autumn / winter feed options for a veteran in light work

sparklypickle

sparklypickle

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I am sure everyone will have an opinion on this topic! We are trying to decide what to feed a veteran 15'2 thoroughbred type horse who is in light work to get some condition on him before winter comes. He has very little top line and his ribs are a bit visible. He is currently on grass during the day and a hay net and carrots at night but he need more now the nights are getting colder.
All of the food suppliers have their own ideas on what he should be fed and they all seem to conflict! We want him to be in the best condition possible as he's going to feel the cold but don't want to be spending silly amounts or to keep changing the feed.
He can already be quite excitable on hacks so ideally something that doesn't fizz him up would be nice!

any ideas? what do you feed your veteran horse?

thanks!
 
I would feed Alpha A oil or the alpha molasses free, the oil one can fizz some horses up but is a better condtioning feed, unmolassed sugar beet and micronised linseed, its all mainly fibre and oil so shouldnt fizz the horse up but you can feed quite a bit without it doing any harm, I feed this to both of mine one is a worked everday Arab who can get silly but needs a condtioning feed, the other is an out of work Warmblood that is a very good doer and it works for both just in different quantities.

Other things you can feed are high fibre nuts, allen and page fast fibre or the calm and condition, or grass nuts are all good for putting on weight without making them too silly, Equijewel is a very good weight gain feed but I have known it to hot some horses up, I think you may just have to try some and see how calm he remains some feeds will make some horses hot and some wont they are all different.
 
I'd second the copra (and I would probably also include unmolassed beet and micronised linseed)- all oil/fibre based condition. Fast fibre has a pretty low DE (which is why I feed it to my good doer ;) ) so I wouldn't go with that as an option.
 
Thanks all,

I hadn't seen the Copra feeds - they look good. Do you need to add any supplements to copra+linseed+beet or alpha A + linseed + beet? like pink powder or something, or are they sufficient alone? If he has nuts or beet I think we will need to soak them first because his teeth aren't all there any more!
 
I second Allen and page calm and condition, it has helped my old booy put the weight on, I couldn't use alfa with oil for mine but ready grass worked well
 
If you want to feed a all round vitamin and mineral Equivite is fairly cheap and does the job, or if you went with the allen and page as long as you feed correct amount the horse will be getting what he needs, although you will get through it much quicker so just weigh up what will be best for you, I used to feed calm and condition but went through quite a bit each week feeding the full amount, so I switched to the unmolassed sugar beet and linseed and added the equivite and it works out cheaper.
 
I do think sugarbeet and speedibeet are totally underated its cheap and a bag lasts for ages, that and some micronized linseed I think is a fab combination. Also add some vit and min if the grass isn't great. I did have my TB on Alfa A Oil but took her off it as I had to feed huge volumes to meet the required nutritional value
 
Hi! Thanks all for suggestions. We decided not to go with beet as he can be silly and strong for an old timer. We went with starting him on calm and condition with some soakable fibre ( not sure of brand) and some agnus castus. His coat looks amazing after just one week and he was a little angel on our ride Sunday :)
 
My 15.2 TB isn't old but i feed her (all year) either Alpha A Oil, speedibeet, micronised linseed and pink powder or if i want a bit of fizz i change to sugarbeet. It keeps the weight on well and its cheap
 
I feed my lot fast fibre as they're good doers, but recently taken a 16yr old ex-racer on loan. Shes perfect weight right now but wouldn't want her to drop any lower, currently gets 1/2 bale of hay a night with a half scoop of hi fibre nuggets, molasses free chaff and a baileys balancer mug of fast fibre (measured dry) twice a day. Looks fine to me but isn't doing all the work we're going to do yet, so thinking of changing to A & P veteran vitality as heard good things and it will save me using loads of fast fibre to keep weight on!
 
I really liked the idea of copra but my mare wouldn't o near it. Literally in the height of winter when she was pretty hungry she would rather go without despite me trying everything to get her to eat it. Ive heard it takes some horses a while to et to like it so just bare that in mind.

Linseed micronized is brilliant. Last winter I fed my mare on that along with fast fibre. Shes a poor doer but this combination did the trick.

Due to one thing and another Ive switched to thunderbrook. She has been on it since april and looks fab. Don't be put off by the price, a bag goes on forever!
 
I kept my old boy in fantastic shape on a Calm and Condition based diet. When I lost him at 28 in March 2008 he had a super glossy coat and was a perfect weight. Tragically it was colic that got him but not due to diet in anyway.
 
If he can be silly on beet I'd steer clear of Allen and page c&c, my feed ideas would be:

1. Allen and page veteran vitality

2. Copra

3. Speedie beet, alpha oil & linseed meal.



Either of the three above should give you good, non heating results. I have used 2 & 3 and seen 1 in action on a number of oldies.
 
Well, as this is his first winter with us and he has a history of minor silliness we are trying to go with a low sugar diet. You are totally right! C&c does contain unmolassased beet (sorry my bad) so it may be cheaper to buy an alternative but we shall see how he gets on with this mix for a month or so. (obviously he still has grass all day, a haynet and some carrots with bucket feed at night and now some additional barley straw incase he gets bored or peckish. :) all I can say is I'm amazed at his calm demeanour and shiny coat..he had these flaky scabby patches of skin on his withers when he first came to my friend and whatever that was has cleared right up!
 
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