Feeding a skinny thoroughbred

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1981twirly

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The usual got a skinny thoroughbred ribs was covered but moved to a new yard previous paddock owner didn’t poo pick for 2 months grass went sour 3 weeks later ribs was showing then he got a splint so top now gone as well had him on a selection of feed realised there was nothing in it so no weight was put on , now he’s on top line conditioning cubes a scoop morning and night , heap scoop of alpha a oil one Morning and one at night plus a scoop of sugar beet morning and night atm I’m just hacking him in a bungee out and about to keep him ticking over up and down the hills this food combernation off people experience does that sound right for a 17 hand horse with ribs showing and his flanks are in as well .
 
I would worry that when he starts to look better and feel well that feed may well send him a bit loopy, alpha a is high energy most conditioning cubes have molasses which is not good for horses and some react badly to it. It does sound a lot of food for 2 feeds a day you would be better splitting that into 3 feeds.

I have Arabs which are also hot bloods like thorghbreds so I would feed them pretty much in the same way, both of mine are fed on a high fibre high oil low sugar and starch diet, alfalfa does not agree with them neither does molasses.

mine are fed graze on chaff it's just chopped grass unmolassed beet and micronised linseed and both do well on it in your situation I may even add grass nuts to that until the horse was looking a good weight.
 
There isn't a great deal of protein in what you have described, my poor doer TB needs protein to build muscle to keep his ribs covered. It seems he has problem metabolising it from the usual sources of grass and forage. Spirulina is high in protein, as also is micronised linseed or you could supplement with amino acids, the building blocks of protein
http://forageplustalk.co.uk/?s=protein
 
My 16hh tb did really well on 2 x stubbs scoop baileys number 4 and 2 x stubbs scoop sugar beet, didn't heat him at all when he shrunk down to a rack of ribs after surgery. Alpha A Oil did however send him very sharp. To build muscle I supplemented with Lysine from somewhere like forage plus. He's now on just a maintenace level of 1 stubbs scoop no4 per day and a very large amount of haylage.
 
I have a poor doer and it has taken me a while to work out how to keep weight on her. My "rules" are :
- feed her genuinely ad Lib hay. That means she is never without hay and has enough that she never runs out. I don't net it because I want her to eat as much as possible.
- I make sure she is warm so she doesn't waste energy keeping warm
- I feed a good quality vitamin and mineral like forage plus or equi mins advanced
- I feed a pre-biotic
I feed high fibre high oil low sugar as this gives slow release energy not the sort.
- micronised linseed in every feed
- avoid stress so regular routine and daily turnout

I feed coolstance alpha a molasses free and linseed. I spent ages ages experimenting but this works for us
 
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