How much to feed?

U

usernamepending

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 March 2012
Messages
143
Visit site
Just a quick question, how much Hi-fi mollasses free, speedi beet and soya oil would you feed a horse that needs to gain a bit of weight, and is in light work? He's a stocky TB.

E.g 3 scoops of hifi, 1 of speedi beet etc.

Trying to gauge whether i'm feeding the right amounts...

Sorry its vague but any input would be great, thanks alot!
 
The thing to do is to get a weigh tape (or even a normal tape measure would do) and put it round him every week at the same time - eg if you stable at night then ride then measure you'd get a different reading to if you brought in from grass in the afternoon then measured, so whatever your routine it must be measured at the same time each week.

You put the tape round the belly just behind the withers and where the girth goes, then you can see if he's gaining weight each week. Adjust the amounts of feed according to the results.

Normally you would only give small feeds because the horses stomach is the size of a rugby ball and if cereals get pushed through too quick they end up in the intestines undigested which can cause colic or laminitis. But you're only feeding fibre feed and a little oil. Fibre feed is mostly digested in the intestine anyway so its ok to give larger feeds.
 
Hi-Fi wont help put on weight its designed for a calorie controlled diet. Better of using alpha-a oil or similar higher calorie chaff
 
Thanks for replies! Started weigh tapinh today so will keep a record :) Having spoken to my vet, he suggested trying an alfalfa free diet for a month (due to him being slightly footy). So would just swop the chaff for another scoop of speedi beet and adding linseed. Any other suggestions on what to feed instead of alfalfa would be apreciated! Thanks!
 
Hard to say how much without knowing what your horse weighs! ;-) You want to aim to feed 2.5% of your horse's bodyweight per day. Is he turned out? If not, or if he's on restricted grazing, I'd stick with plenty of good quality hay and a good vit/min supplement or balancer. I'm a big fan of unmolassed beet pulp but you have to feed quite a bit to add condition - 1 Stubbs scoop (around 200g dry weight) isn't going to be enough.
 
I find adding weight to my TB's without feeding alfalfa is pretty tough! You would need to feed the feeds you have in fairly substantial quantities to be adding weight.

Personally I'd feed the Chaff and beet as a base for a good balancer and add rice bran and/or linseed.

I've used Omega Rice (rice bran and linseed combined) before with good results but now use KeyFlow Key Plus rice bran on mine instead. Neither of those feeds affect their feet or make them fizzy.

Lots of folk feed micronized linseed from Charnwood Milling to their TB's with good results too.

Also look into grass nuts, they are great for adding weight and again alfalfa free.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top