Am I feeding my horse too much?

[countrybumpkin727]

Hello all!

So I got my 17.2 tb ex racer about a month ago and so far he has been great. But the last couple of days he has been a lot spookier and not as chilled as he normally is!! I have been in two minds of weather it is his food or if he is just trying it on as he is 7 and getting used to his surroundings.
When I first got him his previous owner had it on a full scoop of mollichaff, a buildup mix. sugar beat and a handful of balancer. I had him on that and he seemed happy. I was using my friends scoop but since last week I have started using my own which appears to be one of those big ones... I also, from advice from a friend have moved him to alpha a as apparently it is a lot better. So this week he has been on 1 of my big scoops of build up mix 1 big scoop of the sugar beat 1 Handful of balancer and recently 1 scoop of alpha a. I ended up ringing my friend and asked her about the alpha a and if that was the problem with his behaviour and she said that she thought it was the amount of food he is on and I should reduce everything to half a scoop as he is getting too much grain. I asked another friend and she said it was the alpha a and I need to change it... They both are instructors with lots of experience so not sure what to do. He is super skinny and I school him 4 days a week and hack 2 days.

Any advice would be great. Also if you have had ex racers what have you used to gain muscle and weight??

Thanks

 

[9tails]

If you want to use Alfa then get Alfa A oil for weight gain. Some horses may reach differently to different feeds, I don't use Alfa as my horse got itchy. Micronised linseed is excellent for weight gain. What is the built up mix? Cut his feed down for now but add oil, sunflower from the supermarket will do for now.

I think though that your problem is him finding his feet. 7 years old and one month in? Yeah, I bet he's trying it on.

 

[countrybumpkin727]

Thanks, that is what I am doing. I realised a scoop was not a good measurement so I weighed how much build up mix i gave him (the mix is Dodson and Horrell).
Ill take him out again tomorrow and see what happens

 

[ruth83]

Alfa A Oil contains the same MJ/Kg of digestible energy as competition mix, more in some cases
http://www.dengie.com/horse-feeds/alfa-a-range/alfa-a-oil
http://www.dodsonandhorrell.com/our-feeds/competition-work/normallaid-back/competition-mix.html

If he was happy on the previous diet and different since the change then revert back to the previous diet - in a way both friends are right as you have changed both the alfa-a AND the quantities of feed.
Yes, it is quite probable that he is finding his feet with you as well, but if something is worse since a change, change back!

 

[Micky]

A friend of mine has put her skinny TB on a topspec product, unfortunately I dont know which one but he has put on weight and is still chilled out, maybe try ringing them ( thats what she did) and ask for advice, they are very helpful and the feeds seem to work plus the balancers are very well balanced!!

 

[JoClark]

The top spec product you are talking about may be their balancer or ulsa kind cubes.
Bring ex race if any signs of ulcers I would check first as that can stop them maintaining weight.
Linseed is great for weight, a drop of mazola oil if needed.

I however agree and think he should go back to his diet until he settles then slowly change. Alfa is generally good but can blow the brains of some horses.

Is he getting ad lib hay? Hay helps maintain weight well.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Eliminate molasses / moglo from the diet. So never sugar beet nuts, or most bagged feeds.
Cut out cereals like wheatfeed and barley, [and oats] if he is hyper.
For conditioning a very skinny type use copra.
For all use micronised linseed, start with 100gms per day. 200gms in a week.
Ad lib haylage with a bit of hay.
Minerals
Salt
Weightape weekly and record feed weekly on a spreadsheet.
Plenty of non exciting work, use a good instructor to plan his work.
Plenty of turnout and a regular routine, handle quietly but firmly and consistently.
He should be used to being tied up for grooming, so do this until you are ready to teach him to groom loose.
Lots of gridwork and long reining to build muscles in the right plave.
Check saddle fit and do teeth.
No ridden jumping til he is ready for it as you want a calm horse. Just do trotting poles, canter poles and tiny fences, if he starts rushing, use more ground poles.

 

[TGM]

Your horse's current diet is high in sugars and starches which can make sensitive horses fizzy and spooky. To get weight gain without spookiness you need to give foods where the calories mainly come from fibre and oil. Build up mix is barley based and therefore very starchy and if you are feeding molassed sugar beet it is normally about 20% sugar. If you want to stick with a commercial mix or cube then as mentioned above you could look at the Top Spec Cool Condition cubes which are low in starch/sugar and are designed to be fed alongside a balancer. Likewise you could switch from molassed sugar beet to an unmolassed kind like Speedibeet. Most important though if you want weight gain is that the horse has access to good quality forage (good grazing, hay, haylage) 24/7.

 

[Equi]

I want to bounce off the walls just reading that diet. Lots of sugar and energy, which may be coming out as behaviours. Does he really NEED all that?

 

[Pinkvboots]

Eliminate molasses / moglo from the diet. So never sugar beet nuts, or most bagged feeds.
Cut out cereals like wheatfeed and barley, [and oats] if he is hyper.
For conditioning a very skinny type use copra.
For all use micronised linseed, start with 100gms per day. 200gms in a week.
Ad lib haylage with a bit of hay.
Minerals
Salt
Weightape weekly and record feed weekly on a spreadsheet.
Plenty of non exciting work, use a good instructor to plan his work.
Plenty of turnout and a regular routine, handle quietly but firmly and consistently.
He should be used to being tied up for grooming, so do this until you are ready to teach him to groom loose.
Lots of gridwork and long reining to build muscles in the right plave.
Check saddle fit and do teeth.
No ridden jumping til he is ready for it as you want a calm horse. Just do trotting poles, canter poles and tiny fences, if he starts rushing, use more ground poles.

Agree with much of this I have Arabs so they can be flighty and spooky like the tb alpha a is okay for one of my horses the other one is loopy on it, I feed chopped grass chaff the northern crop green bag, unmolassed sugar beet, cool stance copra and sometimes micronised linseed if they need it, they never get any grain or cereal feed and hold there weight well and are pretty level headed most of the time, I don't feed anything with molasses as that can hype them up.