Help- Feeding a youngster with out the fizz!

[jessdarcy]

Hi there,

I am hoping you can help-

I have recently got a 5 year old and he is on the skinny side, I have started bringing him into full work.
I need something to feed him to bulk him up, without hotting him up as he is in over night.
I have a weight clinic coming up, but before then I was hoping you could give me some advice before then?

Many Thanks,

Jess

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Spillers high fibre cubes, Allen & page calm and condition, or spillers response slow release energy cubes (depending on if you need to start from nothing, or move up from what you currently feed). With sugar beet, alfalfa chaff and oil.

 

[jessdarcy]

Ah great, thanks

I don;t have much experience with sugar beet, I know it can bulk up, but is it heating?

Thank you

Jess

 

[ImmyS]

Rather than having chaff and then adding oil (which is great for weight gain) I would use alfa-a oil as this has extra oil added but also balances the oil with extra vitamin E, great for weight gain without fizz. I Use this combined with baileys no. 4 on my lean 5year old tb and has worked lovely with no fizziness, no soaking needed either!

 

[jessdarcy]

Ah ok!
At the moment he is on hi-fi original, linseed oil, pasture mix, carrots

 

[ghostie]

For my tb the only way to get weight on him without sending him loopy is good quality ad lib hay when in, unmolassed chaff and micronised linseed. Oil and fibre are your friends, sugar is not

 

[ImmyS]

For my tb the only way to get weight on him without sending him loopy is good quality ad lib hay when in, unmolassed chaff and micronised linseed. Oil and fibre are your friends, sugar is not

Exactly! So feed Alfa a oil, it has both ... And second good hay and grazing, can't beat good old doctor green!

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Nothing I listed should fizz a horse up. Go for unmolassed sugar beet if you want to be healthier. Alfalfa can occasionally send a horse loopy but it will most probably be fine. If you don't feed recommended amounts of the hard feed (nuts/cubes), add a balancer. This will contain vitamins & minerals, protein (needed for muscle development) and most seem to have a calming effect to some degree.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Pasture mix (assuming you mean Dodson & Horrell) is a medium energy feed. Mixes are full of starch which fizzes them up, use nuts instead. Oh & the ad lib hay too, like someone else said. I forgot to mention that.

 

[oldywoldy]

Balanced Horse Feeds Show Mix is fantastic for putting condition on without any fizz. We have been using it for years on rehab horses and vet referalls that need it.

 

[horsemadelsie]

Last winter my then 4 year old lost a lot of weight when moving yards (he's quite stressy) I added some baileys top line cubes and they helped him put the weight back on with no fizziness, and he is very much the type to get fizzy! He just had a small scoop of them with his usual feed of healthy hooves and ad-lib hay.

 

[Thembu]

My TB lost a lot of weight last winter and i used Calm and Condition from Allen and Page and, even after months of no work could get straight on him no bother, lots of condition without the fizz