New horse advice

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MrsA

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Good morning :)

Currently in the process of purchasing my first horse (first to own). He is a 16.2 Tb. He is currently turned out and stabled at night. His current owner says he's not on any hard feed, just grazing and hay.

He needs to gain a little weight in my opinion, not massively but a little. Scoring wise I'd say he's in the middle of 2 & 3. His neck and hindquarters not so thin, more his ribs, their visible but not too much, my understanding is they should be easily felt but not seen?

Would you say keep him on what he knows to start with to minimise any fizzing then introduce feed to help him gain weight or would you recommend something else?

I've been looking into shine and conditioning mix?

:)
 
If he’s not on any hard feed currently, I’d keep him that way for now, until you can suss out his requirements. It may we’ll be that he will look better on ad-lib hay or that your grass is better. In any case I’d avoid mixes where possible and stick to fibre feeds such as grass nuts or unmollassed sugar beet mixed with a chaff type feed and perhaps some micronised linseed if he still needs more condition.
 
It really depends on a lot of factors is your hay/grazing the same quality as hers and do you want to feed him any supplements for coat or balancers for vitamins and minerals. I feed all mine year round as they have restricted grazing and so need vits etc. Initially I would carry on with his current feeding and see how it goes you can always dd in a low sugar low starch feed if you think he needs it later
 
I wouldn't rush to add any feed to his regime. Give him grass and ad-lib hay, there will be another grass flush soon. Monitor his weight weekly with a tape and just make sure that he doesn't lose any. He doesn't sound underweight to me, depending on how fit he is. If you feel that he does need something extra over winter, you could feed soaked grassnuts and dried grass chaff, which are nearest to a natural equine diet, so least likely to cause colic or other problems.
 
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