Please read. RE: Andy's Weight and Management

I was led to belive on average a horse needs 1.5% of its body weight in forage to maintain weight, not taking into account work load.

And I am sorry but I also have to agree he looked better in the earlier photos.
Sorry. It is obvious how much he means to you, and he is very lucky to have found caring owner BUT I really think he needs until spring just doing very light hacking and maybe light schooling to build up his weight and muscle.

To those who say his fur makes him look better in the earlier photos, he has just as much fur over his back now, he only has a blanket clip, and his ribs are obviously visible where they were not before.

I am sorry, this is not meant to be harsh, like I said it is obvious you care about him, but please please go easy with him!
 
Just a thought - have you thought about using NAF Pink Powder? It really helps the horse utilise what your feeding it.
I used it on my rising 4 year old when he arrived from Ireland in March 08
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This was him 16 weeks later
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20 weeks later
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It was great at helping him bulk up as he is 17.1hh and i swear has hollow legs!

He has just been back on it now after a wind op and 5 weeks box rest and is looking fab - he is one of those horses who loses muscle at the drop of a hat and can look 'peaky' if not worked enough.

It comes quicker than you think - here's another one of mine
April 10
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Sept 10
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Good luck with Andy. You seem to be a very caring owner. I would say that your choice to ride at home for a while is a good one. Lots of slow, muscle building work will get the desired results with correct feeding. I hacked my boy for 8 weeks in an exercise sheet as he was so poor to start with. Keep a photo diary to remind yourself what a good job your doing.
 
I bought a very thin TB from Ascot sales in November( I will try and get some pics of when we got him) He was weedy, ribby with a horrid coat.
This is him last week:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HorseyCrazyy?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/S0kMAuLZ7Os
We still have a long way to go.
Have not read all of the posts as there is too many but to give you an idea this is what we have done:
Clipped him to get rid of the scabs and the manky coat
Wormed him
Kept him in at night with lots of rugs and stable wraps
Fed him ad lib good quality hay
Hard feed wise he has 1 scoop of Hi fi, 1 nuts and 1/2 mix with sugar beet twice per day
He goes out for about 5 hrs a day but if its really wet and windy he stays in as he feels the cold.
Work wise, even though he looked like nothing on earth we started gently working him, he was ridden for 15 mins per day or lunged for 15 mins. The ridden work was easy flat work or hacking esp up hills.
He felt horrid to ride as he was so weak.
We did this for a month then he had 2 weeks off to rest before cracking on a bit more. We have just started jumping small fences on him and he is getting stronger every time you ride him.
I belive they have to do some form of work to build them up but you have to be careful of what you ask. I would know the next day if I had overdone it as he would be tight to ride.
 
I also posted this on your other thread but just wanted to be sure you saw it!!

Having read your posts both here and just in general I have no doubt that you are taking the right steps to help your fella get condition on. He looks genuinely happy and chirpy and like he's having a ball and I will stick my neck on the line and say that if jumping has him in such happy and fun form I wouldn't be worried about the odd outing once you don't overdo it. I would actually clip the rest of and add an extra rug or duvet. We do this with the racing TBs that go bit weedy and backwards over the winter and I find it makes a big difference. Their coats are generally better, it is easier to see the true picture of what is going on and you can utilise rugs to keep him snuggly allowing the feed to work on putting weight on. Many people would not agree with this but it works.
 
Blinking heck this thread has got a bit out of hand :eek:

Thank you to those with helpful advice and those who have also PM'd some very useful advice :)
I have now got a fitness plan which I will be sticking too thanks to a lovely member on here which I have also discussed with my RI, she thinks its a little backwards for him but we'll see how it goes.
 
Kokopelli said:
Blinking heck this thread has got a bit out of hand :eek:

Thank you to those with helpful advice and those who have also PM'd some very useful advice :)
I have now got a fitness plan which I will be sticking too thanks to a lovely member on here which I have also discussed with my RI, she thinks its a little backwards for him but we'll see how it goes.
Click to expand...

Good for you. I'm sure we'll all look forward to positive updates.

Good luck with Andy.
 
Spring Feather said:
Yes we both believe the horse is thin and underweight however you have appeared condescending and patronizing in some of your replies.


This I completely agree with. I also use weight-tapes and I am also very lucky to live just a hop, skip and a jump away from a weighbridge, which I do use quite regularly. My findings with ALL of my horses who have been taken for a visit to this weighbridge has been the the weight-tape is always way above the true weight. So if my experience, and your experience is this, where weigh bridges are concerned, then that would worry me even more with Kokos horse as it would imply that her horse could be significantly less than 350kgs.
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other way for me - weightape said 600kg when i got her (overweight) and 480kg after a yr of dieting and hard work. spiller weighbridge came when she said 480kg on tape and her real weight on the bridge was 604kg - thats how much a tape can be out and i was shocked that she was over 600kg thinking the whole time she was 480kg. So can go the other way too. only real way of finding out is on a bridge, but the tape is good to manage any weight gain/loss.
 
I've seen the pics and as you know, he is obviously underweight. I do agree that you should keep riding him though, although limit the competing or anything too much. When I bought my current horse he was very thin, no muscle, riddled with worms etc. I had the vet see him in the first few days he arrived and once we dealt with the worms, he advised to ride him gently to increase muscle, which I did and it did work - nothing is a quick fix though, it takes months. Obviously feeding needs to be carefully looked at etc. but you've already done that it sounds like. I think you're doing the right thing riding. Its a shame the previous owner let her get like this in the first place!
 
kezimac said:
other way for me - weightape said 600kg when i got her (overweight) and 480kg after a yr of dieting and hard work. spiller weighbridge came when she said 480kg on tape and her real weight on the bridge was 604kg - thats how much a tape can be out and i was shocked that she was over 600kg thinking the whole time she was 480kg. So can go the other way too. only real way of finding out is on a bridge, but the tape is good to manage any weight gain/loss.
Click to expand...

ime you cant gain true weight from tapes, they are an indication of weight loss and gain, but not of true animal weight, due mainly to the fact that horses girth line (point of tape) can be different shapes, for example My horse is long and has cylinder shape so narrow body type,but very long legs,neck and massive shoulder,,,, he weighs less on a tape then on a machine, if you had a short horse with a very round deep body he would weigh more on the tape but not always in reality?! Hope that makes some sense, i only use the tape to see if my horse is gaining or losing not for actual weight!!
 
The difference in the tape/bridge weights is quite worrying really, if you have to rely on tapes. This could mean you are under worming by a considerable amount which can then lead to to wormer resistance, the other way wouldn't matter so much as it would take an awful lot to overdose. I never realised there could be so much difference tbh and don't live near a weighbridge, have used the tapes as a rough guide and to monitor loss/gains but also to worm from.
 
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