realize that owning a senior equine has some special considerations.

Once a horse gets into his mid to late-teens, several changes occur within the body, and if we are to get the most and best use of the animal, we must compensate for those changes.

The first change is in his ability to chew his food.  As the teeth grow in later years, the chewing process suffers.  Teeth are lost and growth direction of the incisors (front teeth) makes eating harder and less efficient.  The solution is floating (filing) the teeth on a regular basis, and inspecting the mouth for lost

or infected teeth.  It is also very helpful to change  the feed to a more easily chewed and digested type.  Complete feeds high in beet pulp, such as Equine Senior and Respond, are good because they give the animal nutrients they need in a form they can easily consume.  This allows the owner to reduce the long stem hay they feed, which is hard for the older horse to chew.  Chopped hay, such as Denge, accomplishes the same goal.

The second consideration with an older horse is digestion.  Several organs within the body do not work as well and the result is that more

of what the horse eats goes straight through the system and out on the ground without the body being able to extract much nutrition  As a result, older horses tend to have poor hair and hoof quality, are more susceptible to colic and have less energy (not unlike what humans do as they age!).

All this does not mean that people should only have young horses.  One must simply tailor the diet and maintenance to fit the animal.  When this is done correctly, you can extend the useful years of your animal dramatically.n

About Llamas:  Shelter

Llamas are extraordinarily tough and hardy, but some kind of shelter is necessary and useful.  The type of shelter needed is dependent on the age and condition of the llamas and on the environment in which they live.

Shelter for healthy adult llamas:  In hotter regions of the country, 3-sided shelters are usually all that is needed for most cases.  This can be used as shade from the sun and shelter from winter winds.
Where it is very hot, a better arrangement for summer shade is a roofed structure with no sides.  Shade trees with some spacing through them (for air circulation) are excellent.  Some

people put pea gravel down under groves of trees to make the ground even cooler.

In cold climates, it is a good idea to have a place to put the llamas where doors can be closed, to shut out all wind.  Heating is usually unnecessary, but reducing wind chill is a good idea.

Shelter for crias or ailing llamas:  Very young llamas do not have good ability to regulate their body

thermostats.  If crias are born during extreme weather (heat, cold or storms) they are much more likely to do well if they and their mothers can be sheltered from adverse weather conditions.  Llamas that are ill don't need any further stress, so again, it is useful to have some better shelter for llamas that fall into this category.  For these animals, we  have a traditional barn with horse stall that we use as our llama "hospital" and "maternity ward."n