Sponsored by Triple Crown Nutrition

Is your senior horse in optimum body condition for the upcoming winter months? As fall approaches, now is the time to plan for your horse’s changing nutritional needs—test your soil, eradicate invasive weeds, and reseed and fertilize pastures. For pastures soon-to-be snow covered, your hay needs should be secured.

While good quality hay and pasture is the best source of calories for your horse, you will also need to adjust your feeding program if your senior horse is notorious for losing weight during the winter. Most senior diets are high in fiber and fat in order to meet the nutritional and caloric needs of aging horses. Others may have metabolic issues such as Cushing’s, putting them as risk for developing catastrophic laminitis, as well as issues resulting from a compromised immune system, making management critical.

Triple Crown® addresses your feeding concerns with its whole grain free, beet pulp-based, high fat senior feed. Shredded beet pulp is the primary fiber source, providing a caloric value similar to oats, yet it is an easily digested fiber source and low in sugar and starch, making it ideal for horses needing a low nonstructural carbohydrate diet. For older horses that have difficulty digesting traditional long stem hay, beet pulp provides another advantage by promoting a healthy microbial population in the gut.

Focusing on gut health, Triple Crown Senior includes EquiMix®, a proprietary blend of yeast cultures, organic minerals, prebiotics, probiotics and digestive enzymes to aid in fermentation and help improve immune function. Most recently, the addition of ButiPEARL™ Z EQ, a combination of a slow release butyric acid and zinc, helps strengthen the lining of the gut, leading to improved nutrient absorption and a stronger barrier against pathogens, parasites and toxins.

For horses having difficulty chewing and swallowing, Triple Crown Senior breaks down easily when mixed with water to form a mash, plus it includes enough bulk fiber to be used as the sole ration for horses unable to eat hay or pasture. While horses should continue to receive long stem hay or pasture for as long as they’re able, our beet pulp-based feeds help horses thrive when lower quality hay or quantity of hay becomes a problem.

Triple Crown Senior is also the feed of choice for horses not typically considered seniors, such as horses recovering from surgery or neglect that need elevated levels of calories and nutrients or for those suffering from gastric ulcers that require controlled levels of sugar and starches (NSC).

So when should horse owners make the switch to a senior diet? While there isn’t an arbitrary age, Triple Crown Senior is typically recommended for horses that can no longer maintain their body condition on a normal hay and grain diet. In addition to visible signs such as weight loss, dull hair coat, diminished muscle tone, and reduced activity levels, there are internal changes as well. Age can impair the whole digestive process—teeth become less efficient at grinding food, the small intestine becomes less efficient at absorbing nutrients, and the fiber fermentation process becomes more delicate and easily upset. When digestive processes are impaired and the absorption of nutrients are compromised, horses will require more food and calories to maintain body condition. Triple Crown Senior has proven itself time and time again to put the needed weight back on horses when other senior diets have failed.

Be proactive this winter. Trust Triple Crown Senior to provide your horse with a higher level of nutrition and calories needed to maintain good health during the cold months ahead. 

Learn more at triplecrownfeed.com.

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