Feeding problems

J

Jack1997

Member
Joined
27 September 2016
Messages
24
Visit site
Hi I just want some advice on feeding. I've got a thoughbredX who I've had since April. When he come he was on some kind of conditioning mix, then I changed him to molli chaff calmer and he was very very fizzy. This has seem to settled him, though he hasn't lost weight, he's lost his condition. What do people advice? I want to keep him on the calmer but I also want to put him on something to boost his condition
Thank you
 
Jack1997 said:
Hi I just want some advice on feeding. I've got a thoughbredX who I've had since April. When he come he was on some kind of conditioning mix, then I changed him to molli chaff calmer and he was very very fizzy. This has seem to settled him, though he hasn't lost weight, he's lost his condition. What do people advice? I want to keep him on the calmer but I also want to put him on something to boost his condition
Thank you
Click to expand...

Can you be specific about what you mean by 'he hasn't lost weight, he's lost his condition'.
 
TGM said:
Can you be specific about what you mean by 'he hasn't lost weight, he's lost his condition'.
Click to expand...

At a guess he has lost some muscle tone so still looks ok but not as well as he did, oil is good for condition without fizzing them up, so micronised linseed would be my first choice, adding something high fibre such as speedibeet or fast fibre to get more calories in if needed as the weather gets colder, plus either a balancer or general supplement to give the vits and mins he may require. Ad lib access to hay, haylage and grass will also help keep the weight on over winter.
 
Yes that's exactly what I mean,lost muscle tone and doesn't look as well as he did. I also feed him on Baileys keep calm and optimum feed balancer. I didn't know whether to stop with the keep calm and add some conditioning cubes to his diet?
 
If he has lost muscle then a bit part of that will down to the work you are doing with him - correct work, along with the right feed, builds (or maintains) muscle. What sort of work was he doing before you bought him, and what is he doing now?
 
He's doing similar work, though since we've had him he's had a few accidents and overall had about 4 weeks off
I mostly show jump and event
 
Jack1997 said:
Yes that's exactly what I mean,lost muscle tone and doesn't look as well as he did. I also feed him on Baileys keep calm and optimum feed balancer. I didn't know whether to stop with the keep calm and add some conditioning cubes to his diet?
Click to expand...

Thats a lot of "calming products", at a guess you may be giving him a very unbalanced diet and his not using any of it well, if he were mine I would cut out everything and get him onto a fibre and oil based feed, keeping things simple is usually best with fizzy horses, loads of hay, plenty of work and less feed rather than giving too many different products that will be unbalancing each other and doing the opposite to what you actually want.
 
Jack1997 said:
Yes that's exactly what I mean,lost muscle tone and doesn't look as well as he did. I also feed him on Baileys keep calm and optimum feed balancer. I didn't know whether to stop with the keep calm and add some conditioning cubes to his diet?
Click to expand...

If he looks like he has lost muscle tone (presumably you mean over his back, neck and quarters?) then there could be various factors involved.

- You may not be working him in the correct way to maintain muscle tone
- He may have a subclinical soundness problem (perhaps hocks, feet etc) that causes him to move incorrectly and therefore lose muscle
- He may have Cushings, which often leads to lack of topline
- He may actually have lost some weight, as fat will make the topline look more round.

What is his current regime - how much turnout, what is the grazing like, how much hay, what work does he do? How old is he? How many times a day do you give a bucket feed, and what is actually in it in terms of weight (rather than scoops)?

If you could post a photo of his current condition, and perhaps one of when you bought him, that might help.
 
Jack1997 said:
But he's better since he's been on the calming food
Click to expand...

the Baileys Keep Calm isn't actually calming, it just contains less of the ingredients found in other feeds that fizz horses up - Baileys told me this directly so not speculation

The Mollichaff calmer is similar in that its oat straw based and contains no alfalfa though I'm not sure if it has magnesium added for 'calming' you'd get potentially an even better level of calm from plain oat straw chaff
 
Jack1997 said:
But he's better since he's been on the calming food
Click to expand...

He may be calmer but you said he doesn't look better so my point is that you may well be giving too much of something that could be effecting his condition or ability to utilise the food, if he is deficient in magnesium which is in most of the calmers then it may be more effective to supplement that and cut back on the feeds, feed companies want us to buy their products and keep supplying what they think we want, it is very easy to get sucked in when in reality most normal horses require very little to look well and work at the lower levels, a high performance horse will require more than the average horse but still needs most of it's diet as forage or fibre.

I am not a nutritionist but having had many horses of very different types I have generally found it is best to feed less in a bucket than most feed producers would recommend.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top