Amber and Sandelee Wild Horse Diet
Newly added to our "herd" fall of 2017 is Sandelee (age 34 as of May 2022) and Amber (age 31 as of May 2022), my first mini horses!
|
They are wonderful elderly senior horses and are teaching my grandchild how to appreciate the seniors in our lives! Photo below is the day of their arrival, on a typical Oregon day of rain! Both are on the same diet and share/argue over who's bucket is who's. Though they both still eat hay, they get large buckets of warm wet mash as their past diet was not appropriate for these old ladies. They were free grazing grass, being fed orchard grass and "senior" mix that was very high in sugars and starches. Though these pictures don't show it, they were very overweight for their size. They have lost a lot of weight, their coats are now shiny and soft. Though it took some convincing that this new diet was better than their old sugar filled diet, they are now happily munching away on and even being demanding of their new meals! They are now on a diet of:
Grazing on nice sunny days (as they both had rain rot, no more standing out in the rain!)
Recipes below are buckets for each horse, twice a day:
___________________________________________
UPDATED DIET March 2021
Amber and Sandelee have been on basically the same diet, though I no longer supplement the selenium but instead added extra kelp into their diet, plus Sugar Down. They are dewormed with Worm Gone Max every other month (about 1 week at a time). They are still going strong at 30 and 33, though Sandelee has slowed down a bit.
|
|
UPDATE: Amber and Sandelee March 2021
Sandelee's age (33) is showing a bit more these days. She's slowed down quite a bit, is having a harder time eating hay and shows a lot more white on her face but she is still trucking along!
Amber is still and spritely as ever and races for the stall each night for dinner. Her, Sandelee and Nina are good friends, though Nina has bonded more with Grace lately. Mara is a daily miracle. We thought for sure she wouldn't make it through last winter but here it is a year later and she is still trucking along! Our vet thinks she is closer to 30 than 20, so its even more a miracle she is still with us. She has numerous issues that cant be fixed but as long as she seems happy, we're happy to help keep her going.
|
|
UPDATE March 2022
Sandelee is mainly on a bucket diet now, though she can graze on short fine hay and short grass. We have to be very careful as her teeth are so aged that she has had several minor choke episodes, which fortunately I have been able to take care of myself (after the first one, when we were still figuring things out with her) Both old ladies are still spunky and have their occasional "zoomies". Amber struggles a bit with threadworms in the summer months so we do a lot of detoxing with Cootie Kicker and deworm with Worm Gone Max 5-7 days out of every warm month. Other than that, they seem to be doing very well for such old ladies!
_______________________________________
Update July 2023 After several diet changes in an attempt to get Amber to continue eating were unsuccessful and she continued to decline we had to make the difficult decision to let her go. Sandelee had a long grieving period but she is holding up well after joining Misty, Nina, Mama, and Baby's herd. She's an excellent auntie and babysitter for Mama. |
____________________________________
