Feed for weight gain

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Harri Green

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I'd like more weight on my 10 y/o TB hunting mare. She's a lively sort, of course so don't want to blow her brain.

I've had her on allen&page calm and condition, molichaff calming complete feed and d&h build and glow. Most importantly she has ad-lib hay, and ad-lib haylage and turnout grass (she never ever ever eats all her forage no matter what!). And even 3 feeds a day hasn't helped her. Plus she's fussy and would rather box walk than eat so it's a job to get feed in her accept overnight when she's bored. She is rugged up well too.

Had a very good dentist see her teeth and they are ok. So all the basics are covered. I literally just can't decide what hard feed to try as my usual feeds are just maintaining, not gaining weight.
She's got goood muscle, she genuinely just needs more fat. suggestions??
 
Harri Green said:
I'd like more weight on my 10 y/o TB hunting mare. She's a lively sort, of course so don't want to blow her brain.

I've had her on allen&page calm and condition, molichaff calming complete feed and d&h build and glow. Most importantly she has ad-lib hay, and ad-lib haylage and turnout grass (she never ever ever eats all her forage no matter what!). And even 3 feeds a day hasn't helped her. Plus she's fussy and would rather box walk than eat so it's a job to get feed in her accept overnight when she's bored. She is rugged up well too.

Had a very good dentist see her teeth and they are ok. So all the basics are covered. I literally just can't decide what hard feed to try as my usual feeds are just maintaining, not gaining weight.
She's got goood muscle, she genuinely just needs more fat. suggestions??
Try Rowen Barbary Ready mash extra - all ours do well and gain weight on this. Easy to use too :)
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Might sound a bit outdated, but I know lots of people have had great success with feeding micronised linseed for condition. It's also fab for their coat and hooves etc.

How much of the current feeds is she getting? Is it possible to split it into 4?

I know you say she's getting ad lib forage, but in terms of actual feed I'm inclined to make it as forage based as possible. So, plenty of chaff, grass nuts (simple systems is fab), sugar beet, and either a balancer or a vits supplement to make sure there's nothing missing.
 
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Harri Green said:
A few people have said go back to basics like sugar beet. You have to wonder how necessary all this feed choice is!
Thank you
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I really tend to prefer that - I think it's much better for their digestion so they can actually make use of what they're getting!

I know lots of people say to stay away from alfalfa with TBs, though I haven't any experience of this myself, as my connemara is fine on it ;)

As said, I usually base some straights around either a balancer or general supplement, alongside plenty of chaff. So I'd give some grass nuts, chaff, and sugar beet a go with some balancer (lots of people rave about Pure Feeds on here and at my yard), split into 3 or 4 feeds and damped down well.
 
We used 'equijewel' to put weight on one of our horses when we started to compete at working hunter & it certainly worked, he piled on the weight quickly. We've also used it to put some weight on a youngster we bought who was in poor condition. It's quite expensive to buy, around the cost of Blue Chip, but you don't need to feed much & it really works. Our horses are up to weight & we are maintaining it with exercise & 'normal feed' so aren't feeding it any more. Below is a link to it for further information,

http://www.saracenhorsefeeds.com/performance/equi-jewel

If you need to put weight on a horse relatively quickly, combined with quality flat work, it really works. Best of luck to you with whatever you decide. :)
 
I am not a nutritionist but to my mind that diet is probably completely unbalanced and will be giving her more than the required amounts of some things meaning you are wasting money and not seeing any benefit, if she is fussy I would strip it back to basics so you can give small feeds that are good quality and not be superfluous, a decent balancer, the build and glow along with either alfalfa chop or pellets, if she is not sensitive to it, would probably be cheaper, less wasteful and give her less in the bowl to eat, most picky horses are overfaced by big feeds so cutting out the molichaff would make sense as it adds very little to a diet when they are on ad lib forage.

If she looks well muscled and is maintaining weight maybe she does not need to be any fatter, we are so used to seeing fat horses that a lean fit one does sometimes look wrong but it may be perfect for the individual,
 
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I was taught by an english teacher for my horse mangement, and she was shocked at how many people don't use chaff..

I have to say im the opposite. I find it is just filler. Its just going to bulk up a feed and make the horse not able to eat as much hard nutrients/fat food. Maybe thats just me.

As fir weight gain, i agree sugarbeet and some sort of condition cube and micronised linseed. Thats what i feed my 16yo hunter type but i would prefer he got more haylage, but currently livery yard set up means he gets most of his haylage stolen. In a week he will be on individual turnout and getting all of it so i hope he stops dropping after that. Hes not dropped too much, he actually looks "fit" just needs work to muscle up but i tend to like him a littler fatter.
 
Are you feeding the recommended rate of c&c for building up condition?

A photo of horse would help people to assess and give a second opinion if weight gain is needed
 
Is it possible she is just fit for hunting and thus fit as opposed to thin?

I have 4 Tb's and have found that a good gut health helps them get the best out their feed, coupled with a good, high protein balancer. I only feed 1.5kg of hard feed a day and have 4 fatties.

I never found C&C made any difference and is full of processed crap. I would get rid of that and go for a soya hull mash like Keyflow Pink Mash or the Rowan Barbury Conditioning mash, fed with a rice bran supplement for calories - Falcon Feeds Omega Rice or Keyflow Keyplus - and a good balancer that's high in the right amino acids - I use Keyflow Perfect Balance and it has made a big difference to my big TB but I know Baileys and Top Spec do a comprehensive balancer for horses in hard work that might work as well.

I've had some success fattening one up with Ulsakind cubes, though they blew his mind so we had to stop them. Grass nuts are always a good choice too, esp when fed with rice bran I find.

I cant feed beet to a couple of mine, or alfalfa, and have found the soya mash and rice bran has made the biggest positive difference of all the things I have tried. They also have never affected their temperament and are always spot on energy level wise for the work asked of them.
 
Could she live out?
Revolutionised my skinny mare when she was hunting- she stressed too much to eat enough in the stable but ate outside
 
I don't rate Calm & Conditon at all. In my experience, if you feed with a chaff, to be able to feed the recommended amounts produces bucket feeds so massive it puts off fussy eaters - unless you can feed 4 times a day!
Also it does neither Calm or condition. In fact it's just an expensive way of feeding a feed bulked out with sugar beet IMO.

My poor doer does well on soaked grass nuts, handful of alfalfa, Mole Valley conditioning cubes (£8 a bag) & micronised linseed.
He gets this 3 times a day & Adlib haylage (which he isn't really very interested in)
 
Top Spec Cool Condition cubes are great for non-heating condition. Cereal free but you need to feed a vit/min supplement as they are, in effect, a straight.
 
I'm another that rarely uses a chaff of any description, it's only an expensive filler when there are better options available at better prices; if I do, the only one to get my horses approval is Graze On; they won't touch any alfalfa with a bargepole.
For weight gain I'd be totally back to basics with sugar beet (unmolassed if she reacts to sugar) micronised linseed, brewers yeast and oats which aren't the rocket fuel most people think; if you want rocket fuel then use micro barley! You could also add a few soaked grass nuts (not Dengie ones as they're alfa). Northern Crop Driers do some called Graze On which are excellent for weight gain (they make the chaff too and most decent feed stores will be able to get it easily enough) http://www.northerncropdriers.co.uk/products. I'd also use a balancer or anything she needs.
Do also make sure she's warm enough and echo Mule, she might be better, more settled, if she could live out and as someone else said, it could just be that you've never had her so fit before, this could well be normal fitness shape for her and also lots of properly working horses go off too much feed when they are fit so make sure feeds are small so encouraging for her.
 
I've had great results with Topspec Fibre Plus Cubes 5 feeds a day plus the senior lite balancer

Also had good results with Saracen Releve and Equijewel
 
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