feed supplements?!?

[georgiabr]

I have a palimino gelding american quarter horse who is 9yrs old. Recently i moved to spain and had to leave him in england at a yard where he was on full livery and was supposed to be getting long reined twice a week. To my dismay this never happend and after 5 months i had him transported over to spain with me. He has lost an lot of weight and muscle especially around his bum area! Due to there being not much grass or haylage in spain they eat a lot of hard feed and something called paka which is like straw. He has two hard feeds and in it is a mixture of bran, nuts and sugar beet. There is limited feeds over there (not like the uk), however i was wondering if anyone had any advice on supplements i could give him to help gain his muscle back as i can bring that over from the uk. He is being ridden and schooled however the muscle just inst seeming to be going back on!!! Any help appreciated. Thanks

 

[TwoStroke]

You need to ensure there is adequate quality protein in the diet. By quality I mean sufficient essential amino acids (which the horse can't synethise itself, and so must come from the diet). In particular watch the lysine levels - this is the essential amino acid most likely to be lacking.

I have no idea what sorts of feeds or balancers are available out there, but if you can get Pro Hoof (from ebay) or one of the forage plus balancers, that would be my recommendation.

ETA: and of course, as much forage (fibre) as you can.

 

[georgiabr]

thankyou!!!

 

[ajf]

I agree with TS but if he's lost muscle and you are trying to rebuild that I'm afraid this will take quite a bit of time.

Best of luck though