Energetic TB Hunter with a Skinny Rump

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Naughty Magpie

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I have a 15 year old TB hunter gelding that I've owned for about 9 months. We hunt once or twice a week at this time of the year and we last all day no problem, he has plenty of energy and loves his job and always gives 110%. His condition is fairly good, plenty of muscle in his neck, shoulders and ribcage (you can faintly see his ribs) but he has dropped weight off his rump, it is looking quite angular & I am worried.
He is well and happy & full of the joys of winter and looks great apart from the last 10% of him. He has a jumpers bump which doesn't help.

He is fed once daily on Alfa-A Oil, Calm & Condition (soaked) and Power & Performance (soaked). I have just started in the last 10 days to add rolled barley & powdered garlic as was advised by an old hunting type that barley put weight on their bottoms but all it has really done has upset his digestion and he has fairly loose droppings.

He gets through most of a bale of good quality organic hay when he is in at night (before & after hunting) but is turned out 24/7 otherwise with a large round haybale in the field (grass isn't great) shared with 4 other horses.

His teeth have been done twice in the last 3 months (I wasn't happy with the first person so had a v highly recommended dentist the 2nd time). He has been wormed today & was last wormed in October. We moved yards a month ago & he settled very well & is a lot happier with more company & being stabled for hunting.

All the other horses on the yard are TB or TBx & look lovely and rounded on minimal bog-standard food & do little to no exercise!

Can anyone advise me, I am contemplating getting the vet out this week to scope for ulcers/run blood tests.
 
My daughters old tb had a rumpy bum so to speak, we had him on Alfa a oil, balancer and thirds, thirds in winter really did the job, didn't need it in summer as the grass seemed to do the job...otherwise maybe others on here can help?
Oh and micronised linseed might help, certainly won't do any harm....a good mugful!
 
Barley (nor any other feed) will not put muscle on any specific part of a horse's anatomy, only gymnastic work will do that. If you need to add calories then linseed, oil or soaked beet pulp are better candidates,
 
It may be the garlic that is causing his upset stomach, it is toxic and irritates the hind gut with no proven benefits, as for the need to put on weight barley will do no more than any other feed, muscle comes from correct work combined with a balanced diet, just adding random extras will unbalance what he is getting and I suspect that he probably just doesn't eat enough haylage in the field preferring to spend time looking for grass, he may look better if he came in at night for the rest of the season so he does spend all night eating rather than chopping and changing his routine.
 
I use oats, alpha a and top spec cool condition cubes and linseed to keep the weight on mine - even though he has always had a rumpy bum (lol) unless he has been overweight - his rumpy bum is muscular so I'm not overly worried esp as the rest of him is in lovely condition. I also feed Yea sacc for his gigestion to preevnt runny bom, mint is also good for this too
 
Righty - good news & thank you all for your advice. He has been kept in the last few nights, which he has loved & is a lot more sprightly. You were right, he doesn't really bother with the haylage in the field, preferring to graze on the poor quality grass instead all day. So, nothing I can do about that unfortunately.
I've taken him off barley & garlic and his droppings are much more normal. And I've ordered a sample bag of 3kg of micronised linseed to try as my local feed supplier hasn't got any 20kg bags in. The Calm & Condition has linseed, yea sacc, mint and all sorts of lovely stuff in it so it might be he needs a smidge more linseed.
He has filled out a little bit I'm sure over the past 2-3 days on his rump, although I'm also sure I'm imagining it!

Hunting again on Saturday & he looks a lot healthier & happier already. I have a fortnight until I hunt again after that so I will concentrate on more gymnastic work in his routine, although round here it's just hills galore so you'd think he would already have a more muscly bum.
 
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