Encouraging a horse to eat up...

[dominobrown]

My pointer barely picks at her feed at the moment.
She is in full work, and is ok weight wise but does drop weight when she is in training. When speaking to her old trainer she used to do the same thing.

She is on 3 feeds a day and so far I have tried different brands of racing cubes and mix, she isn't interested if you add sugar beet etc, but will pick out carrots and apples, but seems to have a lack of appetite when in full work.
Last year when she came out of training she looked like a whippit, almost too lean.
Any ideas?
Obviously with amount of work she is in she needs quite a bit of feed.
Have tried Red mills and Spillers so far....

 

[ozpoz]

Thunderbrook grass chop made with warm water( brings out the grass smell) is the best tempter for a fussy feeder I've tried.
Maybe with soaked oats rather than a dry cube or mix?

 

[Under-the-radar]

I have had similar problems with my mare the last few winters. She is not in hard work over the winter, but she is starting to get to an age where she is dropping off a little over winter, so it was a bit worrying.

I always base feeds on a chaff of some sort - I tried regular alfalfa, Alfa A Oil, Hi Fi, Hi Fi Molasses free (the hifi molasses free was probably the most popular of the Dengie range!). I have now got her on Molichaff, and she is chomping through that like nobodies business!

I also used to always feed sugar beet, but no longer use this at all, as I just found none of my horses were particularly interested in it.

My younger horse I keep on Readigrass - and she definitely loves that! It does smell lovely!

 

[Christmas Crumpet]

Ring Allen & Page and ask them to send you a sample of Calm & Condition - picky horses love it. There is some debate as to whether it sparks horses up too much - I have found in the past that if they are doing the right amount of work for the feed they are given, they are fine.

I fed my old hunter C&C, oats (soaked in the C&C water for 12 hours with the C&C) and unmolassed chaff and he used to gobble it up every day.

A friend suggested boiled barley the other day - horses go mad for that apparently too.

 

[Tnavas]

Are you able to give her some turnout time? Some racehorses become anorexic when in training. B12 is also good to improve appetite.