Conditioning feed for 17y/o TB type

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My friend asked me for advice today re feed for her boy. He's a 17 year old 16hh Tbx who is currently on a stubbs scoop of apple chaff, 3/4 scoop of D&H veteran mix and at least half a scoop speedi beet twice a day with about 5 sections of hay at night (could eat more but money is VERY tight)

He's looking quite good (for him) ATM but IMO could do with LOADS more topline and more over the ribs.

I recomended she changed to a conditioning cube (baileys No4?) and or balancer (blue chip?), as he won't be getting the recomened levels of nutrients on the reduced abount of mix that he is getting, and to feed any more mix will make his feeds huge. And cubes are easier to digest than mixes... Maybe he should have more cubes and less chaff? Saying that the Veteran mix is also a conditioning feed so I'm a bit confused!!

any other thoughts? I am actually thinking a decent balancer will probably do him more good than anything else but I only have second hand experience of struggling to put weight on a horse!!
 
One of my older boys (22 years old) started to lose condition over the winter, so I did some digging around to find a new diet. He is now on Veteran Chaff and Saracen Biolife 2000 balancer, with some brewers yeast and speedibeet.

The change in him is amazing. He looks better than he has for years and has so much more (controllable) energy. I am so impressed with the Saracen balancer!
 
This year we started feeding my (20 yo) and my sister's 11 yo on Allen and Page's power and performance as my sister was advised by the lady in our feed shop that this helped to build up topline. I have to say they both look pretty well on it and mine doesn't seem to ahve dropped as much weight this year as he can do. Mine though does also get Allen and Page Old Faithful mixed in as well plus they both have Alfa A and sugar beet as do the rest of the horses.

A&P's Old Faithful on it's own does work pretty well as well. I don't know whether they are particularly heating - we don't have issues with that but I know some horses can fizz up on certain feeds so you do need to check the ingredients.
 
I would either increase the hay or think about changing to haylage but depends if the horse is a fizzy type, haylage might make it worse.

I'm a lover of spillers high fibre cubes, you can increase/decrease depending on grazing

You could add oil, up to a mug a day, calories without fizz, sunflower or soya
 
I rate Top Spec COol Conditioning Cubes. They're about £12 per bag and fibre based so no cereals to fizz him up. My tb has wintered well on alongside Alfa A Oil and NAF pink powder as an all round balancer along with being a pro and pre biotic.
To be honest though I think the best way of increasing weight and condition is adlib forage. The more hay or haylage she can get in him the better.
Lets now forget however, that the grass is starting to grow now, and even if he's not looking so great now, she will probably find that in a few weeks or so with access to some nice grass he should bloom without the extra feed.
 
I've been feeding A&P Veteran Vitality to 2 (TB and a small native) this winter, and they both look the best they have done in years on it. TB has always been difficult to keep weight on, and the native used to be a good doer but as he's got into his mid twenties he now finds it hard to keep condition. The VV is slightly lower MJDE/kg at 11 rather than 12-12.5 that I had been feeding before, but they actively want to eat it (which helps!), and I can only think that the processing it has gone through makes it so easily broken down that they don't waste anything. Oh, and the native had been having problems with scouring for months before I started on the VV, with various approaches having been tried to stop it with no success, and he's fine on the VV even after changing the field he's grazing which would have set him off again before. I don't mix anything with the VV other than adding a joint supplement and salt.

I get it at £10.40 a sack, and the most I have fed the TB was 3kg per day in the depths of winter, he gets half that amount now. A&P are currently doing a feed trial offer where you register to take part and they send you a £5 off voucher. Fill in a short diary for 4 weeks, send it back and you get another £5 voucher.
 
Thanks for all the sugestions! keep em coming!

I would usually worry about the grass at this time of year but to be honest with you our grass is so poor that even with the flush once it's been fertilised I really can't see it making much of a difference to him. It really is that rubbish!

If he were mine I'd be packing the hay into him and have him on a basic fibre diet with a vit and min supplement added but I can sympathise with the owner - she is trying to do the best for him on a limited budget (she's a student). I did gently sugest a tub of a hay replacer which she seemed interested in so that might be a way of getting some better quality forrage into him...

I have suggested the oil to her and she agreed so hopefully she'll go and get some. I too would prefer him to be on something a bit more conditioning than apple chaff but each to their own I spose.

I think I'll suggest that she adds a balancer as she runs the mix down and then perhaps gets a cube (either conditioning or high fibre) to help with the fibre and calorific intake... I notice there are quite a few 'senior' balancers on the market so maybe one of them would be ideal for him as they should help with the condition and any creaky joints etc too?
 
How much is she paying for hay then? Because it is usually more cost-effective to give extra hay than feeding extra concentrates. I'd be giving him more hay unless she is paying more than about £8 a small bale! However, I'd also look at giving some form of probiotic (Pink Powder/balancer or similar) to ensure he is making the most of the fibre he gets.
 
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If £ is a prob then how about just sunflower oil? About £1.20 a litre from the supermarket so def ticks the budget box! Start at say 1/4 a cup then build up as needed. Can she drop the amount of chaff she is feeding (doesn't really add anything to the party does it!) and then use the extra space to feed a bit more speedibeet?
 
Switch to haylage.

Hay is stupidly expensive at the moment and if she can pile the haylage into him he will put weight on and she can cut down the hard feed :). We have always had TB's and they have never got fizzy on haylage.

Balancer is a very good idea! I use lo-cal as it's the cheapest, £19 and lasts 6 weeks. It's also low in starch buy tbh any balancer will work. It helps the horse get the most from it's fibre intake and the biotics in them really make and difference.

My TB was on piles of hard feed (think 5 scoops of Alfa oil a day!!). Now he is on ad lib haylage and balancer he looks a million dollars and the only feed he gets is a scoop of HIFI (to mix the balancer in) and high fibre nuts in his ball. I'm a big big fan of as much fibre as poss with TB's :) :). Our horses work pretty hard too.
 
We're paying £5 for a bale of hay BUT it is VERY loosely packed bales so probably only about 2/3rds the normal amount in a bale...

I think oil is a definate winner as is a balancer... I will sugest she swaps / decreases the chaff but I think one thing at a time will be progress!

I think step one will be getting a balancer, step two will be swapping the mix for a cube and then we'll tackle the other bits ;)

I too generally like fibre to make up the bulk of my horse's meal but everybody and every horse is different.

I think haylage may be on the cards as we are fast running out of hay!

Thanks all!
 
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