A bit of feeding advice?

Kokopelli

Kokopelli

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So I got a bit of a hyper horse and he's losing weight atm, I want to start feeding him but am a bit worried about what will fizz him up.

I've never had a hyper horse so not sure what feeds are best.

I was thinking sugar beet? I don't think this gives energy.

We have some Dodson and Horrel maintainance nuts, I gave these to my old horse and they worked great but not sure if they fizz up. It does say on the packet however "Topline without excitability".

I will also give him HiFi original as this is what I always give my horses.

He can cough a bit so I was thinking of getting the big bales of haylage instead of hay to share with some other liveries, will haylage fizz him up?
 
I would change to haylage as this shouldn't make him any livelier than hay and should also help him to gain a bit of weight. Remember you will need to feed more haylage than you would hay as haylage has a higher water content.

As for hard feed Alfa A Oil may be a good chaff to feed as Oil is useful for helping horses to gain weight and improve condition. The best feed for weight gain is Dodson and Horrell Build up. It comes in mix and cube forms but some mixes are known for providing more energy than cubes so I would go for the cubes. This feed also provides slow-release energy to provide condition with excitability.

There is more information about this feed here: http://www.farmway.co.uk/equine-2/e...quine-feed-25/dodson-horrell-build-up-620.htm

I know lots of horses which have been fed Build up when they needed to gain condition and I've seen some fantastic results so I would definitely recommend it.

Hope this helps. :)
 
Fibre fibre and more fibre! Ad lib hay or haylage.

Change to a higher calorie chop, such as alfalfa or chopped grass, speedibeet as opposed to normal beet (much lower sugar content), change the maintenance nuts to either Top Spec Conditioning Cubes or Badminton Conditioning Nuggets, maintenance cubes as the name suggests will not put on weight but will only maintain current weight and as your horse is a worry head they are not providing enough calories to even maintain his weight. If you feed the Top Spec cubes you will have to add a vit/min supplement but if you feed the correct amount of the Badminton Nuggets you will not have to. I would also add oil, Linseed,Soya or Vegetable.
 
Contrary to the advice above I would avoid Alfa-a (unless you can try a small amount without commiting to buying a whole bag) as it can fizz sensitive types up. Instead I would add a good dollop of Soya Oil to his feed. A horse at my yard has been struggling to gain condition and the owner was advised to feed him a small scoop of soya bean meal twice a day. The difference in just one week is amazing - gained weight and his coat has a lovely shine on it. Might be worth a try?

Add-lib hay / haylage is a must and I think the sugarbeet idea is also a good one although as sugested above I would use Speedibeet due to its much lower sugar content.

On top of this I would make sure he is getting the recomended amount of a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement. try him on this regime for a month and if no improvement, review it.
 
The maintanence cubes are to build top line as he is also under muscled. Another feed we was thinking of was Blue Chip original as we feed this to our old pony who also couldn't keep weight on and he just looked amazing, it has all the biotins etc aswell. Does Blue Chip fizz them up?

I was considering Top Spec today but I'm not sure if it would make him too excitable does it fizz up at all?

Will speedy beet give him less energy then normal sugar beet?
 
Do you really need hard feed? My friends wee horse is very forward going and the slightest bit of hard feed sends him mad so he just gets lots and lots of haylage. He looks brilliant ... and shiny :)
 
Yes we have soya oil, also gave this too old pony so will probably give to him aswell we saw a big difference. Do you think it may be a good idea to get a nutritionist to review him?
 
any type of oil but not olive oil! you could try Baileys calm and condition that is often raved about. Baileys Outshine or Coprameal.
 
Speedi beet will give him less energy than sugar beet yes.

As for balancers like topspec and blue chip, I'd avoid them. Theycan hype some up although if you can introduce it handful by handful you might be ok.

I wouldn't change too much all at once. try adding the speedibeet and soya oil and see how you go. if after a month or so there isn't much improvement. look at adding something else.

do look at a vit and min supplement though as where the grass is in short supply they aren't getting all their vits and mins.
 
Kokopelli said:
The maintanence cubes are to build top line as he is also under muscled. Another feed we was thinking of was Blue Chip original as we feed this to our old pony who also couldn't keep weight on and he just looked amazing, it has all the biotins etc aswell. Does Blue Chip fizz them up?

I was considering Top Spec today but I'm not sure if it would make him too excitable does it fizz up at all?

Will speedy beet give him less energy then normal sugar beet?
Click to expand...

What you need to look at is the Digestible Energy (DE), maintenance feeds tend to be around 10, conditioning feeds around 11-13.5, Speedibeet has a DE of 11.5 I believe, (it may be more) so has a good conditioning index comparable with normal beet but without the starch and sugars (fast release energy) which could make him excitable, so no speedibeet will not give less energy, just more slow release energy.

I have heard incidences of both Blue Chip and Top Spec making horses fizzy, but the majority of horses don't seem to be affected. The point to remember is that what fizzes one horse up may not affect another.

Steer clear of anything with a lot of cereal/sugar in it as both these could cause your horse to become overexcited.

Fibre and Oil would be what I would feed tbh
 
Thanks for all the help, I probably won't consider anything else now except for the oil, and I'll keep giving him what he's on, I'm not giving him the full amount of maintainance cubes so I might up this a bit. So if he starts losing weight again when it gets colder I'll probably up his feed gradually and perhaps consider speedi beet.
 
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