Feeding a veteran

[Mari]

27 yr old gelding, 16.2 hh, 1/2 Warmblood (stallion) out of Tb x Cleveland Bay mare but is Tb stamp in build. Been retired 4-5 yrs due to arthritis. In his younger days he had gastric ulcers & more recently has been diagnosed with very mild cushings ( mild because he shows no symptoms ).
He has always been a fussy eater with a small appetite & gets 3 feeds a day plus ad lib hay, which he often leaves, out at grass 4-6 hrs daily. Teeth checked every 6 months. Doesn’t quid feeds. He needs to put on condition as you can feel & see his ribs but he can’t cope with bigger feeds. What is a good conditioning feed for a veteran like him? He’s on Spillers Veteran Complete Care.

 

[humblepie]

When I had to put some weight on mine (TB) I used Cushcare - seems really palatable.

 

[KikiDee]

I feed my 30yo FibreBeet & soaked grass nuts and add D&H Cushcare as needed for condition. I've actually just dropped the Cushcare off and replaced it with a balancer now the grass is coming through as he got quite fat on it over winter, not that I'm complaining as he's been hard work to keep weight on the last few years.

I soak a scoop of Fibrebeet & a scoop of grass nuts together in a big tub, then he gets 3-4 heaped scoops of the soaked mash per day split between feeds. When he was quite poor he got 2 scoops of the Cushcare split between his feeds per day, but over most of winter I was only needing to feed 1 scoop a day and he was holding his weight well.

 

[asmp]

Mine is looking good on D&H Sixteen Plus.

 

[darcip]

Soothe and gain my shetland loves it