feeding advice for my tb

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Tim's Girl

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hi all,
ive recently purchased a tb gelding (about a month ago) and now over the last couple of weeks he has started to loose weight. his previous owners said he lived on grass and and 3 haylage nets. as i'm at a private yard and we dont have alot of grass at the moment i started giving him hard feed which he loves. i started with mollichaff as this is what my previous horse had and have now added barley rings but no luck with the weight gain. does anyone have any advice?

his feed at the moment consists of two level scoops of mollichaff and two scoops of soaked barley for breakfast and then two and a half scoops of mollichaff and two and a half scoops of barley for dinner so he does have abit!!

and advice greatfully appreciated. thanks
 
hard feed wont be a supplement for bulk, (lack of grazing or hay), so,
firstly, the most important thing to increase and of the most benefit to him, would be his hay intake, preferably ad lib, but if this is not possible, then as much as you can.
For his hard feed i would keep it simple and feed something like,
dengie alfalfa a oil, as this will help condition, but will not increase fizz, as it is slow release energy,
or add oil to his mollichaff,
soaked sugar beet,
vitamin and mineral supplement
and a couple of carrots and apples for interest
dont increase his hard feed too much as you will just loose it out the other end and he will not benefit. also their stomachs are relatively small and dont extend, so no more than 4lbs of feed in one go and if he is stabled during the night and given too large a feed, he may not take in enough hay, which is important during the winter months, as the hay will keep him warm, as it activates his digestive system and generates body heat, therefore keepiing his weight on.
Any diet changes must be made gradually.
If you add oil, increase the amount slowly.
Hope this helps
 
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i add glucosomine and biotin to feed as well as cidar vinegar and carrots or any veg that i have. he gets apples as well.

he gets two sections of hay at lunch time in the field then i give him 9lbs of haylage at night in the stable. all of which he eats
 
Tim's Girl said:
he gets two sections of hay at lunch time in the field then i give him 9lbs of haylage at night in the stable. all of which he eats
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Is he out on his own in the field? If so I would increase the amount of hay you put out so he has some available all the time in the field. If he eats all his haylage overnight, then I would again increase the amount so that there is just a little bit left in the morning.

The trick with a rather poor doer is to let them have ad lib access to forage if at all possible.
 
He needs more hay / haylage.

He should be getting at least 2% of his bodyweight in forrage a day which if lets say he is 500kg he should be getting 10kg / 22lb a day. If he can eat more, feed him more and cut down on the bucket feed.

you might also want to look at a better quality chaff like hi-fi / alfa-a which will be far more nutritious.
 
Tim's Girl said:
i add glucosomine and biotin to feed as well as cidar vinegar and carrots or any veg that i have. he gets apples as well.

he gets two sections of hay at lunch time in the field then i give him 9lbs of haylage at night in the stable. all of which he eats
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def needs more bulk, keep the hard feed down and spend the money on more hay, it will be money better spent
hope he picks up soon, as it will be better to bring him into the winter with a bit on him
 
My TB gets ad-lib haylage (and eats more than my 17.2 hunter!), his hard feed consists of a double handful of speedi-beet (dry-weight) to carry his supplements and I never struggle to keep weight on him. Filling them up with forage is by far the better thing to do.
 
thanks for all your advice. yeah he's on his own in the field but the cheeky pony in the next field tries to nick his hay so gonna move it away!!! Pony is lamanitic so is restricted and dont like it!!

have increased hay and haylage but my friend who has a tb put her's on chaff, sugarbeet, barley rings and calm and condition last year to bring his weight up. it worked and he is covered lovely considering he doesnt do any work! she suggested i try this. any thoughts? thanks
 
Tim's Girl said:
thanks for all your advice. yeah he's on his own in the field but the cheeky pony in the next field tries to nick his hay so gonna move it away!!! Pony is lamanitic so is restricted and dont like it!!

have increased hay and haylage but my friend who has a tb put her's on chaff, sugarbeet, barley rings and calm and condition last year to bring his weight up. it worked and he is covered lovely considering he doesnt do any work! she suggested i try this. any thoughts? thanks
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its good that you have increased his hay and haylage, this will be of the most benefit to him, just make sure that he has plenty during the day, as well as during the night, this way he has something constantly (or almost)and im sure that his weight will increase.
id personally keep the hard feed simple as suggested earlier (wouldnt worry bout barley rings or calm and condtion), it saves their stomachs and your pocket.
 
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I had a very similar problem when I bought my TB in November.
I feed Simple System which I think is fantastic.Their food is based on what horses are designed to eat- highly digestible Fiber, protien and naturally occuring vits and mins. Rather than cereals, pulses, additives and preservatives which is what is in the majority of horse foods.

My three have improved in numerous ways since I started feeding this brand. You can ring them, and after you describe your problems they'll tell you what would be best. also, as their food is forage based, you can feed as much or as little as you like with out the risk of colic and you dont need to wait after feeding to exercise. With my TB I would make massive buckets up and let him eat at lib throughout the day and night. He's looking fantastic now.
 
Tim's Girl said:
thanks for all your advice. yeah he's on his own in the field but the cheeky pony in the next field tries to nick his hay so gonna move it away!!! Pony is lamanitic so is restricted and dont like it!!

have increased hay and haylage but my friend who has a tb put her's on chaff, sugarbeet, barley rings and calm and condition last year to bring his weight up. it worked and he is covered lovely considering he doesnt do any work! she suggested i try this. any thoughts? thanks
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I personally think the feeds you are feeding are absolutely HUGE considering the horses stomach is about the size of a rugby ball. Personally I would switch your mollychaff for something like alfa-a (which is quite rich in protein) and just feed one scoop twice a day and just feed that with sugarbeet to add some bulk or on its own and the recomended levels (about 4 scoops per day). To that you can add some soya oil which is great for weight and general condition. Keep it simple. Feeding lots of different feeds becomes a faff and expensive and it is easy to lose sight of what feed is achieving what.

Give it time. I'm sure with the extra hay / haylage he will transform
 
Agree with CBfan - lots of forage and keep it simple.
It sounds like that's waht worked for him before but with less grass you need to up the haylage.
My TB doesn't get much feed but he has unlimited hay and haylage at all times. Dread to think how much but it keeps the weight on and is good for his gut.

I would also swap the chaff for alfa a oil or top chop alfa both of which are higher in protein have oil but sugarfree.
Then sugarbeet (I feed copra instead of sugarbeet as mine reacts to it but most don't)

the other thing is if you really do have to give him a lot of hard feed then you will need to split it into more than 2 feeds as their stomachs can only absorb a certain amount in one go.
 
thanks guys

so if i swap chaff for alfa a oil and sugarbeet would i need to add anything to it? have been looking on website and they recommend adding a balancer or vit supplement if using it as a main feed. I do also add glucosamine, biotin and cider vinegar to evening feed.

typical as ive just opened another bag of chaff lol!!! never mind want to build him up so need to do it before it gets too cold
 
Plenty of bulk like grass and hay or hayledge will help, I have known people with horses prone to loosing weight feed HUGE amount of hard feed as well as the bulk and not have much luck, i think an average amount of conditioning feed e.g. calm and condition combined with a supplement for weight gain like the outshine from baileys might help? There are different conditioning feeds out there that are good and also different weight gain supplements that im sure are good aswell so have a look around im sure you will find something suitable.
 
Sorry, not read the replies :rolleyes:

Friend rang the feed manufacturers when she got her TB (ex-racer with a tendon issue, amongst others). Anyhoo, after taking advice, she put him onto:

Saracens Releave and their Equijewel. This has put on weight nice and steadily, without heating him up. Also had Readigrass when stabled. When he was on box rest he had four haynets a day and four at night (big fat ones!), with hay or haylage, whichever was the best available at the time.

I've used the same feed with Dizzy, a stressy DWB that could be prone to stomach ulcers as she is a dingbat (gets stressed when stabled especially). It has put weight on her nice and steadily, also without turning her into a loopfruit :)
 
Apart from all the good advice you've had from on here, have his teeth been done recently and is his worming up to date?. If neither of those have been done, any feed you're giving him is going straight down the drain, it wouldn't matter how much you're giving him, you wouldn't get results.
 
My boy was very underweight when I got him TBXWB. And lost more moving yards.

I upped the hay and gave hayledge as well as hay. He was eating as much as poss.

I also then didnt up his feeds but I added Top Spec Feed Balancer and this is when I really started to notice the difference. His hoofs improved too!
 
Tim's Girl said:
thanks guys

so if i swap chaff for alfa a oil and sugarbeet would i need to add anything to it? have been looking on website and they recommend adding a balancer or vit supplement if using it as a main feed. I do also add glucosamine, biotin and cider vinegar to evening feed.

typical as ive just opened another bag of chaff lol!!! never mind want to build him up so need to do it before it gets too cold
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I would just add a broad spec vit and min supplement like equivite (love the stuff) to make sure he gets all his vits and mins. And all is not wasted with the open bag of chaff as you'll need to introduce the alfa-a gradually and you can use the chaff to mix it in and feed a handfull per feed til it's gone ;o)
 
Hi dont know if it will work for you but eveb though i am not a huge fan of supplements one by Equine Answers ( I have only found it online) called 365 has worked wonders for me with a horse on my yard that we were struggling to put weight on.
 
One more thing to bear in mind - if he is an especially wimpy tb - he might feel the drop in temp and lose weight because he's cold. Mine doesn't but another at the yard has needed a lightweight turnout at night the last couple of weeks.
 
thanks all,

you have given me alot to work on and doing research into it all.

yeah he is wormed and had his teeth done as i checked with previous owner before and after purchase. i think some of the weight loss is down to moving but he seems happy enough now acting like a wally in the field doing bouncing ball impressions!! i've also checked his droppings and they are all digested food!

i do rug him at night although only a l/w rug. at the moment he has a fleece on as im waiting for my l/w stable to arrive. sometimes has a l/w turnout on in field but not if a hot day.
 
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