What to do over the winter??

If adding more fat/oil to his diet turns out to be not enough, I'd really suggest blanketing him as well.
Correct blanketing (aka, referring to a blanketing chart and using suitably weighted blankets for outside temperatures) can do wonders for keeping weight on, especially when it comes to older horses.
I know with my mare (26 years old), she starts dropping weight like crazy when it gets cold if she's not blanketed, no matter how much hay/grain she gets. She'll get "hot" from the extra feed but she'll be skinny and "hot". As soon as I blanket her, the weight will stay on and I don't need to feed nearly as much because she's not needing to eat a ton to stay warm.

However, I'd start with trying to change his feed regime and if that doesn't work well enough, then consider blanketing. :)

Thanks for the advice! What kind of oils would you suggest, bubba?

Not really. You need to find the right fat supplement for him and his metabolisim. I would drop the beet pulp - it's just filler. Senior and empower is what we have our 25 year old mare on to maintain her weight.

Sheet or Blanket also. Saves calories if he doesn't have to work as hard to stay warm.

I think the BO is actually about to change from beet pulp to something else, I'm not positive of what yet. I will look into senior and empower.. I will be talking more with the BO to figure out what would be best for hunter also.

My 20 year old mare is a hard keeper. We just started her on equipro 12/12 max I think it's called. Its 12% fat and has other things in it. We also give her Beet pulp mixed with cracked corn and wheat. Seems to be working, she's feeling and looking great! We also give her a sea cucumber supplement for her joints, which I noticed a difference in just days with that- with all of this together she's like a new horse! She also gets blanketed in the winter... Verrry soon her blanket will be going on!
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He was just started 2 or 3 weeks ago on a different joint supplement, I think it was called Corta Flx. I've never heard of a sea cucumber supplement before. But usually Hunter gets blanketed only if it's below like 30.. Some nights 35. Should I start blanketing him sooner? Right now it's getting into the low 40s at night and is in the 70s in the day.

You'll want to verify with your own research, but I just did a preliminary look-around, as it's been a very long time since I had to feed a skinny horse oil. Looks like corn oil is bad, as is sunflower oil. Canola oil and soybean oil are still not ideal, but far preferable. If you can get flax seed, I think that is the gold standard. And I just read something about coconut oil potentially being very good, as well.

The Truth about Feeding Horses Corn Oil » SmartPak Equine Blog

Its called Equu Sea and it has other stuff in it, but the main ingredient is sea cucumber. And the grain that I use that's high in fat is called Equi-pro Pro-max 12.
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We use Cool Calories and a probiotic supplement to keep our OTTB as fat as a pig!!

Seriously. He's fat. Our vet came out today as Epona, our Belgian mare had an allergic reaction to...something.....vet thinks something bit her multiple times...and she was amazed at how fat our OTTB is.

She said she wouldn't advise that we allow him to gain anymore weight.




He was plump like this all through last winter....with just using Cool Calories and SmartDigest from Smart Pak.....oh, and we do blanket him.

I'll be looking more into trying the Cool Calories. :) how cold does it get before you blanket him? I see you're up in Pennsylvania and I'm way down in Georgia...