How often/ much Baileys No4 to feed horse coming back into work?

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AgarTheWarmblood

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Hi there,

I have just bought my loan horse, (17.2 Dutch Warmblood) who has been living out for the winter (only grazing on what's there and a bit of hay... no extra feed) and has got a nice big grass belly, but has lost muscle across his back from being unworked.
I was thinking of feeding him Baileys No4 to help build his back up along with the usual trotting up hills, on roads etc, but as he lives out and I don't go up to see him everyday I didn't know if there was any point in starting him on any kind of food if it would only be every other day or possibly less depending on my working schedule etc.

Do you need to feed a horse every day for things like this to make a difference?

I should add that he has only been ridden once a week for the last 3 months whilst I've been loaning him, and so now would be working more, probably 3 times a week or more when possible.

I understand that this is probably a silly question, but as this is the first horse I have bought this is all new to me.

Any feedback on food choice, quantity and how often to feed etc would be greatly appreciated.

Please no nasty comments,
Cheers
Sarah

 
He does look a bit poor and to be honest more wormy belly than grass belly, I would get that sorted first if he is due, then let the grass coming through help with the condition and the extra exercise build up the muscles.
Feeding really needs to be done regularly, ideally twice a day to make a difference, just giving him a feed 3 or 4 times a week is likely to cause more harm than good, a few cubes as a token after work would be fine but to put him on a conditioning cube will be pointless in my opinion, good grass or hay, access to a salt lick and proper exercise for a month or two and he will look like a new horse.

Just to add I hope someone else checks him for you on the days you don't go, if they could feed him at the same time it may be worth feeding him a little each day, in the winter obviously he will need plenty of hay and may well require extra feed then, it pays to plan ahead so you do not have to worry about him going hungry next winter.
 
I actually think this horse has lost muscle because he has been underfed.

He would benefit from being fed hay/haylage if the grass in his field is poor. Additionally some hard feed once or twice per day would help him get his condition back.

I would start by giving him Alfa-A Oil with something without too much energy in it like Pasture Mix or Horse and Pony Nuts would probably be appropriate in this case.
 
Thanks for your thoughts guys - he's due to have a worm count in the next week or so, hopefully that will give me a better indication about the state of his belly.

The fields that he has access to are quite heavily grazed, although they are rotated fairly regularly to allow the grass to recover (even with this, I suspect that the grass quality has suffered). Currently, we bring him in every 1-2 days and top him up with a small trug of damped down chaff and pony nuts. As he's not used to 'richer' food, I want to make any changes to his diet gradually and don't want him to lose his hardiness that allows him to live out - that's why I asked about the supplements.

We had the vet examine him a couple of weeks ago and he was happy with his weight (I have posted this pic as him 'on a bad day' to try and highlight the areas where he is obviously out of condition). I worry that something like the Alfa-A will put weight on his belly rather than his bum.

I've also come across Dengie's Natural Vitality Leisure Vits & Mins which is designed for horses in light work (like Archie) - any more thoughts?

Also, just to put your minds at ease, he's on a really good yard with plenty of friends that regularly attend - I just can't get there myself every day so don't want to come up with a feeding plan that would rely on such attendance. The others would let me know immediately if anything happened to Archie

Thanks again for your comments

Sarah
 
image.jpg


Here's a more recent picture from last week, hopefully you agree that he is looking better than the previous one that was a couple of months ago.
 
If he were mine I would be feeding him daily, once a day is fine if he's living out with a reasonable amount of grass. I personally wouldn't bother with the conditioning cubes, I'd feed him some speedi beet to carry some micronized linseed and brewers yeast and add some chaff (I use either Dengie Good doer or Hifi molasses free) and/or some fibre cubes. Some horses can get a bit lively when fed up after being poor and all these things are non heating. The conditioning cubes, however, could be. If there's not a lot of grass about I'd feed him hay out in the field too.

Mine tend to get a little porky in the summer but I still feed them a little feed of fast fibre and chaff to carry some linseed, magesium and brewers yeast and they also get hay when on restricted grazing.
 
AgarTheWarmblood said:
Thanks for your thoughts guys - he's due to have a worm count in the next week or so, hopefully that will give me a better indication about the state of his belly.

The fields that he has access to are quite heavily grazed, although they are rotated fairly regularly to allow the grass to recover (even with this, I suspect that the grass quality has suffered). Currently, we bring him in every 1-2 days and top him up with a small trug of damped down chaff and pony nuts. As he's not used to 'richer' food, I want to make any changes to his diet gradually and don't want him to lose his hardiness that allows him to live out - that's why I asked about the supplements.

We had the vet examine him a couple of weeks ago and he was happy with his weight (I have posted this pic as him 'on a bad day' to try and highlight the areas where he is obviously out of condition). I worry that something like the Alfa-A will put weight on his belly rather than his bum.

I've also come across Dengie's Natural Vitality Leisure Vits & Mins which is designed for horses in light work (like Archie) - any more thoughts?

Also, just to put your minds at ease, he's on a really good yard with plenty of friends that regularly attend - I just can't get there myself every day so don't want to come up with a feeding plan that would rely on such attendance. The others would let me know immediately if anything happened to Archie

Thanks again for your comments

Sarah
Click to expand...

It sounds like you have a good system.

To be honest if you give him Alfa-Oil it will help with condition and weight gain so long as you do exercise to build muscle at the same time. I certainly have not seen it increase belly size. It is also good because it does not have any grain in it so a good transitional feed.

Cheap chaffs have very little nutritional quality so basically he won't be getting much from his feed at the moment.

But I think the key thing to take from your situation is that he is not getting enough nutrition and energy from the over-grazed fields. I would advise you to feed him hay/haylage during the day to supplement his diet. He also needs his hard feed every single day.

He is not horribly underweight. But his spine is protruding and it should not be.
 
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My horses have winter "off" work (no school to ride in and I work daylight hours) and they pretty much look like this coming out of winter (apart from the sec A who's NEVER skinny!). A belly full of hay and poor top line from lack of excersize.

I do not feed grains etc and my guys get either Allen & Page fast fibre or calm & condition. I actually moved everyone on to calm & condition as I really liked the condition it gave them all. I have always been an advocate of both Bailey's no 4 and Alfa-A Oil chaff but only feed the Alfa-A oil to my older mare now as my sec A doesn't need it and my gelding is alergic to it! If you do a search on here for the Alfa-A oil you'll probably find threads on the allergies - I went on for a few years and vets were left stumped with my horses odd scabs. As soon as I cut the Alfa-A oil they disappeared! Don't let this put you off though as, like I said, I still use it however I would just be aware that there was realisation a few years ago that alot of horses have alergies to Alfa-A products.

Again, I've always been impressed with Bailey's no 4 results and would consider using it again if I was trying to get my horses really fit. As we are I'm happy with the allen & page products.

Good luck!
 
Just a quick update...

Think we're probably going to try a combination of Hi-Fi Molasses free and Dengie's Natural Vitality Leisure Vits & Mins.
We've also decided to give him a some extra haylage when we bring him in just to top him up.

Guess we'll see how we go and monitor it accordingly.

You'll also be happy to know that the wormer is in the post and Archie and his herd will be wormed next week.

Thanks for all the help!
Sarah
 
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