Adding weight onto a veteran

A

abbieandfiona

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 March 2008
Messages
1,698
Location
somerset
Visit site
Im trying to add weight onto my veteran mare, teeth fine, health fine, back checked.
At night she has haylage, has 2 feeds a day of veteran chaff, 16 plus and sugerbeet with soya oil. Is there anything you would change or add on?
 
Hi,
I fed my old pony on chaff, 16plus and sugar beet for years with good results. She's 32 now and last winter she started dropping weight even though she was getting all she could eat. She's struggling to chew hay now so shes on ready mash extra, fast fibre , sugar beet shreds and hifi senior twice a day as a hay replacer and she gets flaked barley with apple chaff and sugar beet as a hard fed twice a day and she is looking fabulous....especially as she's not even on the grass yet! This is her on the left. :)
pepsipic.jpg
 
abigail621 said:
Im trying to add weight onto my veteran mare, teeth fine, health fine, back checked.
At night she has haylage, has 2 feeds a day of veteran chaff, 16 plus and sugerbeet with soya oil. Is there anything you would change or add on?
Click to expand...

How much oil are you giving ? you could increase it if you're not giving much, I'm a lover of spillers high fibre cubes, I give mine a large stubbs scoop of cubes and add a scoop of water, they swell into a mash which mine loves, he doesn't have any probs with his teeth he just likes it this way. He's 32, he has this twice a day, muzzled when turned out and soaked hay, he had lami few years back. I add oil as and when needed, I keep an eye on his weight, by sight and weigh tape
 
Last edited:
Equijewel!!! Top stuff! I have a 28yr old who is a nightmare to keep weight on (was!) He is not a big eater either, so increasing feeds is not really an option. It is expensive, but it works and if he has a few days where he doesn't want to eat much hard feed I can increase the Equijewel and know he is still getting those all important calories.
 
ive just had this very conversation with allen and page - they said use calm and condition or veteran vitality (Dodson and H will have equivalents) and add linseed oil - if you use a lot you need to add vit e as an antioxidant. feed with chaff preferably chaff coated with oil such as mollichaff showshine. its working with my boy who dropped quite a bit coming out of winter. he also decided he didnt want to eat haylage or hay!
 
Baileys Outshine. Worked wonders for my friend's 26y.o. Thoroughbred. He was also getting Alfa-A, 16+, and Baileys No.1 :)
 
Try Milk pellets, they are a high calorie milk based supplement generally used for foals who arent getting enough from their mothers it helps gain weight and strength. my friend was recommended them for her horse to help gain weight and they worked amazingly, most feed merchants sell them, i know spillers have their own brand of them too.
 
You dont say how much you are feeding so perhaps look at that, as you seem to be feeding the right feed for condition.
My 28 year old came out of the winter a little poor, and I put her on 16+ and she looks so well now; she put on weight, and has really shiny coat, and is bright in herself. She didnt seem particularly not bright before hand, but she is definatly brighter now.

I did research veteran feeds before deciding on what to give her - I didnt think she would like to eat Allen and Page feeds - she likes quite crunchy feeds - but thats an individual thing.
 
Have you thought of adding Yea sacc or Xlint to the feed to help her get the most out of it? Has worked well for mine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top