Feeding a thin horse with too much energy

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peanut

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My tb x horse is too thin but with an inexhaustable amount of energy and fizz. Has anyone any suggestions please as to how I can get the weight on without a further increase in energy?

She's currently on Alpha-A Lite, Top Spec Lite, Speedibeet and Magnitude with haylage when stabled at night.

She's exercised 6 days out of 7 which is needed to keep on top of her exuberance, but this doesn't aid weight gain.

Btw, is anyone else's horse particularly mental at the moment?
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Change Alfa A lite to oil. Lite is coated in mollasses.... I would feed Topspec cool condition cubes, as they do what it says on the bag, and also swap mollassed Sugarbeet to unmollassed if necessary
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Baileys No. 4 top line conditioning cubes are good for weight gain with no extra energy, i fed my fizzy TB this last winter.

One of mine has way too much energy atm since being stabled but the youngster so far has been rather laid back.
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have you tried taking her off the alfalfa? my mare goes ultra loopy one it!!
maybe swap hayledge for ad lib hay 24/7? hayledge can also be a trigger for loopyness....
barley rings are good, A&P calm and condition is also v good, and how about oil for unfizzy calories?
 
KatB - She's on Speedibeet which is the low mollasses type. Last winter I swapped her to Alpha A Oil but was wondering whether maybe it might give more energy (she wasn't so bad last year
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Vikki89 - Baileys No 4 and D&H Build Up are two I've been considering but I don't want to cut out the balancer. Would I add it to what she's already having?
 
Yeah I would use Alfa Oil
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I love Baileys No 4, but would say it can fizz some up.... they are exactly the same as baileys racehorse cubes I believe
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have you tried taking her off the alfalfa? my mare goes ultra loopy one it!!
maybe swap hayledge for ad lib hay 24/7? hayledge can also be a trigger for loopyness....
barley rings are good, A&P calm and condition is also v good, and how about oil for unfizzy calories?

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I've heard others say that about Alph-A but she's been fed it all her life and I've never had a problem before. The Alpha A Lite only contains mollasses extract - but I'll definitely bear it in mind.

I've been wondering whether the haylage is particularly sweet this year.
 
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I love Baileys No 4, but would say it can fizz some up.... they are exactly the same as baileys racehorse cubes I believe
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Maybe I'll give them a miss then
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I would change the alfa a lite to alfa a oil and see how you go. re the haylage she really needs to be getting add lib to help with the weight but then if you think this might be causing her exuberance then maybe switch for hay.
 
I have tbx and she was as you described last year.There is huge transformation in her behaviour.Shes on allen and paige calm and condition cant tolerate alpha chaff so is on plain ozzie chaff and has fast fibre in winter.I am going to add oil again over winter months.She added 40/50 kg in weight on this feed over 3 months and cant recommend it highly enough .She is a pleasure to ride most of the time as energy is there but complete nuttter is slowly disappearing.
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If you want some before and after pics look on my photobucket
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Is she rugged? a horse uses 80% of its energy keeping warm so it makes sense on a horse which needs to put on a little weight to have a rug on of appropriate thickness.

It is also important not to let the horse over heat either.

My horse is being a thug at the moment am sure its the drop in temperature.
 
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Is she rugged? a horse uses 80% of its energy keeping warm so it makes sense on a horse which needs to put on a little weight to have a rug on of appropriate thickness.

It is also important not to let the horse over heat either.

My horse is being a thug at the moment am sure its the drop in temperature.

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She's in a light weight with neck cover during the day as it's not really that cold where I am; and a medium weight at night.
 
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KatB - She's on Speedibeet which is the low mollasses type. Last winter I swapped her to Alpha A Oil but was wondering whether maybe it might give more energy (she wasn't so bad last year
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I think the term 'energy' can be very confusing to horse-owners! Yes, Alfa A Oil will give your horse more 'digestible energy' than Alfa A Lite, but that doesn't necessarily mean more fizz! Think of energy as 'calories' instead - if you feed your horse more calories than it uses up in work, maintenance etc then it will start to gain weight. In terms of calories, Alfa A Lite has 9 MJDE/kg, whereas Alfa A Oil is significantly more calorific at 12.5 MJDE/kg.

What makes horses fizz up is different from the calories or energy level of the feed. Most expert believe that soluble carbohydrates such as sugar and starch are what tend to make a horse 'excitable', sugar occurring naturally in grass and also in the form of mollasses in manufactured feeds, and starch mainly coming from cereals such as maize, wheat, barley and oats (and obviously cubes/mixes containing these ingredients).

So for an underweight horse you want to give feeds that are high in calories (MJDE/kg) but low in sugar and starch. Whilst a lot of the Alfa A range contain mollasses or mollasses extract, Alfa A Oil contains neither of these, so is a good choice for a fizzy horse.

Top Spec Cool Condition Cubes are a good choice (as stated above) and so are Spillers Response Slow Release Cubes.

Another confusing term is 'heating' - lots of feeds seem to be labelled 'non-heating' despite being quite high in starch and cereals, so actually read the label and look for wheat, barley, maize or oats on the ingredients list. Some cereal byproducts such as wheatfeed, oatfeed, etc are not as bad as they are mostly the fibre from the grain, with little of the starchy centre.

Also, if you think the haylage is part of the problem you could get it analysed - some rye grass haylages can have quite a high sugar level, particularly if early cut.
 
I have a very thin TB and don't want him fizzy as he's not in that much work. He's been on this diet for 6 weeks now and is putting on weight and is not loopy at all. He's on Speediebeet, A&P Calm and Condition, Spillers conditioning fibre and Hi-Fi original and he's on adlib hay at night and out during the day. Yes it's a lot of fibre.
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i am going to sujest a feedng that not many horse owner know about including me until lately and was suggested to be by tthe glasgow vet school when i boy was very sick and had lost loads of weight.

ok better get on with. the product is rioe bran. it shas 20% fat in it and it has low ceral base so your horse does not get heated up when fed it. you don't need to feed a lot of it either.

my horse has went from a toast rack to looking very well covered in 4 weeks. i would hieghly recommend it. i justs asked my feed merchant and they got it in for me hope this helps
 
give her soya/corn oil
my horse was struggling a couple yrs ago and my vet suggested 250ml a day of either soya or corn oil from tesco. its high in slow release energy and helps weight gain without fizz.
 
our haylage is like rocket fuel this year - the boys went through a phase of being very silly til I realised and cut their hard food

wouldn't hurt to get your haylage analysed
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I buy cheap oil from Lidl (their veggie oil is 100%rapeseed and only 95p per litre). Every 100ml = 3.5MJ of energy so it's a great way to add calories to existing feed without adding bulk
 
I have tried all build up/conditioning cubes but always found that if I fed the required amount to put on condition my horse went loopy.
I now feed simple systems lucie nuts, purabeet and grass nuts. They are all fibre based with no sugar and starch so can be fed in large amounts (which my boy loves - 3 large feeds a day!) for slow release energy without fizz. The grass cubes seem particularly good for TB's as they are simply what it says! I have evented my horse on simple systems all year and he is manageable and always has plenty of energy.
 
My TB is on Alpha-A Oil, Top Spec Balancer and Top Spec Cool Condition cubes. He was very thin when I got him, but is looking well covered now!
 
I like blue chip makes him nice and quiet but he does get to fat on it hes a cob and another one with good reports is that 365 complete from the people who do premier flex and i seen a horse that had major colic surgery bag of bones come back really good on fast fibre id prefer to go down the fibre route for hot heads
 
Love the Allen & Page Calm and Condition for my TB but heats up my WB. Really interesting reading as my TB is a good doer! and my WB is growing and is going through a hat rack stage at the moment but with loads of energy.

I seem settled on Hi Fi Lite and Baileys Lo Cal with Global Herbs SuperCalm and about a bale of hay a night! (she is 17hh +) at 4. Normal Alfa A sends her into a right tizz.

Am now very tempted to swap to the Alfa Oil but she is going so well at the moment I might just put up with her being on the lean side for the moment as its so hard to get the right balance with her.
 
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