Horse stilllll very poor - help appreciated.

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Twinkletoes

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Would appreciate any advice on my dear little Mr Darcy, as am concerned I am missing something. Sorry if youve already read a previous post on him, things arent on the up.

Facts :
Yearling (May 08 foal)
Gelded a month ago
Hann X Shire
Taken off his mother Far too early.
Purchased extremely poor in Nov(08).

Nov :
DSC00529.jpg




May :
Photo-0011.jpg


DSC00407.jpg




Since purchase he has been wormed religeously on a programme Ive had checked with both our vets. He's up to date F&T jabs, and was gelded in April.

He and his yearling buddy have great grazing, haylage, stabling in bad weather and an open field shelter.

Feed wise he has two feeds a day : 1 x scoop Spillers Youngstock Mix, AlfaAOil, Fenugreek, Garlic, and Pink Powder.

He is growing very slowly, standing only at 13.1hh now at 1, although dam was 15.1hh and sire was 16hh shirecross.

He is a Worrier, and has been Extremely slow to respond to us. Handling wise he is halter broken and can be lightly groomed, but that is it.

Sorry for long winded post Im just getting quite worried about this, and not sure where to go from here. I really do think a lot of him, but something's just not right, and he is worlds apart from his buddy whom he lives with. I know no 2 horses necessarily are at all the same, but they were identical weight/condition wise when we bought them together, somethings just not right.

Ive been advised all sorts of extras to bulk him up, ie crushed peanuts, treacle (to get him more keen to eat) as sometimes he picks at his food for 5 minutes and then goes off.

Oh another thing is he will not drop his winter coat, it literally will not come out.

Help much appreciated. x
 
Calm down! He looks alot better if you ask me. You will find he will take a while to start putting on condition as like you said he was taken off mum too early, plus he was properly riddled with worms before you got him. Have you done a worm count?
Baby's normally keep their coat more than adults, especially if he was as bad as you say when you got him!
Being a worrier won't help him, so all you can do is make sure he has nothing to worry about.... speaking of which, you should stop worrying!! He looks so much better and you are doing so well!! Keeo it up!!
 
From the photos youve posted he doesnt look that bad

whats your turn out like ??
if you have plenty of grazing then give that time to work
building up after being so poor is going to take time
if he doesnt respond after have summer grazing and feed thats the time you need to find out whats going on !!!!
 
My first thought is an early weaned foal that is on a course mix is a prime candidate for stomach ulcers. Also, garlic can kill off useful bacteria in the digestive system. He was probably weaned suddenly too, if he was poor when you got him. Foals cant just go from milk to hard feed and hay. The digestive system needs time to adjust, even longer than adult horses. Recent gelding will hve taken it out of him too.

I personally would stop using garlic and stick to a fibre only diet, no cereals. Something like winergy growth or soaked down fibre nuts with unmollased sugar beet. Carry on with the pink powder and fenugreek but offer them in a seperate bucket. If hes a picky eater strong flavours can sometimes put them off, although they normally love fenugreek. Garlic is actually one of the least liked flavours to horses.
 
i would take him off the youngstock and get him on build up mix..

http://www.millbryhill.co.uk/equestrian-...horrel-2037.htm

cut out the alfa A..replace with bog standard mollichaff,
soaked barley rings,
seaweed and fenugreek supp.

if his digestive system isnt showing signs of a problem, cut out the PP's...and i don't like youngstock having garlic, i wouldn't feed it to mine TBH

feed little and often...if possible just leave in a Creep for him to pick at over the day/night?

as for socialising...just do a little every day...dont worry too much if you can't do this or that, tomorrow is another day..he will come round in his own time...

also speak to this lady about his depression.....

http://www.helios.co.uk/
 
I really wouldnt feed cereals or mollichop to this horse if he was mine. Cereals are very high in starch and mollichop is high in sugar from the mollasses coating. High starch and sugar diets are not conducive to either digestive health or safe bone growth. The high starch also causes peaks and troughs in blood glucose and is more likely to cause erratic/stressy behaviour than a fibre based diet.
Ulcers in foals are very common and will lead to reduced appetite and poor growth, which the OP has stated her horse has. They also lower the immune system and can cause stressy behaviour. Cereals are the worst diet for a horse with ulcers.
 
When I saw the first pic I thought he was just a diddy, probably make about 14.2 but then I read his breeding so I'm a bit confused. I think the mare must have pony behind her which is coming through with him (but prepared to be totally wrong of course!) In the last pic he doesn't look too bad so I don't think it's time for worrying, you're just being impatient. Youngsters, particularly cob crosses, are notorious for not losing their coats; in fact Harry last year as a foal, didn't lose his until August then started growing another coat on top but this year is managing much better but still looks a shaggy yak so your boy isn't too unusual!

I would however change his feed virtually completely (over a week or so of course) as it's not very suitable for a youngster if I'm honest.
I'd ditch all the supplements and Alfa A (substitute HiFi if you must feed a chaff but they don't need chaff if they have adequate grazing at all) I'd also change from the Spillers Youngstock Mix to something a lot better for them (not molassed as much) You don't want feeds you have to stuff into him, the worst thing for growing horses, you need the right thing and you won't have to feed half as much which is better for their joints, particularly as he is going to be a reasonably heavy chap when fully grown.
If it was me I'd either go for Dodson & Horrell Suregrow, a balancer for growing horses or Bailey's Stud Balancer; both of which would do the job well, give him all the correct vitamins and minerals he needs without the calories. You can feed them alone or with a bit of chaff to bulk it up. Both feeds are economical and you only feed a couple of mugfuls of the Bailey's. Of the Suregrow, you'd feed 350g per 100kg weight of horse, so he'd need about 1kg a day, give or take a gram or two. It won't seem a lot but because it's the correct stuff for that time of his growth and supplying all he needs, you should see a difference in him fairly soon.
Putting weight on youngsters is a long drawn out job and can be frustrating that it takes so long but keep at it, you'll get there!
Another thing I'd do if possible is get his handling up to scratch. Not so much doing things to him, but get him comfortable with you, to want to be with you or happy to see you, to get him to be a friendlier person. If he is more comfortable with you he won't worry as much which is another help with the weight gain; it's all about making them calm and relaxed so they don't stress it off.
Whatever you end up doing can we have updates in a month or so please?
 
Thank you everyone. I am going to give Winergy a call as well as D&H, and take him off the Spillers. Thank you, re ulcers, it sounds highly probable and something I clearly need to do something about. I will be patient, as he is a diamond in the rough I am convinced, and will update every month, with new pics. Thank you MFH re coat, I was worried it was something more complex. Re his height, who knows we will have to watch this space.
 
Bless him, what a lovely gentle face he has. I think you may have to accept that whatever size his parents were, he is going to be a mighty midget. It could well be that he has had internal harm as a result of his poor start so you now have to make the most of what you have. Horses are 90% of their full height at 2, so I would guess he will make about the same as his mum. Also, apparently, it is the mare which dicates the foal's size, so even a big sire will not make a huge difference. A friend of mine has the offspring of two racing TBs and he is only 14hh! I would also be not too keen about stuffing him full of cereal. He needs good clean fodder and plenty of it, but not so much that he gets either too fat or grows too fast. As to his coat, well he is still a baby and they do seem to have one coat and stick with it. Getting a summer coat is much more of a grown-up thing. Oldies do it in reverse and don't have much difference winter and summer, if you think about it. Nature has told him that he needs a thick coat to keep a skinny body warm so that he isn't burning calories unnecessarily. Nature will sort it out for him. I'm sure being gelded will have knocked the stuffing out of him too. Keep going with the steady care and I'm quite sure you will indeed have a little diamond.
 
Ah thank you fatpiggy (Im sure youre not). TBH in my naivity it was his kind eye and gentle looks that made it him that came home rather than the other 2. I will put an update on here in a month. Thanks again.
 
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