Help me put weigth on my skinny horse!

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zoon

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My 15 year old has always dropped off over winter and didn't think he was too bad until I looked at a photo of him from when he was 12 during winter and now realise he could certainly be better! Had teeth done recently and they are fine. He is well rugged as we know he is a poor doer (220g at the mo even though others are naked). Field is still full of grass so no hay yet, but will get ad lib once they've eaten it down a bit more. Also have the possibility of renting field next door where there is even more grass!

He has saracen veteran mix (actually more digestible energy than the conditioning mixes) and alpha beet and micronised linseed (or will when my order eventually comes in!) and benevit supplement. Tried equijewel and outshine and didn't make a big enough difference to justify price. Am going to add veg oil from tomorrow.

What else can we do?
 
Can you feed him a few times a day? I had to feed my old boy at least 3 times a day, plus all the haylage he could ever eat.

It lasted till he was in his 30's, Every winter we had a battle on our hands. last year, even with electrolytes from the vet, and a warm bran mash, we couldnt save him. :(
 
Is he in the correct condition now - or is he skinny already? If he is already starting to look poor then start getting some hay or haylage into him, however much grass there looks to be in the field. Either bring him in for a few hours with some hay/haylage or create a section of the field with electric fencing where he can scoff ad lib hay/haylage.

How often a day do you feed and what quantities? If you are feeding the Veteran Mix to the recommended quantities you won't need the vit/min supplement as well, but if you are feeding significantly less than the recommended quantities then it won't necessarily have the weight gain effect you desire! Saracen Veteran Mix has 12 MJDE/kg and there are conditioning cubes/mixes available that are higher calorie - for example, Baileys No. 4 has 13.5 MJDE/kg. So if you are restricted in how often or how much you can feed per day, better to swap to a higher calorie feed. Likewise, AlfaBeet is only 10.5 MJDE/kg, so if you swapped to something like Speedibeet (12.4 MJDE/kg) then you could get more calories into him.
 
If you are wanting to feed a balancer, Spillers have just bought out a range which are a third less than most other balancers and have the bonus of a £5 off intro offer. I am using it at the moment instead of bluechip, and seems to be doing ok so far!
With regards to adding oil, I have been told corn oil is far more digestable than regular old veg oil.
 
My old boys always got cooked Barley and Linseed Oil in addition to their feed in winter. One was fed Baileys No 1 and the other D&H 16+. Only one left now he is nearly 32 - lost weight in winter before I bought him aged 15. He is in super condition now - the one on 16+.
 
tbh i would recommend blue chip and switching chaff to alpha A oil defo add oil (linseed for shiny coat etc although soya tends to put weight on better)
 
Can you give him 3-4 smaller feeds a day, rather than 1 or 2 large feeds? upping the feed will only cause the food to move too fast through the digestive tract and therefor not digested properly.

Definitely add some oil and maybe swap to a higher calorie feed? When he does start needing hay could you give him haylage instead (higher calorie content).

Is he looking skinny already? How much do you feed him and how often?
 
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Looking a bit skinny already. He has one feed a day as I can't always get up twice a day (he lives out 24/7) but if I can I do go up twice. Will see if I can find someone to give him a morning feed, but as we're not on a yard (have my own land) might be difficult.

He has a scoop of veteran mix and a scoop of alphabeet. Will try swapping to baileys number 4 and speedibeet when we run out of what we have. Hoping the micronized linseed will help too.

Has anyone tried barley rings? Do they make horse heat up? He is very laid back on his current feed and don't want the spooky crazy horse backt hat I used to have!
 
zoon said:
Looking a bit skinny already. He has one feed a day as I can't always get up twice a day (he lives out 24/7) but if I can I do go up twice. Will see if I can find someone to give him a morning feed, but as we're not on a yard (have my own land) might be difficult.

He has a scoop of veteran mix and a scoop of alphabeet. Will try swapping to baileys number 4 and speedibeet when we run out of what we have. Hoping the micronized linseed will help too.

Has anyone tried barley rings? Do they make horse heat up? He is very laid back on his current feed and don't want the spooky crazy horse backt hat I used to have!
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Yes I tried Barley rings but my old boys hated them - I threw away half a sac. I think they had vedg oil in them - I could smell it and my horses will not eat feed with cheap oil.

A friend, years ago, told me his TB mare had suddenly gone off her feed. I asked if he added oil and sure enough the previous day he had added oil but it was a cheap supermarket vedg. oil. He stopped using it and she ate her feed the next day.
 
Baileys no. 1....is that the cooked cereal? I had my oap on this before he was PTS, he loved it, but it was a supreme pain in the butt to use. VERY powdery!
And you need to use quite a bit to see any effect. Not cost effective IMO.
 
Ok, will scrap the baileys number 1 - was planning on making a mash to replace the speedy beet as it is 14MJ/kg. What is the most calorific sugarbeet product? He likes his feed all wet and messy, so always have some sort of beet/fast fibre/mash type product in there.
 
Rollin said:
Yes I tried Barley rings but my old boys hated them - I threw away half a sac. I think they had vedg oil in them - I could smell it and my horses will not eat feed with cheap oil.

A friend, years ago, told me his TB mare had suddenly gone off her feed. I asked if he added oil and sure enough the previous day he had added oil but it was a cheap supermarket vedg. oil. He stopped using it and she ate her feed the next day.
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he's had oil in his feed before and isn't bothered by it - will eat most things if you put them in a feed bowl!
 
I have a 20 year old TB. He looks like a 10 year old, condition wise. He still lives out 24/7 and will do until the fields get too wet. He gets one or two feeds a day, depending on whether he is near the field gate waiting when I get there in the morning - if he isn't, then I assume he is quite happy stuffing himself on grass. I give him speedibeet, Alfa A Oil and D and H 16+ mix. He gets a full round scoop of Alfa A Oil and about 3/4 of a scoop of 16+ and a generous dollop of speedibeet. Just beware that not all horses will eat the Alfa A Oil. My mare hates it, so when this bag is used up, I'll be moving to Alfa A original and I'll add my own oil. But the 20 year old TB is verging on the fat, but to be honest, going into winter, I'm not really bothered.....
 
Bailey's number one, calm and condition, alpha a and as much oil as he will take - but split it into three feeds if you can.

Also, although he has good grass, there isn't much in it so I'd be feeding him hay or haylage too.

HAs worked wonders for my underweight mare!
 
I have a nightmare/gelding of a horse to keep weight on. 17.3 n def not a foody. Wind in the wrong direction etc n the weight drops off him. He is also 27yrs young! What I found made the biggest difference to him was to ditch the mixes.

I know it is a leap of faith but fibre is so much easier than cereals for them to digest esp when they are poor doers. I also dropped the sugar / molasses etc.

He is now on: AM - Top Chop, A+P Fast Fibre, Equijewel
PM - Top Chop, Equigest, Equijewel

Two feeds a day.

Out during the day but ad lib hay if he is in. If I feel he is needing a little extra I give him Speedibeet (non molassed) But TBH I haven't needed this for a while

I also give him Pink Powder just to boost his vit levels, balance his gut etc.

This is the horse that I had several threats about informing the RSPCA. That kinda bad!!!

It is tough but with these guys you have to balance getting the calories in without blowing their minds too. :)
 
Well I had thought that we would give our poor doer tb mare Bailey's No 2 with Hi Fi Chaff and then add fibre beet as it got colder but we had to abandon this idea because she'd already started dropping weight even though she's not clipped and off with an injury, so now she's on Calm & Condition. It does have a fair amount of digestable energy in comparison to other feeds.
 
Have you thought of ulcers? Many have them and go undetected for months, years. Or could be another absorbtion problems like worms or slight liver problem. You can worm regularly but there maybe a rogue worm that is immune to the wormers!
 
He was scoped for ulcers last year as he turned into a proper grump. Stomach is flawless!

Recently worm counted and was fine, but no bloods taken for tape (about to worm for them next week anyway)

Might get bloods done - what can they test for? Just liver enzymes?
 
I had trouble with getting weight on my boy!

I fed and will feed again this winter, over two or three feeds depending on how much weight he looses if any!!

Ad lib haylage
2 scoops of staypower cubes
2 (wet) scoops of alfa-beet
2 scoops of alfa a oil
Recommended amount of build & glow
A few gluts of soya oil

He piled the pounds on and is looking brilliant! :)
 
I needed to get some weight/condition on my girl this time last year and although the amount of feeds is not doable for you she has:

3 feed a day of 1 scoop 16+, 1 scoop Alfa A Oil, 1/3rd scoop oats and adlib haylage. When I first needed to fatten her up I had her on Blue Chip and that was great, I only needed a couple of bags before her weight was up enough to cut it out. If you could get some breakfast in him that would help. Good luck
 
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