Box rested horse feed/condition

[Michen]

Am getting a bit worried about Boggle weight. We have just finished one month of box rest with two more to go (with controlled walking). He’s on ad-lib hay and a handful of haylage, with a token feed of topspec high fibre mash.

He’s pretty adapted and chilled to being in the box and hand walking, has had one day of frenzy but general seems relaxed and ok.

But he is looking really lean, like he does when hunting mid winter, and not eating huge amounts of hay (never a big eater anyway). I could up his haylage but I don’t want to give a box rested horse that I need to keep calm too much energy.

Would you be worried about this loss of condition? I could put him back on the equerry conditioning mash that he does very well on, but again just cautious not to give him much energy..

 

[ITPersonnage]

I wouldn't be worried about him personally as long as he looks happy in himself. Are you really wanting him to look porky ??

 

[Michen]

I wouldn't be worried about him personally as long as he looks happy in himself. Are you really wanting him to look porky ??

Not porky but I don't want him to get leaner, and I feel he's lost weight since being box rested...

 

[be positive]

I would up the haylage if he will eat it, it does not send them all loopy, my haylage at the moment is more like wrapped hay, if you are using small bales try a low energy one, he looks fine but needs to be nibbling most of the time to keep himself occupied.

 

[Roxylola]

I think it's mainly lost muscle, I wouldn't worry yet, I wouldn't want him to lose a lot more. I'd try a bit more haylage, you can always go back if it does make him daft

 

[ihatework]

He’s a very similar body shape to my big horse and when not in work they do drop quite quickly, muscle as much as body fat. But I think due to their shape it looks worse than it is.

Keeping him calm and settled is a far higher priority than having him rounded.

You could add a bit of oil to his fibre mash, and give that 4x day and play around with different types of fibres. But I wouldn’t do anything too drastic.

Just be grateful he isn’t a 17hh+ version ?

 

[Leo Walker]

Honestly, I'd have him on a really good ulcer supplement and a suceed and if there was any improvement at all I'd have him scoped for ulcers. I know you say he doesn't show any signs, but the picky eating and not having a lot of interest in forage is a sign. Mines fat and only picky about hard feed, if she started with forage that would be my first step.

 

[NinjaPony]

Agree with the ulcers. Consider swapping him to timothy haylage-low energy, low sugar but they tend to love it and you can give larger quantities safely. I'd also think about giving 2 feeds of the high fibre mash, so increasing the quantity of a 'known' feed.

 

[Michen]

Honestly, I'd have him on a really good ulcer supplement and a suceed and if there was any improvement at all I'd have him scoped for ulcers. I know you say he doesn't show any signs, but the picky eating and not having a lot of interest in forage is a sign. Mines fat and only picky about hard feed, if she started with forage that would be my first step.

He's on one - Protexin Acid Ease. Been on it since autumn ish.

He's not being "picky" as such, he's very keen for his feed and obsessed with his handful of sympathy haylage but I've just purposely not fed him much of the latter as I was worried about the box rest/energy aspect.

He's eating the same amount of hay as he always does, the difference being he's not being turned out so not eating grass also, and he doesn't really have much else to do other than eat!

My vet actually warned me against too much haylage with him because you have to eat so much more of it to get to the same amount of forage, so he seemed to think hay was a better bet (pre box rest).

 

[Michen]

Actually what I might do is go and pick up a bag of ready grass.. he's going bonkers for grass when being in hand walked so maybe that is a good compromise between hay/haylage

 

[TPO]

Actually what I might do is go and pick up a bag of ready grass.. he's going bonkers for grass when being in hand walked so maybe that is a good compromise between hay/haylage

I know you know but please introduce gradually

I liveried beside someone who gave their horse a small bucket of it during box rest and he badly colicked. The vet said it should have been introduced the same as any new feed; small increments slowly

 

[Bradsmum]

I was just going to suggest some grass chaff or grass pellets as a little extra feed

 

[Michen]

I was just going to suggest some grass chaff or grass pellets as a little extra feed

Historically he’s never liked them. He’s a massive fan of a mash!!! Adores equerry conditioning mash but equally keen on the top spec one! I have started hand walking him with his feed outside his stable whilst he knows it’s there as it slows him down ?

 

[HeyMich]

I was going to suggest grass of some variety too. When mine was on BR I picked bucketfuls of fresh grass and put them in with her hay. And then I hand grazed her on the verges once the in-hand walking started. She actually started licking the soil at one point, so I knew she was missing some nutrients.

 

[be positive]

They only need more haylage if it is wet, I have tried a few types this winter for my oldie and none has been at all wet so I went back to the dry big bales as I couldn't find one that he really liked, I would give him a choice if he eats more and still drops you can rethink.

Most of mine are not keen on Readigrass surprisingly even the natives have left it this winter, the top spec grass seems to be nicer, fussy lot that they are.

 

[Tiddlypom]

He's on one - Protexin Acid Ease. Been on it since autumn ish

As you probably know, that only helps with foregut ulcers. I have a horse that we all thought was a definite for foregut ulcers (and she was on Acid Ease), but she scoped clear. Vet says that she has a number of equine patients that have blossomed on Succeed, which is aimed at hind gut ulcers. She can’t work out just what is in it that works, which miffs her, but it does work. My mare has done really well on it too. It’s not a POM, I get mine from Viovet.

ETA Same vet says that the Succeed Equine Faecal Blood Test for hind gut ulcers is unreliable though. IIRC it gives both false +ve and -ve results, so her advice was to stick the horse on succeed supplement and look for a difference.

 

[Meredith]

Most of mine are not keen on Readigrass surprisingly even the natives have left it this winter, the top spec grass seems to be nicer, fussy lot that they are.

My horse has Northern Crop Driers Graze-On Grass. She seems to prefer it. I think it is softer and shorter than most other brands.

I can’t help with box rest suggestions I am afraid. I am sure Boggle will be fine as you are always thinking ahead.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

What we find with the racehorses who have gone from being in full work to box rest is the first month they don't gain much weight but after week 2 the muscles start to soften and relax properly. Month 2 is where the weight starts to gain as the body realises it is really not being asked to work at all let alone hard!

So month 1 is all muscle memory and the body still expecting to be asked to work at a moments notice, month 2 is where the real change starts.

One week into box rest - straight from the racecourse to bos rest:

1 month after that ^^ pic you can see the muscle is still well defined but starting to soften. He is gettihg a belly but he was always a good doer that ate well:

 

[muddy_grey]

My mare was on box rest for nearly six months a couple of years ago. She had haylage as she always has. If he prefers it then I would up it. Also I got hay/grass bricks more for the entertainment and she really enjoyed them

 

[Red-1]

I wouldn't worry about him at all as he is, after all you don't want him weighty when he goes out on a leg that is still strengthening.

 

[Michen]

Ok thanks everyone! I'm not not taking the ulcer suggestions seriously btw, it's something that's always been a consideration for him..he is fed/treated in an "ulcer friendly" way as I do with any horse. If he is ulcery, it's going to be a real struggle as his maintenance (pre box rest) couldn't be any better and he's had a full work up which only showed this injury so tricky to fix any underlying cause of pain.

I'll have a look into the succeed.

 

[Michen]

What we find with the racehorses who have gone from being in full work to box rest is the first month they don't gain much weight but after week 2 the muscles start to soften and relax properly. Month 2 is where the weight starts to gain as the body realises it is really not being asked to work at all let alone hard!

So month 1 is all muscle memory and the body still expecting to be asked to work at a moments notice, month 2 is where the real change starts.

One week into box rest - straight from the racecourse to bos rest:

1 month after that ^^ pic you can see the muscle is still well defined but starting to soften. He is gettihg a belly but he was always a good doer that ate well:

That's very helpful- thank you!