My 18 year old section b needs weight gain!

[hollyflower]

As I am sure alot of you can identify, this winter has been very hard on my veteran boys, I have a 14.2hh Arab x cob who is 18 (acts like a 4 year old!) and a 11.1hh welsh b who is also 18. My cob has been in regular work all winter and I am feeding him Spillers Conditioning fibre and Allen and Page Calm and Condition and although his weight has dropped a little, he looks pretty good. My welshy however has dropped loads and is looking quite old, his topline has disappeared and I have never seen him so poor. I am feeding him the same as my cob and in the same quantities with two full haynets a day as we have hardly any grass right now. He has been wormed including insidious worm cover six weeks ago. He is ridden at least once a week and led out off of my cob too. Any advice as to how to get him to bulk back up without bloating him would be appreciated. In the past I have always just fed chaff and cool mix and never had him like this.

 

[RhaLoulou]

Have you considered having him tested for Cushings? My old section d mare suddenly dropped weight last year after years on living on fresh air. Since her diagnosis and subsequent medication she has really picked up. For feed I have used dengie Alfa beet its really easy for oldies to eat I mixed it with Alfa a oil and high fibre nuts a small amount of outshine and Lo-cal she has really put weight on even over winter.