Condition- muscle or fat???

[AshTay]

Hi

My new horse seriously lacks condition, has no topline and a long-ish weak-looking back. I'd always thought that the only way to build condition was through work to build up muscle tone and I'm starting to work on that.

But feeds such as Blue Chip state they'll increase topline and condition. I feed Baileys Lo Cal as a balancer to my older horse as it does what it says on the tin but by comparison is Blue Chip "hi cal"?

I don't want my horse to pile on weight as he's a tb x sec d (although I don't think he's a particulaly good doer given photos I've seen of him in the past but that could all be down to management) but anything that I could do feed-wise to help me build his condition up would obviously be a bonus.

Thoughts please!?

 

[ThePony]

Although you can give feed which will make sure your horse has all the nutrition he needs to build muscle, and you can feed enough to give a fat horse which will hide a lack of good muscle development, but you can't feed on a topline - good nutrition and work will do that, no other way I'm afraid! Some feeds claim to contain essential amino acids which will give the building blocks for muscle, but wether they actually help the horse to put muscle down I don't know - so many supplents seem to just play on owners anxieties!
I'm a big fan of KISS - adlib long fibre, with one or more feeds each day of fibre (chaff, oiled chaff, grass nuts - what ever suits) along with a vit and min supp (or pasture analysis to let you know what minerals are needed) for most horses is sufficient, with the addition of oil if more cals are needed either for weight gain or more work. I'm not a big fan of processed liquid oils as alot of the nutrition will have been destroyed in the manufacture. I like microionized linseed instead.

 

[unbalanced]

There is a supplement you can get that helps them to build muscle if you use it alongside correct work. It's called Equine Myoplast and I think you can only get it from the vet.
I used it to help my older mare build back up after box rest. It looks kind of like caviar and has amino acids or something. The disadvantage is it costs £75 for a tub which lasts about a month.

 

[Nocturnal]

Agree with ThePony. For me, condition means weight, not necessarily muscle. If you think your horse is the correct weight then I wouldn't say he needs more condition. As said above, correct feed will give your horse the nutrients it needs to build the muscle, but only correct excercise will acutally put it on.

I can vouch for Equitop Myoplast - in conjunction with the proper work it will put on muscle like nothing else. It's expensive though, and I think you can get the same results without it if you're willing to wait.

 

[AshTay]

Thanks everyone - that's what I thought! Don't think I can stretch to the myoplast thingy but am not in a rush anyway so can do it slowly.

I do think he's a nice weight at the moment - i was worried he'd lose weight when he moved to us because of routine change but actually he's chilled out a lot and if anything has gained slightly.