Need to put some weight on my ex racehorse?

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Peanuts Mum

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Some advice please.......

I have a 16hh ex racehorse, I have owned him since August this year, he finished racing in Feb this year.

He is being ridden lightly, about 4 times a week, gentle hacking and light schooling, as he is quite week in front, with little shoulder muscle. I am trying to build him up but also not ride off, what I am putting on!

I need some feeding advice, as I could do with getting a bit more weight on him as well as building his top line up.

He is on good grazing, I am feeding him once a day, with Calm and Condition, a Control Mix and Apple Chaff, he also has a supplement that contains, garlic, seaweed, linseed, and fenugreek.

I was considering adding some Barley to his diet, but do not want to 'heat' him.

What would you do?
 
I'm no use as Reg gets fed what he likes to eat as he's quite faddy. But he always has Blue Chip balancer which seems to help a lot.

Have you tried Alpha beet? It kept the weight on my old TB really well and is very palatable and non-heating (this is the horse who was off his head on calm and condition, and any senior mix...).
 
There are lots of different forms of barley available now, and it is more slow-release energy than heating. Barley rings were good for my boy when we first had him. Oil is good for putting on weight, maybe Alfa-Oil instead of the apple chaff? Of course there is always the old-fashioned boiled barley, if you can stand the smell of it cooking! We saved many an underweight horse with that in years gone by. (and ruined many a good pan and cooker)
 
Feeding twice a day will obviously help.

Calm and condition is a feed I've never seen great results with - and would personally not feed it.

Drop the garlic and all the other suppliments and try something like Blue Chip and Alpha A Oil.

Ensure he has adlib good quality hay or haylage overnight - with always some left over in the morning.

Is he warm enough?
 
Micro linseed it's fab stuff but also I would cut out the apple chaff and go for alfa a oil. Calm and condition is funny, some people get good results but personally iv never had any luck with it ESP with tbs. Iv been recommended coolstance copra which seems really good but as yet I haven't tried it. Baileys no 4 are brill but I stopped them as I won't feed cereal and it had to much starch it for my liking but works well
 
Hay, hay, hay, hay, hay and then hay!!! It really does work!! I'm currently doing work experience with one of the horse feed companies and whenever weight gain is needed they reccommend hay and lots of it!! The horse should have a minimum of 1.5% of it's bodyweight in forage. It will obviously get some from the grazing but at this time of year there isn't much goodness in the grass so feed as much hay as possible.

Also as the horse has been raced it is possible that he might have gastric ulcers. It is thought that around 95% of TB racehorses have ulcers so it might be worth having him scoped so you can find out. If he has got ulcers that might also explain why he's a skinny one.
 
Ladyinred said:
Of course there is always the old-fashioned boiled barley, if you can stand the smell of it cooking! We saved many an underweight horse with that in years gone by. (and ruined many a good pan and cooker)
Click to expand...

we used to feed that to the oldie to keep weight on. We would put it in a pan with water and put the lid on and put it in the bottom oven of the aga over night/ during the day. No smell and it's ready when you want it to be!!

We used to use Barley rings, can't remeber who the manufacturer was!
 
I would feed at least two feeds a day if not three at the moment for him. My 16hh tb is a good doer so long as she has plenty of hay...She gets Alfafa and Veteran mix (plus sugar beet in teh winter) and plenty of hay and turnout. It really is trial and error as what works for some might not work for others.
Maybe consult your vet or choose a feed company to talk too bearing in mind they will push their products!!
 
I feed my boy blue chip, molichaff condition (new feed from them) and lots of hay! He also gets lots of turnout,at least 8 hours a day, except weekends when he gets turned out a bit later after I ride,in the week I just do light schooling due to the lack of light in the winter!

He's 16 and seems to keep the weight on well. I fed blue chip from when I first had him 2 years ago. He was skinny, in poor condition, had horrific feet etc etc then and looks fab now.

He'd never had his teeth looked at and they were in a very poor state. His weight improved significantly once i had that sorted. He also had a high worm burden. I got him in the November, gave him a milder wormer (not knowing his worming history to avoid colic), then a pramox in the Spring. Again, weight improved after that too.

Good luck!! :)
 
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