how to gain weight on my horse

[scrumpyjackles]

does any one have any advice on how to gain weight on my horse...hes a 15.3 7 year old warmblood and i really struggle to keep weight on....have decided not to hunt this season and let him have any easy few months in the hope of him getting a bit 'fatter' !!! hes currently having, chaff, pasture mix, sugar beat and calm and condition twice a day and ad-lib hay !!!

 

[OT Sports Horses]

i was going to say ad-lib-hay... but i see you already do that.
I would try boiled barley - our retired pony is very hard to keep wait on but looks more rounded through the winter with a bit of boiled barley. My mum has an easy way of doing it - she has a big flask and each night she puts 2 cupfuls of barley in and fills with boiled water, pops the lid on and then its ready for the next day.
hope that helps

 

[boxcarhorse]

I'd swap the hard feed to Baileys Conditioning Cubes and swap the chaff to Alfa A or Alfa A Oil. Pasture mix won't have many calories and I find Baileys CC to be better at putting on weight than DH Calm & Condition. And cubes are better than a mix.

 

[AmyMay]

I would drop the calm and condition, and pasture mix and get him on to a higher calorie diet - something like D&H build up, with Sugar Beat and Alpha A. Plus the adlib hay.

Is his worming and dentistry up to date, and do you keep him warm enough?

 

[thatsmygirl]

What chaff you useing? Tbh I would totally change his diet, I won't feed cereal off any kind due to high starch levels. I would go for alfa a oil, baileys no 4 and micro linseed and maybe add a pro/pre biotic to help his stomach

 

[Beans1]

Baileys number 4, speedibeet, alfa A oil (if he eats it - I find some can be fussy on this) and a small mug of oil, ad-lib good quality hay/haylage and grass. I am sure you have done this already but make sure your worming programme is effective, that his teeth are ok and that you keep him at a comfortable temperature - not too hot or too cold so he doesn't use any energy being overheated or being cold.

 

[TGM]

I'd change to adlib haylage if possible, as most horses find it tastier (so eat more of it) plus usually higher in calories than most hays.

I wouldn't bother with the pasture mix, instead feed the recommended ration of a conditioning cube, alongside a high calorie chaff (eg Readigrass or Alfa A Oil) and the beet. You might want to consider adding a product containing a probiotic yeast to help improve conditions in the hindgut so the horse can gain the maximum benefit from the food he eats (eg Pink Powder, Yea-Sacc, various balancers etc).

You could also add some sort of oil-rich supplement (eg micronised linseed, Outshine, Equijewel etc) if more calories are needed.

 

[TGM]

Tbh I would totally change his diet, I won't feed cereal off any kind due to high starch levels. I would go for alfa a oil, baileys no 4 and micro linseed and maybe add a pro/pre biotic to help his stomach

Baileys no 4 IS cereal-based, as the main ingredient is micronised wheat! It is also 26% starch. Still a very useful feed for many horses though, if they are not starch sensitive, but don't be misled into thinking it is cereal free!

 

[scrumpyjackles]

hello thank you everyone...yes his worming is up to date my yard very hot on it...poo picked twice a day and teeth up to date. Hes kept warm enough, will be bringing him in tonight (he lives out in summer stabled at night in winter) iv tried conditioning cubes in the past with no luck and same goes for the alfa a....so i put him on a chaff (mollichop) as its cheaper i can afford to feed him lots more of it (i worry he doesnt have enough roughage as hes not a fan of hay) so he has on average 6 scoops of chaff a day - the vet said as it is roughage you can feed him as much chaff as you like....i also decided not to buy haylage as hes not fussed about that either and it ends up going mouldy when he refuses to eat it ! will definatly be putting him on pink powder this winter as that helped last winter - will try the barley thank you !

 

[scrumpyjackles]

i was going to say ad-lib-hay... but i see you already do that.
I would try boiled barley - our retired pony is very hard to keep wait on but looks more rounded through the winter with a bit of boiled barley. My mum has an easy way of doing it - she has a big flask and each night she puts 2 cupfuls of barley in and fills with boiled water, pops the lid on and then its ready for the next day.
hope that helps

what type of barley do you buy ? (as in what do i ask for in feed shop)

 

[AmyMay]

All you're doing with mollichaff is feeding him sugar, so it's pretty useless.

The idea behind conditioning feeds is that you don't have to feed masses, so it shouldn't be heavy on your pocket.

If you're not keen on conditioning feeds, have you tried good old fashioned high fibre nuts, with readigrass? Or boiled barley??

 

[TGM]

iv tried conditioning cubes in the past with no luck

But have you actually fed the recommended amount of conditioning cubes for your horse's size, or have you just added a bit alongside your normal mix, as you have done with the Calm & Condition? You can't really say a conditioning feed doesn't work if you haven't tried it at the recommended levels.

When thinking about cost, remember that cheap chaffs aren't always as 'cheap' as they seem when you realise that they are often in smaller bag sizes (Mollichop is 15kg compared to many other brands' 20kg) and can be a lot lower in calories and other nutrients, as are basically chopped straw (which is fine if you are adding a bit to slow down a greedy feeder, but not if you are trying to put condition on a poor doer). Compare Mollichop's calorie count of 8 MJDE/kg with Readigrass's calorie count of about 12 to 13 MJDE/kg.

However, as your horse doesn't seem to eat much forage, and you are on a budget, you could look to supplement his fibre intake with some soaked grass nuts, as they will contains plenty of calories and nutrients, but work out cheaper than buying a grass chaff.

 

[OT Sports Horses]

what type of barley do you buy ? (as in what do i ask for in feed shop)

we get ours from a feed place that do there own, but we've had it in the past from Dodson and Horrell / Pegasus etc all the main feed supliers will have barley. Just ask for the Barley that you boil, they'll know what you mean. Have a trial run to see how much your flask will hold (barley to boiled water ratio), the barley must be plump and split open to be ok for your horse to eat (like a little sugar puff)!! It maybe an old fashioned way of feeding but we've used it on all our comp horses, they love it and it doesn't fizz them up. Thanks

 

[Firewell]

My mums horse is the most fussy, picky little eater and he was really dropping off!

Hes now on

Big stubbs scoop spillers conditioning cubes
Double handful Alfa A (he wont eat any more chaff than this, finds it boring).
1 1/2 mugs of balancer
Linseed oil

x 2 per day. we give him half haylage and half hay and as much as he will eat which tbh is not a lot!

He has been on this for a couple of weeks and he is looking much better already.

 

[scrumpyjackles]

But have you actually fed the recommended amount of conditioning cubes for your horse's size, or have you just added a bit alongside your normal mix, as you have done with the Calm & Condition? You can't really say a conditioning feed doesn't work if you haven't tried it at the recommended levels.
QUOTE]

Yes he was on the recommended amount but it just didnt seem to help - hes not a fussy eater when it comes to hard feed just hay, shall i put him back on alfa a or readi grass instead of chaff.....i havnt 'just added a bit of calm and condition' he always has been on one and a half large soaked scoops twice a day i added the mix in the hope a little extra may help him gain a little.

 

[AmyMay]

I've never seen good results from calm and condition - so personally I wouldn't touch the stuff.

TGM has given you some great advice.

 

[scrumpyjackles]

I've never seen good results from calm and condition - so personally I wouldn't touch the stuff.

.

i had tons of people telling me calm and condition was amazing so thats why i put him on it ! he doesnt look any different on that than he did the conditioning cubes.....i hate feeding its so frustrating ! ahhhhhh

 

[Aces_High]

I've never seen good results from calm and condition - so personally I wouldn't touch the stuff.

I agree with AmyMay. I tried Calm and Condition this year and will not be using it again. I wonder if it works better on non Thoroughbreds??

The best way to put weight on a horse is with Bailey's No.4. Mine are on ad-lib good quality hay and get a 3/4x Stubbs Scoop of No.4 in the morning and then 1x Stubbs Scoop of No.4 with 2 squirts of oil in the evening. That ration is for a bad doer big Thoroughbred and he looks amazing. I do not add chaff or Alfa as I do not see the point of making the meal size any larger and they have ad-lib forage. 1/2 scoop of chaff or Alfa isn't going to change how my horses look! They all look brilliant in their skin and in their coats.

 

[abitodd]

The Pure Feed company do a conditioning feed which is fibre based,yummy and they still have their 50% off via facebook.

You could also add Copra(coolstance).Its an acquired taste,needs soaking like sugarbeet,but is fab for adding condition.
Also try Global herbs Muscle up supplement.

 

[TGM]

i havnt 'just added a bit of calm and condition' he always has been on one and a half large soaked scoops twice a day i added the mix in the hope a little extra may help him gain a little.

If a poor doer can only be fed twice a day (and bearing in mind that any cereal containing feed must be 2kg max) then adding lower calorie feeds (such as pasture mix) doesn't really help, as the space taken by the mix in the bucket could be more productively filled with a higher calorie product, if you see what I mean!

It is not clear from your post whether you are measuring the Calm and Condition before or after soaking. If you are measuring it AFTER soaking then it is possible that you are not feeding enough, as you are obviously measuring the soaking water as well as the dry matter of the feed.

Calm and Condition seems to work well on some animals, but with a calorie count of 12.5 MJDE/kg it is not as calorific as Baileys No 4, which has 13.5 MJDE/kg, so worth swapping to that.

However, it does sound like the main problem is that your horse is not eating enough forage, so I would get a second opinion on his teeth, and supplement the hay ration with soaked grass nuts or a grass chaff. (Best not to use alfalfa chaff as a partial hay replacer as can unbalance the protein and minerals in the diet.)

 

[hippiechick]

We add cooking oil to our poor doers and hunters diets this time of year to add calories, there are many oils & supplements available for horses but we use pure rape seed cooking oil and add a good slug in their dinners.

 

[scrumpyjackles]

If a poor doer can only be fed twice a day (and bearing in mind that any cereal containing feed must be 2kg max) then adding lower calorie feeds (such as pasture mix) doesn't really help, as the space taken by the mix in the bucket could be more productively filled with a higher calorie product, if you see what I mean!

It is not clear from your post whether you are measuring the Calm and Condition before or after soaking. If you are measuring it AFTER soaking then it is possible that you are not feeding enough, as you are obviously measuring the soaking water as well as the dry matter of the feed.

Calm and Condition seems to work well on some animals, but with a calorie count of 12.5 MJDE/kg it is not as calorific as Baileys No 4, which has 13.5 MJDE/kg, so worth swapping to that.

However, it does sound like the main problem is that your horse is not eating enough forage, so I would get a second opinion on his teeth, and supplement the hay ration with soaked grass nuts or a grass chaff. (Best not to use alfalfa chaff as a partial hay replacer as can unbalance the protein and minerals in the diet.)

You are amazing where did you learn all this stuff ???
he is currently on 3 scoops chaff, one scoop of mix, one and a bit scoops of calm and condition after soaking, and one scoop of sugarbeet !!
he has all this twice a day....
please can you tell me what you would change him to and how much of each ?
many thanks

 

[TGM]

First of all, you need to decide whether you are going to stick with the Calm and Condition, or change to another feed, such as Bailey's No 4. When you have decided what is going to be your main feed, then ring or email the relevant manufacturer, tell them your horse's size and workload, and ask how much they recommend you should give your horse. They will tell you this in terms of weight, so the first time you feed the new ration you need to weigh it out (DRY!). You can work out how much a scoop weighs to make things easier on a day to day basis.

You can add a bit of chaff and/or beet to mix with the feed, but ensure the total DRY weight of each feed doesn't exceed 2 kg. Cut out the pasture mix entirely.

Then when he is stabled overnight, give him a tub of soaked grass nuts, or grass chaff, to munch alongside his haynet.

Hope that helps!

 

[coen]

I have always struggled with my horses weight and it doesn't make a difference how much work he is in. After trying lots of different things I reluctantly decided to try blue chip (quite expensive but lasts 5-6 weeks) and it has made a good difference.
He gets alfa a oil, blue chip & speedibeet 2 times per day. Initially I added an extra feed of alfa a oil and speedibeet.
And when we are in fully fledged winter I may add readigrass.

Calm and condition didn't work at all for him.