How would you put weight on a horse?

S

Suzibn

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 September 2007
Messages
205
Location
St. Leonards on Sea, East Sussex,England
Visit site
I wondered if I could ask all of you what method you would use to put weight on a slightly underweight thoroughbred?
He has had his teeth floated, been wormed, had his back worked on....he just isn't putting weight on as fast as I'd like.
I was thinking of putting him on Topline, any suggestions?
 
Make sure horse is having as much hay or haylage as it can possibly eat. If stabled overnight then there should be a little hay/haylage left in the morning. Any time the horse is stabled there should be hay/haylage available, and if grazing is poor then preferably there should be hay/haylage in the field as well (although I realise that is not always possible in a livery situation).

Try and feed three bucket feeds a day, if possible. There are many possible feeding solutions, but will try and simplify.

1) If you wish to feed straights and avoid cereals, then you can base your feed on fibre and oil, alongside a broad spectrum vit/min supplement or balancer. Fibre sources include alfafa, grass products and beet, so things like alfafa chaffs (such as Alfa A), alfafa/beet combinations (such as Fibrebeet and AlfaBeet), beet products such as Speedibeet (unmolassed) and standard molassed sugar beet, and grass products such as grass nuts and dried grass products such as Graze-on. Oil can be in the form of straight vegetable oils, commercial oil rich feeds such as Outshine, Equijewel or CoolStance (handy for those that dislike straight oil), or oil-rich seeds such as linseed and sunflower seeds. Another alternative is oil enhanced chaffs, such as Alfa A Oil and Spillers Conditioning Fibre. (Oil is very dense in calories, so a little can go a long way in boosting condition). Balancers include brands like Top Spec, Blue Chip etc. Broad spectrum vit/min supplements include Equivite, Benevit etc.

2) If you have no aversion to cereals, then you can feed the above ration together with straight cereals such as oats or barley. Personally, I have found micronized barley (which is heat-treated to improve digestibility) to be a really good, relatively cheap way to keep weight on my veteran mare. However, it does not necessarily agree with all horses.

3) Feed the recommended amount of a commercial conditioning feed. If you are worried about fizziness then check the starch levels - interestingly Calm & Condition is 19% starch, which is only 1% less than normal conditioning feeds such as Spillers Conditioning Cubes! If you are looking for weight gain, then it is important that the conditioning feed is fed to recommended levels, a handful is not going to make much difference to overall calorie levels.

I've tried to give an overview of how to feed a horse that lacks condition, rather than recommend specific products. Which products you choose will depend on local availability and the likes/dislikes and sensitivities of your individual horse.

Hope you find this helpful.
 
Alfa A-oil, speedi beat and a maintance mix, little and often. Personaly find the topline mixes 'might as well put the money down the drain' useless but then so will any feed if not feed correctly.
 
Generally, ad-lib high quality hay, with 3 feeds of alfa-oil and sugarbeet a day.

If he's a stressy type, even if only a little bit, or has a tendency to drop weight quickly or get tucked up, I'd feed Coligone powder; I keep my TB on this over winter and he is nicely covered as his gut is functioning well and he is able to digest fully what he does it - with some TBs you can just pump more and more food into them and they will not put weight on over the winter, and I really think Coligone prevents this with mine.
 
We used to feed our old, underweight horses on Allen and Page High Fibre cubes and Stud mix (presumably full of loads of extra nutrients and oils?) along with sugar beet. When we got my sister's horse he was slightly underweight and we fed him on their Weight Gain mix and he put on weight really well.

At present the two old ones we have are fed sugar beet and Allen & Page Old Faithful Special Blend which seems to have kept them very well (one of them is a 24 yr old TB) and they live out 24/7 with rugs on. They are fed twice a day and given hay twice a day also.

I think anything rich in olis and nutrients will help fatten up an underweight horse, just some take to certain types of feed better than others so is case of trial and error i guess.
 
Feed it
grin.gif










(Sorry couldn't resist......
smile.gif
)
 
Nothing can substiute for good grass and hay, lots of fibre.
A big flexi tub of Alfa A mixed with Spillers Ready Grass morning and night, because its natural fibre you can feed as much as you want.

Instroduce sugar beat and a topline conditioning feed slowly, again two small feeds a day along with the other above. Add an oil into one of the feeds.

Your horse providing he's a pretty good eater should start putting on some weight and his coat will bloom after a month or so.
 
Thanks guys...he is fed really well, haylage ad lib(he won't eat hay!) turned out daily and in during bad weather or during the day out (preferred). He's currently on spillers and speedybeet and on pink powder as we are moving him home this weekend.
I was interested in the comment about topline. To read the adverts you'd think the stuff was wonderful stuff! I do think this boy is under stress at the moment and it should improve once he is here and settled.
All your advice is A number 1. Thanks so much! In the states we used to feed ear corn, but haven't seen any of that over here lol! It sure would keep a TB busy eating and not figeting and that plus good pasture and additional feeds really did do the trick.
I think the comment of little and often is the best advice and thanks for reminding me of that! And the grass IS coming, though it's hard to believe in this winter-like weather!
Someone suggested something made of rice. I can't imagine how that would put fat on a horse. Anyone here heard anything about it?
 
i think the product to which you refer is high fat stabilised rice bran - usually sold in this country under the Saracen brand Equi-jewel.
its a good product, but to my mind you might as well feed full fat soya meal for the same money but better results.
full fat soya meal is around 19% oil, where rice bran is around 12%, and goes off much quicker.
 
Our wee horse hadnt been well, lots of surgery etc, lost lots of weight and just in general looked crap.. She didnt eat much hay etc, picked at her haylage, was a right fussy beasty.. Put her on Blue chip after a lot of sole searching and you wouldnt believe the difference in her in only 3 weeks, shes put a fair bit of weight and her coat looks so much better. And no i aint on commission from Blue chip..lol.. I didnt think it would work but shes looking fab on it.. All she gets is Ad lib hay in the stable and field, Alfa A oil and blue chip Original and shes looking good and springs here so shes going to get even better, prob get too fat now and need to go a diet.. lol.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Try corn oil, makes a huge diff to my underweight TB!

[/ QUOTE ]


also the best for glossy coats and condition!!!
 
When you post a subject like this you will get a vast number of different replies & if anything may well confuse you more. Sometimes it's best to go for professional advice.

For this kind of advice try this link, . It's to Dodson & Horrell help desk. They will give you good advice & they don't 'rubbish' other companies feeds either. There are other companies offering the same service & it's free.
http://www.dodsonandhorrell.com/uk/dh/horse/support/helpdesk
Good Luck
smile.gif
 
I was going to say lead in the saddle bags - must be a Cornish thing!

You can't beat masses of high quality forage on a healthy happy gut.
But I had incredible results with Top Spec comprehensive powder with a horse that insisted on putting everything on her belly rather than where I wanted it to go...
 
a tbx i had refused to put weight on, he was eating a bale of hay a day and 3 feeds a day, of chaff topline conditing cubes sugar beet and tons of suppelments

i tried loads of different weightgain feeds recommended by feeding companies, but nothing worked so i brought 2 bags of blue chip and even tho his feeds were smaller his weight gain was incredible! (and his energy levels!!!)
 
One of our horses was underweight when we first got him. One bag of Baileys No 4 Conditioning Cubes combined with ad lib haylage later and he was hugely improved. He is now on Top Spec Balancer as has done fine with ad lib haylage and the spring grass which is pushing through.
 
Hiya

I've joined this one a bit late but I have a 20yo TB who has to live out since he is too stressy when stabled. I have found it really hard to keep weight on since he can't have cereals and alfalfa seems to fizz him up too.

I have settled on TopSpec super conditioning flakes, TopSpec senior feed balancer, sugarbeet and apple chaff for tastiness. I also feed him readigrass 'on the side' and he is now calm and in great condition.

The TopSpec people are really helpful so it might be worth giving them a call.
 
Baileys No. 4 has been great for putting weight on one of my hat-racks when I first got him and has kept his weight stable all year round since (and he's a very woosy TB x Luso who lives out clipped!). I add Soya Oil to it as well as some Alfa A Oil. Otherwise, Id just make sure your horse is warm, has loads of hay (or better, haylage), isnt overworked, is wormed up to date and is topped up with a high-spec Vit & min supplement.
 
Thanks so much!
I come from the "old school" that horses should get all they need from a balanced and fresh diet. This has been an eye-opener because I really am overwhelmed by the amount of products available in the UK. You guys learned as you went along and new lines were added, but nothing but NOTHING is as good as experience.
Thanks so much for sharing yours with me. Priceless!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top