(Another) feeding thread(sorry!),advice please

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Gypley

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I have a 2 1/2yo shirex somthing coloured. Bought him very underweight and was kept on winter grass and although there was quite a lot, there was obvioisly nothing in it.
Since having him, he comes in at night out in day he's currently getting a huge good quality hay net at night and about 2 sections of hay in the field in the morning.
He gets a scoop of top chop lite (just because its what my mare has but thinking of changing him to alpha oil) and a scoop of conditioning cubes twice a day.
He's currently 15.2/3 and seems to be growing about an inch every half hour! But he's still quite ribby.
Can anyone recommend anything that will put a bit of weight on him but not turn him into an absolute monster!
Thank you in advance.
 
There's always about a section left in the morning but when he goes out he gets a helping hand from two fatties. (Hay in field is about 2 sections per horse, not between all of them!)
 
I'm not worried about the amount of hay he's eating as he gets an absolutly huge hay net. Do agree that better grass would do the trick but I think were all in the same boat with that atm!
May try him with a bag of linseed though.
 
As a youngster it is possible he may have a heavy worm burden - If he were mine I'd bomb drench him, worm with a broad spectrum wormer weekly for three weeks. The type of wormer would include both ivermectin and praziquontal. This will get everything.

Sometimes what happens the horse gets a heavy worm burden and then some of the parasites encyst themselves and hibernate until there is some free space in the gut. You worm the horse, this clears the gut and then the parasites hibernating break out and populate the gut leaving it as busy as before the worming.

With bomb drenching the first dose clears the current gut load, the second a week later gets the ones that have recently moved into the gut. The third gets the pin worms and any that have hatched in that week. You then put the horse onto a normal worming routine.

People are now going to have a hissy fit at me about this - I've been bomb drenching every new arrival for over 20 years, some have been in very poor condition and have not suffered as a result of the worming. None have become unwell/coliced or died as a result. All have then gone on to put on weight really fast.

With the current weather trends we are having globally the parasites have a longer breeding season, until being killed off by heavy frosts/cold weather. In NZ we're still in a drought situation but the recent rain - all 36 hours of it caused an increase in parasite population. Also the current trend to worm only at specific times of year for specific worms is not keeping pace with the lifecycle of the parasites.

Have a qualified dental practitioner check his teeth - not the vet, they stuff up too often! He will be losing milk teeth and growing his permanent ones and if a cap has got stuck this will greatly affect the way he can chew.

Baby horses do sometimes look ribby and as you say he seems to get taller by the hour he may just be going through a big growth spurt. Make sure he has all the minerals he needs by leaving a multi mineral lick available 24/7 or feed a good stud balancer - these contain all the essentials including amino acids for good muscle development.

In a couple of years you will be frantically trying to keep his weight down - my TB/Clydie cross at 4 years has I hope now stopped growing as this year she has actually carried more weight than in previous years.
 
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