Waiting for the vet to come out and clear a choke on my 26 year old Arab, Royale.  This is the second horse of mine that has experienced choke directly following feeding Purina Equine Senior.  After it happened with the first horse, I was told it was not the food, there must've been some other issue with the horse, etc. so when my other senior horse started having issues keeping weight on I decided to try the Senior Feed again... big mistake. :(  All my horses have regular vet exams, teeth are floated as needed, etc.  None of them bolt their food.

Any prayers for my sweet Royale will be appreciated... he's being such a trooper.  You wouldn't even know he has a blockage... he just stands there so good... not overly distressed as was the case with my other boy. He's refusing water... the vet had us try a bit of grass to see if the blockage was still there and it came back out the nose. :( 

I'm also looking for any alternatives to pelleted feed in senior horses (or any other horses, for that matter.  I'll never offer pelleted feed again).

Thats terrible. I had similar issues with seniro feed with my POA gelding. He also was pretty much off of hay, he'd get a flake of really soft alfalfa to munch on from time to time, but he couldn't really eat it. If you want to drop pelleted feed completely (as we did with my pony) there are many different options out there. Here is what my little beasty would get:

 AM Meal
3 lbs Alfalfa-Timothy hay cubes soaked over night (http://www.ontariodehy.com/tab02-03.htm)
1 lbs Beet Pulp soaked over night (http://www.pets-warehouse.com/vpasp/shopexd.asp?id=277878)
1 dose Smart Vite Senior (http://www.smartpakequine.com/productclass.aspx?productClassid=4502)\
1 dose Cocosoya or other similar fat source such as corn oil (http://www.cocosoya.com/)

Noon Meal
3 lbs Alfalfa-Timothy hay cubes soaked over night
1 lbs Beet Pulp soaked over night

PM Meal
3 lbs Alfalfa-Timothy hay cubes soaked over night
1 lbs Beet Pulp soaked over night
1 dose Strongid C2X (http://www.strongidc2x.com/)

This could be adjusted to fit any age horse not just a senior horse. Merely change the type of Multi-Vit to suite the horse (Smart Pak has a full line). I hope this was helpful.

 There is a horse at our farm that chokes on senior feed as well.  He does not belong to me, but I was involved in his last episode, poor guy, he was miserable and it cut off circulation to his face and nose, he couldn't eat or drink and had trouble breathing.  We were able to dislodge it by massaging his neck.  The vet never showed up (gee thanks -- never using that vet again).

I would wet your horse's feed thoroughly to help him eat it.

I don't know many alternatives to feeding pelleted senior feed (the only real experience I have with feeding is by what I feed at my trainer's barn when I do chores).  We have two senior feeds at the barn: one pelleted and one texturized which is a mixture of oats and pellets.  I'm not sure if maybe that would help with choking. 

I wouldn't totally dismiss pelleted feed, though.  As horse's get older, they have a hard time chewing their feed, especially if they've lost any teeth.  We had a horse that was 35 and had no teeth left.  He ate pelleted senior feed that was soaked in a gallon of water and he ate just fine.

My daughter's 19 year old gelding had a pretty scarey choke episode a month or so ago. I have been feeding him purina sr all winter, but mixed with and soaked with, beet pulp. That evening we were messing with the horses, brushing them and wormed them, and then I gave them some feed as a reward. Well, I didn't soak the pellets, and he choked. I had to go to the vet's home to get some banamine and muscle relaxer. Those two shots and massaging his throat A LOT cleared the choke after an hour or so. It was my first experience with choke in over 30 years of having horses, and it was scarey. Jackson will still get sr feed, I will just make sure it is soaked EVERY TIME.

Did you know that a horse swallows about 16 quarts of saliva a day? With the easier eating senior foods, there is less chewing, hence less saliva, hence the higher risk for choke. The saliva has a bicarbonate that goes right down with the food to protect the stomach...less saliva, less protection against ulcers.

Soaked beet pulp is an excellent addition to the hay. Couldn't be safer, either. Soaked alfalfa cubes is also a good idea, as mentioned. 

Fantacy has choked 4 times all of which he got Purina Senior once we started wetting it down. (two 3QT scoops to two 3QT scoops of water to make it a mash the Choking has Stopped.

He also cribs and has very few teeth. But try soaking the feed. Also we switched to Kent Senior and its actually put more weight on him.

Purina has recently slightly changed or enhanced it's top 7 horse feeds, including their Senior.  One of the things they changed about the Sr. is they made it what they call an "easy soak pellet" that turns to mash in about 2 minutes with a little water.

My family has had horses going back several generations and we have always fed Purina and have never had an instance of Choke because of it.

I like the product, and will definitely continue to use it; I will just make sure I soak it before giving it to the older gelding. I don't know if he would have still choked if I had given him the Strategy pellets that the younger filly got that day - I'm not blaming the sr feed for the choke. ANY grain/pellet Jackson gets from now on will be soaked - I (not to mention the horse!!) don't need to go through that again!

We had the vet out to clear the blockage with a tube.  We massaged it but it didn't clear on its own.  Thankfully, the vet was able to clear it out without too much difficulty... it was definitely less stressful than my last experience with it (took a LONG time for the vet to clear the choke and she kept going down the wrong pipe with the tube.  She didn't give antibiotics following the procedure and the horse ended up with a severe respiratory infection. Needless to say we got a different vet out this time). 

It was probably a knee jerk reaction but I immediately gave the food to a friend of mine. It's possible that I did not soak the feed long enough or add enough water... I just can't bring myself to feed it again after dealing with choke in two of my horses.