the senior horse, 3: a complete senior diet and summer kairos

Back in the late fall I decided to transition Salina off her complete senior diet and onto the same diet the geldings are on, the primary reason being that she is eating a lot of hay and I wondered if the unbalanced portion of her diet (the hay and forage) was in effect throwing off her trace mineral ratios.

Over the winter she got the geldings' diet, except she got an extra meal mid-day. She mostly maintained her weight but by the time the grass came out this spring, and a good month into it, she hadn't regained her weight. Not an alarming loss by any means, but enough so that I have decided to put her back onto the complete senior diet (developed by Dr. Eleanor Kellon).

I am in the process of adding the additional ingredients back in, slowly so as to allow her digestive system to adjust. We'll be up to the full amounts in another few weeks' time, and I'll start her back on the customized vit/mineral mix I get from HorseTech that goes with this diet. I'll still add her joint supplements and lysine individually, and her ALCAR.

She's picked up some weight already, and seems to have more energy. The reasoning behind the complete diet is that it alone provides all the vitamins and minerals she needs, balanced to the correct ratios, and served wet so she has the best chance of absorbing the good stuff. The geldings are also on a balanced, wet diet, but their meals are balanced to the hay they eat. With Salina, we have shifted to the assumption that she is no longer able to chew the hay well enough, or digest it well enough, to get all she needs.

After this experiment over the winter, I think I've established it pretty well - she does best on the complete diet.

I keep wondering when I should look at Keil Bay's diet in terms of absorption issues, etc. Although he would dearly love to shift to what Salina is eating, I'm not seeing signs that he needs it yet, and it may well be he doesn't need it for a long time, if at all.

Keil Bay's transition to senior diet might be that he gets a mid-day meal of ODTB cubes, which he will love just as much.

On another note, we've shifted into summer schedule here, which means horses come in around 10 a.m. and get feed tubs, then get groomed and set up for the day hanging out in the barn with their fans. Salina adores being groomed after a night out in the pasture, and she usually positions herself for it and waits. I brush, check for ticks and insects bites, use calendula tincture and water as needed, wash her eyes (the empty socket collects dust and she loves having it gently cleaned), and end with a light spray of the herbal fly mix we use. It's a special and quiet time that all of us enjoy. It's a drowsy time, and often one or more of the equines will lie down as I work.

For Salina, who is retired from riding, this time is even more special. It's very clear she enjoys the attention and the actual grooming, and I go slowly so it lasts about as long as a ride would. With all the horses and her donkeys in the barn, relaxing, it's a time she can let go and relax herself. No need to keep alert to everything going on - we're all right there, and with the fans going, the outside world just disappears.

It's a good time for her and a good time for me - so other-worldly that yesterday when Fed-Ex drove in and honked the horn for five minutes we didn't even hear it! We were in our own time, which is a place I think the senior horses are especially good at taking us.