Feed advice - skinny 5yo

[zizz]

I'm after some feed advice for my gelding who has dropped a fair amount of weight. He has always been a fairly good doer, never had to feed him in the summer months as a youngster or last year when he was just hacking, but this year as he was doing a bit more and competeing we put him on hifi, speedibeet, oats and blue chip in June. By September he had dropped a bit further and we changed feeds again. He is now getting hifi, 1kg speedibeet (dry weight) 0.5kgs oats, 0.75kg micronised linseed, brewers yeast and equivite supplement split into two feeds a day. He is on good grazing and has had adlib haylage for the last two weeks. Teeth and worming up to date.
Problem is he looks well in himself, he's shiny and feels full of energy when ridden, but his saddle has changed from a medium to a narrow since May he's lacking in topline along his back (neck actually looks ok) and you can see his ribs.
He has grown in this time - his withers have developed anyway - but i am still a little concerned that he looks like this going into winter.
I am worried about increasing the amount of linseed as it is quite high in protein, but don't know what else to do. His feeds are quite large and I am worried he'll start leaving food if I give him any moor as he can be a bit fussy. he needs to have a low sugar diet as he has his shoes off every winter and has fairly week feet. any suggestions?

 

[celia]

If he looks and feels well in himself and has ab-lib forage and good rugs then I wouldn't worry too much about winter having a detrimental effect. You could maybe try swapping the hifi to alpha a (or even alpha oil) though and splitting into three feeds would be better if you could work it. Am I right in thinking you're feeding 750g of linseed atm? As that sounds like quite a lot already. Also, have you had his back/saddle checked? If he's lost topline since he's been doing more work that would indicate to me that something is sore or preventing him from working properly. Loss of topline can make them look like they've lost a lot of weight/condition too when actually they may not have done.

 

[zizz]

Hi thanks for the reply sorry the original post is wrong and it won't let me edit, hes getting 450grams of linseed not 750, but still concerned that thats too much with the high protein. he won't eat alfa-a thats why he gets some hi fi as it has some alfalfa in it, but in all honesty he only gets a handfull as he's not bothered about chaff. he has his saddle checked every 4 months and he's feeling and working really well (gets 8's for his paces at BD novice) so I'm not too concerned about his back, but tbh although he feels well, he looks like he's been hunted hard, hes gone so ribby and angular!
It probably is just where he has had a growth spurt but he's been on the linseed (although started off less) for a month now without picking back up and I'm getting worried!

This is what he looked like in July (on right) when his saddle was still a medium;

and now, only 3 months later you can see ribs and he's in a narrow saddle. and when i mean you can see ribs, he's alot poorer than my 2yo who's on the left in that photo!!!!

 

[xxRachelxx]

Is there a reason you are feeding speedibeet rather than a conditioning/weight gain feed? Speedibeet isn't a compete feed so it is likely your horse isn't receiveing quite enough nutrients and is therefore dropping weight? You could try a conditioning fed or if you are worried about high sugar/startch try a low sugar/starch fed, such as a balancer, and then add in a high fat supplement such as Equi-Jewell, which is low in starch but will still provide the carloeis for safe weight gain. Here is a link to equi-jewell with info and reveiws. Hope that helps abit?

http://www.saracen-horse-feeds.co.uk/products/performance/eventing/equi-jewel.html

 

[zizz]

thank you for the reply, I am feeding speedibeet as a bas for the oats and linseed, which is why i am also giving him equivite which is a vitamin and mineral supplement. He was on Bluechip before and as a youngster had baily's lo cal (!) balancer. But now he needs something more.

I will look into the equijewel though as it is lower in protien than the linseed, but a similar digestable energy level Maybe i could add it to his existing feed. Have you used it yourself?

 

[Firewell]

My mum and myself have started feeding our TBs cool and condition cubes from topspec. They are great! My mums horse struggles with keeping weight and these are by far the best we have tried. He looks fab and is so calm. My mums horse has the cubes with pink powder and alfa a. My horse has them with pink powder and hifi.
I would definitly recommend.
Equijewel is good as well. I used that with my old horse and it really worked also. It's expensive though.

 

[travelmad]

I was recommended full fat soya flakes to put weight on a tb (too early to tell yet if it is working though!). The other thing to try could be baileys outshine? Pretty much high calorie oil, it's expensive, but lots of people swear by it.