Feeding a skinny ISH

dibbin

dibbin

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 March 2010
Messages
3,701
Location
Ayrshire
Visit site
My sister's horse is looking a bit poor at the moment. He's a 7yo ISH. The yard's been in quarantine for the last 3 months so he hasn't been ridden at all in that time, and has lost quite a bit of muscle because of that. He's been turned out for the last few weeks with haylage being put in the field daily (there are 4 horses in the field, haylage is put out in 4 separate piles). There's plenty of grass in the field that he's in. He's currently getting fed once a day - Alfa-A (Original), Bailey's No.1 and Spiller's Cool Mix. He's wearing a lightweight turnout rug. His a*se looks skinny and you can see his ribs fairly easily.

Does anyone have any idea what they should feed him to try and put some weight on him?

ETA: I've always had very good doers, so I'm at a loss with this one!
 
Last edited:
Top Spec Balancer and Top Spec Cool Condition Cubes. They worked wonders on my excitable TB and he didn't get stupid. Not the cheapest but fantastic results.....
 
Personally I'd drop the cool mix and just up the Baileys, and replace the Alpha with Alpha Oil. It sounds as if he could do with two feeds a day as well.

Also, when feeding hay in the field - you always need more piles than horses, to ensure that everyone gets their fill. And it needs to be fed adlib to your horse by the sounds of it.
 
Frickers Formula

Our TB came out of winter last year looking very poor on calm and condition. This year we put him on Frickers formula tiny tots nuts and a small amount of their show and condition and he looks fabulous. He also loves the food which is something for a fussy eater who sniffs his food before he will even eat it to make sure we haven't tried to hide anything in there.
 
Thanks for suggestions, I'm pretty clueless with feeding so all advice is appreciated!

Quick (additional) question - should he be getting sugar beet in his feeds? He isn't at the moment.
 
I would up the hay /and or haylege, he sounds like he needs it ad lib if possible.

Have you wormed him or had him tested for worms? he needs to be done this time of year for tape worms.

Hard Feed - I think maybe a balancer (Blue Chip, Top Spec or similar) along with your Baileys & Alpha, I always use Speedi Beet to mix up with the chaff, mix and add a glug of oil.... our horses love it.

Also Pink Powder works really well on some horses.

Good luck & make sure you take a before and after pics.:)
 
Lollii - I took photos yesterday, so will be able to do a before and after. He was wormed when he arrived at the yard in December, but they're doing a worm count of all the horses this weekend anyway :)

He put on weight while stabled, but has dropped it since he went out, so I think it might be the lack of adlib haylage that's done it.
 
Baileys no.1 is amazing stuff, completely turned around our geriatric pony!

My horse is on it, although he gets a scoop twice a day with hot water with prep 14 (a sales and condition prep feed) and oil chaff.

Spillers cool mix, could you replace that with spillers conditioning mix, and maybe add some oil to his diet, and up his feeds to twice a day?
 
It's still pretty cold at night too, that might be keeping his weight down (although I'm in no ways a rug fan but keeping him with ad lib forage seems the better idea, in at least 5 piles as AM suggested) also if he's a recent import, many of them take time to adapt and then come on leaps and bounds and look a different horse six months later. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that he is still growing too.
If he was mine I'd be looking at using something like oats and sugar beet of some form and a balancer like D & H Suregrow which aalso happens to be much much cheaper than all the others on the market but has virtually the same spec (and is excellent for youngsters or those that might have missed out of the right things when still growing)
 
Maesfen - I don't think he's a recent import, as far as I know he's been over from Ireland for a couple of years. My sister's only had him since just before Christmas but the previous owner had him for a year.

NicoleS_007 - he's 16.2hh, and is getting one feed a day. I'm not sure how much exactly, my sister feeds him. I've only actually met him a couple of times, but mum had mentioned to me he looked thin, and I was surprised when I saw him the other day. He looked in better condition when he was stabled 24/7 - but then, of course he had haylage all the time and was fed twice a day.

Think I'll advise them to up the Bailey's, change the Cool Mix to conditioning mix or build-up (as far as I'm aware he's not remotely fizzy anyway, so I'm not sure why they're feeding Cool Mix), put some sugar beet in to his feeds, and maybe try Alfa-A Oil instead of Original, and more haylage.

One of my main concerns is that he's dropping weight when he's not doing any work at all!
 
dibbin said:
Maesfen - I don't think he's a recent import, as far as I know he's been over from Ireland for a couple of years. My sister's only had him since just before Christmas but the previous owner had him for a year.

NicoleS_007 - he's 16.2hh, and is getting one feed a day. I'm not sure how much exactly, my sister feeds him. I've only actually met him a couple of times, but mum had mentioned to me he looked thin, and I was surprised when I saw him the other day. He looked in better condition when he was stabled 24/7 - but then, of course he had haylage all the time and was fed twice a day.

Think I'll advise them to up the Bailey's, change the Cool Mix to conditioning mix or build-up (as far as I'm aware he's not remotely fizzy anyway, so I'm not sure why they're feeding Cool Mix), put some sugar beet in to his feeds, and maybe try Alfa-A Oil instead of Original, and more haylage.

One of my main concerns is that he's dropping weight when he's not doing any work at all!
Click to expand...

Was just asking as i just get the impression of "half a scoop of this, half of this and one of this", which wouldnt really make much difference lol If thats not the case then i retract that statement :p If he were mine id have him on either 2 scoops Conditioning cubes and 2 scoops Alfa-A Oil ... or ... Balancer and 4-6 scoops Alfa A Oil (<If not a fussy eater), depending on the horses temperment.
 
Ad lid good hay or haylage and at least 3 feeds a day .
Teeth and worm burden checked

Nothing special really she just needs to get him to keep more food in him.
Any sort of sugar beet is good , oil , just anything from the supermarket and grass nuts thoroughly soaked.

She doesn't need to pend a huge amount on special feeds just give him more and more often .

Check he is taking in enough water .
Horses who don't drink liberally don't make best use of their food.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top