My Spanish Mustang is 31 years old. He’s been in my family since he was 2. Here’s what I feed him.

Mist has always been a petite little guy. In this picture we were both young. My grandma owned him in Louisiana then.

Here he is now with my eight year old son. Mist is 31. He likes to be involved in everything we’re doing.

At 31 years old, his back teeth don’t allow him to chew up regular hay and pasture. I provide a diet of mostly soaked feed and fine alfalfa hay. He isn’t able to eat all of the alfalfa hay. The larger stems go to the younger horses or rabbits after Mist has picked through his portion. Currently I give him two or three buckets of soaked feed a day. His diet currently consists of:

• Alfafa pellets 6–7 quarts dry, 4–5 gallons wet. Split into 2–3 meals.
• Beet pellets 2–3 quarts, 2–2.5 gallons soaked, served with the alfalfa mash
• Nutrena SafeChoice Senior Molasses Free Horse Feed around 3 cups per meal
• Bluebonnet Feeds Horsemans Elite Ultra Fat High Fat Horse Feed around 3 cups per day
• One or two flakes of alfalfa hay a day

The large alfalfa and beet pellets listed above take a while to soak. I give it at least an hour to absorb all the water I top it with to reduce choke risk. If my schedule doesn’t allow that or if I have a pet sitter, I switch him over to this finer pellet that soaks immediately:

• Unbeetable feeds complete pellet

I have sometimes given camelina oil or something similar to boost calories. It’s very expensive though so I don’t always.

Feeding mash topped with senior feed pellets has kept Mist in decent shape. I’ve actually only owned him a year and a half. My grandma had him on regular hay and senior feed in Louisiana prior to this, but he was struggling that last year there.

He adapted to Wyoming cold just fine. The dry weather here makes it easier to soak his feed and leave it for hours without worrying about it going sour.

He’s an energetic, expressive old horse who loves outings. It’s funny how he will suggest that we go for an adventure if he’s bored. Mist still gets to go on trail rides and see new sights. He seems happy with my youngest son riding him. I pony Mist without a rider to get him out and about too.

I’m no medical professional, but I think this feeding routine has given him many more years. He would have wasted away if kept on mostly long stemmed hay. Before I brought him up North, he was colicing regularly. Since he’s been in my care, I’ve given him a mostly soaked feed diet and he seems to be feeling great. See my peppy old horse the video below