I've heard of Old Timer - was told to give it a shot if the soy didn't work.

How old is she, Joeve? That's pretty fantastic you've had her for so long. We got our boy in 1993.

Forgot to mention! I've booked in for a trail ride at the start of Nov! I haven't ridden for about eight years! Really looking forward to it but nervous! Wonder how the body will pull up after two kids!

Maybe try him with some soaked grains PRMG - whole oats and barley soaked overnight, maybe some lupins. Really good for getting weight on and the soaked aspect is nice for the old boys. Also a whole heap cheaper than mueslis, pellets etc. My old boy passed away at 31, and for the last few years of his life that was his staple diet.

She just turn 34 :) she's still a bit naughty funny old thing. I have had her for 30 of those years lol!

How to the oldies go on oats, LuluHB? We had him on oats when we were riding and far out it lifted his spirits! I'm not sure I want him any wilder than he is right now!

I was able to move my hands across him this morning without him lifting his leg or swishing his tail. Progress!

Deleted pic
Here's a pic of him, taken at the start of this year. Hope it works, haven't added in a pic from tapatalk before.

An older horse or horse on light work really doesn't need the protein hit of oats, and carbs are really what is needed. Roughage, and that's what beet pulp is.
As the grass cures you may find he'll put on some more weight, because the leafy stalks will have the roughage and carbohydrates.
Yep, rabbits, roos and some birds can negate seed scattering. If you had the money you could get a contractor in to rip part of the paddock and drill seed in, so that you can choose your pasture. The Equiculture website is my go-to, as Jane and Stuart are horse pasture experts! In fact, they're going to be in Vic in March and April conducting workshops through various Landcare and council initiatives (including mine in South Gippsland!), which will be invaluable to anyone who owns horses on their properties.
From memory, barley is a better option than oats, and I'd feed bran with caution.
Micronised commercial feeds do work out more expensive than buying bags of grain, but you are paying for a measured dose in each pellet and the work is done for you. I don't personally use these feeds, except the young horse mix when feed is low and I separate my young fella at feed times (he's nearly 2yo), leaving the others to fight it out over the their selection of one type of hay (ha ha!), just because he's growing and the other horses dominate the hay bikkies when I throw them in the paddock so he misses out. Mariette Van De Berg writes good articles about nutrition, if you've seen her work in Equestrian Life etc.
So, whilst I know horses are designed to thrive on the crappest of pastures, the oldies (more than the young ones) need special care, because nature designed them out of the picture once they lose teeth! That's where commercial feeds come in so handy.

I'd have to disagree with you on that one SJ. No, they don't need the energy hit but they do need the calories hit, which is what they will get from the grains. Getting enough bulk into them to do the same job is sometimes more than you can achieve.

PKMG - my old boy went really well on the oats, but then he was a pretty laid back guy anyway. I had a thoroughbred mare that I couldn't give any oats to at all - she just went off her nut with them, and that was when she was in full on work. Maybe try the barley and lupins and see if that helps. Good news that you could get some hands on today. Hopefully once it starts, things will improve quickly

I think I got the link to work of the picture in my post on the previous post.

What about Rice Pollard to fatten up a horse? It has been a while since I knew anyone that used it but I know it use to work a treat with a couple of horses that a mate had that needed fattening up.

My other thought would be Copra meal.

Nope I'm still getting some homeopathic thread lol no horse pic!

No, not everyone agrees, so I just offer my suggestions - it's not my research you're disputing ;) I learn from experts in their field and I'll go to them again when my horses need extra help due to age :) As I said, Equiculture is my go-to, and Kath Unkenstein (Tarwin Grove vets and breeder) doesn't recommend oats for older horses.
ETA: I haven't heard about rice pollard, but I'll ask around.

Oh bugger. Well it is in my Album title my pictures now.

I appreciate all the suggestions and hopefully something along the line will work for us. I'm sure we'll all know/hear different things along the way. The last time we had a vet out to our boy, she told us not to give him anything but chaff - her reasoning was he was too old and anything else might shock his system. I ignored her because I can't let him fade away....

We used rice pollard way back when we got him. The full fat soy looks like the same thing - same colour and texture.

I'm going to split his food up so he's getting it twice a day. Noticed today that he left quite a bit behind. Lots more grass at the moment so he's possibly not as hungry. At least if I split it over two feeds, he's still getting the same amount and nothing is wasted. I'm not buying chaff for the birds to eat!