Is this too much?

ktj1891

ktj1891

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I have a 16hh TB who is by nature a poor doer in winter.
Atm he is on 2.5kg of pure condition plus 2 cups of micronised linseed and kwikbeet x 2 a day.

He is also in the evening getting a extra bucket with a bit of kwikbeet in it as extra forage. I was thinking of buying a chaff like Healthy tummy just to add a bit of bulk to the sugarbeet as extra forage.

Do you think turnout during the day, plus 2 feeds, large haynet and extra bulk (kwikbeet + healthy tummy) would be too much for him?

Atm he is looking reasonable okay not brilliant, he is showing rib and loosing muscle on his bum. He is also barefoot and windsucks so I don't want to feed him anything to the detriment of his feet or tummy?

Advice appreciated so really the question is, do you think an extra bucket of beet and chaff after his evening feed going to be too much for him? The idea is for him to munch at it throughout the evening and not go straight to it after his feed?
 
Although he's getting turnout there will be little goodness in the grass now. I don't know how much is in your large haynet but if he's finishing that overnight I would start by increasing his hay - that will help his tummy too. I've found grass pellets are also very good. Can he have access to hay during the day?
 
Why do you feed so little hay? I would feed ad lib hay to put on weight before starting on any more hard feed, which may also help with his windsucking. If that doesn't work try something like Pink Powder, it works for mine.
 
Booboos said:
Why do you feed so little hay? I would feed ad lib hay to put on weight before starting on any more hard feed, which may also help with his windsucking. If that doesn't work try something like Pink Powder, it works for mine.
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I also agree with this hay is the best for keeping weight on over any hard feed, I always up my hay before anything else.
 
He has leftovers with his hay. He isn't on adlib as such as he wastes a lot otherwise. He always has hay left over in the morning. I can't feed hay in field unless others do it as well as he is on group turnout. I will feed more hay but I find he wastes it otherwise so its trying to get the happy medium of what he would eat comfortably over night.
 
Personally I find it odd that he will leave his hay, ( i dont know of any of the horses i know to leave hay)...have his teeth been done recently?? Maybe try alfa a oil to bulk out feeds, worked well for my old TB plus Thirds...
 
I know loads of horses that will leave hay. He is a TB and if i give him say two big haynets for the night when I come down in the morning a load has been left and mixed around the stable and he won't eat it if I leave it for him. So atm he is getting between 1 and 1 1/2 haynets for the evening. His teeth haven't been done yet due to sinus surgery and vet doesn't want them done for a little while, she has assured me his teeth are fine.

He is eating happily and wolfing down his hard feed but I think he gets bored of his hay.
 
TBs often don't eat large amounts of hay.
You really need to weigh what you are giving him .
When my TB is in hard work 600 grammes a day is the max linseed I was advised to give him.
 
I was weighing his hay but now I don't how much should I be giving him? I would say he is getting roughly 3/4 to 1 slab of hay in the evenings.
 
ktj1891 said:
I know loads of horses that will leave hay. He is a TB and if i give him say two big haynets for the night when I come down in the morning a load has been left and mixed around the stable and he won't eat it if I leave it for him. So atm he is getting between 1 and 1 1/2 haynets for the evening. His teeth haven't been done yet due to sinus surgery and vet doesn't want them done for a little while, she has assured me his teeth are fine.

He is eating happily and wolfing down his hard feed but I think he gets bored of his hay.
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My TBxWB is exactly the same, he had 2 haynets at night but never finishes them, I would ideally like him to have 3 but if I put 3 in he just pulls it out of the net and tramples it into his bed, strangely he will eat it better in the field than in the stable.
 
Try mixing the hay with some haylege, what sort of quality is your hay often find if its not great thats why some hot blood horses leave it, I tried some hay from a different supplier a while back, my Arab wouldnt eat it which is un heard of for him he never leaves any hay so this tells me the hay may not be such good quality, do a bit of a trial buy some different stuff and see if he finishes it.
 
Whilst I agree that plenty of hay is the first step to improving condition, it is true that some horses don't seem to have a big enough appetite to scoff down tons of hay. Research has shown that providing more than one type of forage can increase the amount that of fibre that a horse consumes, so offering another form alongside the haynet does seem a wise idea. The additional forage sources could take the form of haylage, soaked grass pellets or short chop such as the Healthy Tummy that the OP proposes. Haylage or grass pellets would probably work out cheaper though!
 
Sorry Three quarters of a large bale slab. This is how much he is getting.
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Hi Micky, i never worry about over feeding at all!!!! this time year when there is no goodness in the grass, i over feed all my horses!!! sometimes upto three hay nets aday plus 2 massive feeds!! sometimes 3 feeds when the really bad weather arrives! you must do what you feel best, especially with a bad doer or old horse let them eat has much has they want and need!!! xx
 
I think I have decided to get him some bales of haylage just to add to his hay for some variation and some healthy tummy just to add to the kwikbeet to bulk it out.
 
fuzzle said:
Hi Micky, i never worry about over feeding at all!!!! this time year when there is no goodness in the grass, i over feed all my horses!!! sometimes upto three hay nets aday plus 2 massive feeds!! sometimes 3 feeds when the really bad weather arrives! you must do what you feel best, especially with a bad doer or old horse let them eat has much has they want and need!!! xx
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Fuzzle, I really hope you don't overfeed all your horses. To overfeed means that you feed MORE than the horse needs with the result that the horse gets fat, which is a bad thing! However, if you have poor doers and you have to give lots of feed to keep weight on then that is fine, but it is not 'overfeeding' as you are just giving the horse what it needs to maintain condition!
 
No hun!!! just my old retired showjumper and my bad doer gets has much has possible to keep weight and condition, however my 4 year old has got glanular ulcers {she is overweight} and i do have to be very carefull how much i feed her!! she gets little and often double net the haylage to slow her eating down xxx
 
Just to show how my boy is looking at the moment.
Photo taken yesterday. This is what he looks like 2 weeks after upping his feed and adding sugarbeet. Also on plenty of hay. Going to buy some small bales of haylage tomorrow for him as well just as a bit of variety for his forage.

1452095_10152069957308799_1677701293_n_zps535dec54.jpg


What do you all think?
 
ktj1891 said:
I think I have decided to get him some bales of haylage just to add to his hay for some variation and some healthy tummy just to add to the kwikbeet to bulk it out.
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his is a great idea - Haylage is economical and they love it and eat it all up.


The photo you have of him shows him looking good.

Fibre is the best sort of feed, its rate of passage through the horse is slow and the digestion produces internal warmth.
 
I have a crap doer who is the source of much worry.

Personally I have found giving him an option. He has a huge net of very good quality Haylage (12kg) of which there is always plenty left - this is fed to the other 2 so not wasted :D. I don't feed this in a Haylage net but rather a net with med holes.
He also has the largest tub trug available. This is stuffed with almost 1/2 a small bale of hay. Somedays he barely touches the hay, other days he eats quite a lot of it.
I find if I just feed hay or just Haylage he doesn't eat as much, but having a choice seems to keep his appetite up.
I've also found that fenugreek in his feed helps him eat more.
 
Oh forgot to say this hay/Haylage ration is just overnight. When the grass goes down a bit (still plenty ATM) they all get as lib hay in the field.
 
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