Diet for building up a shire

[BigLebowski]

hi there

I have a 16 HH 3.5 yr old shire gelding and he's looking a bit tucked up and skinny around the flanks. He's not ribby though. He's on 20 acres of short grass, but lurks around the feeding area most of the time. It is undercover and out of the rain at the moment.

I am now feeding:

1.3KG D&H build up mix
300G well hyradated beet
400G moli
100G "calm and conditioner"
1 scoop garlic
hot water to warm up the mix

Four times a day at 4 hour intervals. He has access to hay but doesn't seem too interested.

He has a very good appetite and woud attempt to eat 100 KG if I gave it to him.

Is this ok or is there anything else I can do?

Best
Dude

 

[thezulu]

very annoying I just typed and essay for you and it appears not to have posted.... I will be honest this doesn't seem nearly enough. I would phone the feed companies and they will tell you max amounts and be prepared to be horrified!!!

I have 18hh warmblood who is quite a poor doer. but last winter while he was still growing he was costing me approx £60.00 per week for hard feed!! Lots of sugar beet, cubes etc. he gets fed in large 42l tub trug and it would come half way up bucket twice a day. plus haylage

The one thing I will recommend is micronised linseed. I buy by the 25kg sack and he gets a good half a large scoop of this a day. I use simple systems food and this is what they recommended. It also has benefit of being good for joints and coat. Has done wonders for my big ID with ringbone.

 

[thezulu]

just re read you post and noticed you fed that 4 times a day.... so maybe enough after all LOL

I really would recommend the micronised linseed for you.

 

[CBFan]

My 17hh 3 year old CB gets like this when he is lacking bulk fibre. A load of hay does the trick.

Any chance you could convert those feed weights to round scoops please? I feed by volume rather than weight.

All I know is that a fully grown shire at our yard gets a good heaped scoop of molly chaff, nearly a scoop of high fibre nuts and nearly a scoop of speedi beet in the morning and then about half the amount in the evening and aproximately half a bale of hay a day.

If anything I would increase the beet and the chaff. Mix won't do anything to stop him looking tucked up.

NB... larger breeds can look a bit pathetic as they are growing but soon fill out when they slow down. Don't Panic.

remember fibre, fibre, fibre and more fibre! ... just added up my hay bill this month - £80!! but my bucket feed bill is probably only about £20 a month if not less...

ets... is he warm enough? my boy also looks really pathetic when I leave him naked too long... the wind seems to get at him! big wus!

 

[TGM]

I suspect the reason he looks tucked up may be lack of forage inside him, especially as you say he doesn't seem interested in hay, but would happily consume large amounts of bucket feed. Presumably he has had his teeth checked recently, as dental problems will obviously decrease hay consumption.

If teeth are OK, try and find some other ways of upping his forage consumption - haylage, soaked grassnuts, grass chaffs such as Readigrass, Graze-On etc.

 

[Cuffey]

As TGM
Could be teething--get checked-to be sure all is well--I remember one of my ponies had an abscess on the jaw when teething and another the shedding tooth stuck out an odd angle making chewing difficult until it fell out

A horse that size should be eating a lot of hay/haylage
Also worming--make sure dose is sufficient for his weight

 

[MissMincePie&Brandy]

I've been feeding Allen & Page's fast fibre this year, and It's really helping them keep the weight on. In fact my TB was starting to look Obese just after Christmas and I've had to cut his rations.

For feeding a young shire I would feed
Fast Fibre (needs to be soaked in double the quantity of water)
Baileys No4 (conditioning cubes)
Alf alfa

Fed in 2 (or 3 feeds, if it's convienient to feed 3 times a day)

You could introduce a balancer. This will help his gut and will give him some extra vitamins and oils.

Ad lib forage.
My shire x would eat a bale of hay a day in the winter, as our winter grazing is poor, and I let him have as much hay as he wanted.

Ensure there is always fresh water.

 

[cobgirlie]

Definately get his teeth checked but if all okay, I'd be tempted to get hold of some good quality haylage and mix it with the hay. My Shire x won't touch hay alone but if I mix 1/3 haylage to 2/3 hay he munches down happily. He is a funny one and does like his field hay/haylage in nets where as Little cob likes his on the floor (til he finishes then he pushes Big Cob from his nets and eat them!!).

 

[hudsonw]

Try haylege if he doesn't like hay also a hay replacer Chaff like spillers or dengie, you can feed quite allot and if he's being picky about his hay then it will fill him up.
To be honest I would phone either Dengie or Spillers free feed advice phone numbers. I have. I have used the spillers service and I found it really useful and they didn't just try and sell their products?!!?

 

[FleabittenT]

I have found Equi Jewel from Saracen fantastic for conditioning:

http://www.saracen-horse-feeds.co.uk/products/39183379/equi-jewel/

 

[BigLebowski]

Thanks guys...!!!

I try hay nets but find them ransacked with the hay spread all over the floor, trodden in and pooed on. 90% gets wasted. I find the shire standing in teh middle of it looking puzzled. So I'm not sure what to do there. may try mixing haylage in as suggested.

Best
Dude

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would feed as much fibre as possible. IMO there is no point in feeding molassed chaff which is made of straw. Much better to feed dried grass of one kind or another. I would give soaked grassnuts with dried grass, perhaps with alfa-beet, as the bucket feed, with PinkPowder to balance and aid digestion. You could also feed Alfa-A oil to build condition.
I would also replace some/all of the hay with haylage.
Is the horse living out unrugged? IME Shire coats are not really good enough to protect the horse in all weathers, over the years they have been bred to live inside as they had to be ready to work without drying off.