Welcome to the view from here

I've been posting my thoughts, views in many places lately.  This site is to consolidate those posts into one location for ease of browsing.

And to start things off, some of my views on feeding horses.

If you have a horse that won't gain weight no matter what you do, this is what I do:

1) worm them, worm them, worm them. It's cheap now, so just do it!!
2) Give them a shot of B12 (or B complex) stimulates their appetite and prevents B12 deficiency, which causes anemia.
3) make sure they have iron in their blood ... again anemia. Check with your vet about this one, but I've given iron shots to my old horses with good results.
4) Make sure they have all of their electrolytes in adequate quantities. I keep epsom salts out as well as the traditional plain salt, sulfur salt and trace mineral salt. You may need to provide salt loose because some horses can't lick enough to get enough. Try licking a salt block for 5 minutes and you'll know what I mean.
5) Hay and water 24/7. Yeah, I know but some people still don't get it.
6) Get their teeth done, or that hay won't do much good.
7) Consider a pelleted feed. Much easier to chew and digest for the old horses and it can be wet down to make a gruel to increase fluid intake.
8) In the winter - blanket them. Most horses will keep weight better with a blanket in the pasture than in a stall without one - depending on where you live. I've done "experiments" with mine on this count and can tell you that even old mares do fine in pasture with a blanket, in Oklahoma in the winter. I try not to stall old horses because they are more prone to colic if they don't get enough exercise.