Poor condition TB Ex racer..feeding suggestions please!

E

emilymorgan

New User
Joined
21 December 2011
Messages
2
Visit site
I am wanting some advice on my current feeding regime, my 16.2 TB is in poor/moderate condition but struggles to keep any weight on. He is in light work and currently is out in the day and in at night. He is fed the following:

2 feeds a day of:

1.5 scoops of fibre beet
2 scoops alfa a oil
Handful of spiller conditioning cubes (but are making him fizzy!)

12kg mixed hay/haylage

Magnesium
Hayalge balancer
Glucosamine

I have tried ready mash extra and speedi beet but with no success.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what feeds I might try, Id like ones very low in starch as he is very excitable at the best of times.

Thank you :)
 
Blue Chip!

My 16.2 ex racer is on

2 scoops of Speedibeet
1.5 scoops of Alfa Oil
the recommended amount of Blue Chip, can't remember how much it is but I weighed it when I first started him on it
Magnesium Oxide

Ad lib hay

He's in light work (schooling at medium 2-3 times a week and hacking twice a week), turned out in the day and in at night and looks fantastic! A lot of people have commented on how shiny his coat is and how well he looks.

I tried conditioning cubes, as he was skinny when I first had him, made no difference. Tbh if you want to hard feed, I think you're better off with Horse & Pony cubes and adding a smaller amount of Blue Chip but if he's in light work you shouldn't need to hard feed.

Makes feeding a lot simpler as well, you can knock the haylage balancer and glucosamine off, the Blue Chip will give you everything you need. (Or so they claim... :D )

I found the best way to put weight on my boy was to leave him out 24/7, these days I have to really watch him, he turns into a little porker far too quickly... :)
 
Ad lib hay/haylage (haylage balancer brilliant). Allen & Page Fast Fibre which are hi fibre pellets which are more palatable mixed with warm water. You could try Baileys No.4 (if they still do it) or Burgess Supa Barley Rings -that and Baileys No.1 were the only things that worked with weight gain with my WB x TB ~(but heating so Baileys No. 1 out for your horse).

Worth getting teeth checked and a worm count done. If teeth are not processing the food correctly the horse will never get the nourishment out of the food that he needs as it won't be broken down in the gut properly. Again if the horse is wormy, particularly with tape worms, the nutrients will be 'stolen' from it by the wriggly little critters. :)

It might be that he is just 'that type': like humans, some people are fat, and some people are annoyingly slim no matter what they stuff down their throats. Grrr hate those people (just jealous).
 
Speak to Baileys they are very good.

No 4 Conditioning cubes, a Balancer I use Lo Cal, Alfa Oil and Speedi Beet , I would give some Pink Powders.

If you want to add a mix I would add an oil based one such as Endurance Mix. As much Hay as he will eat. You may find that Haylage is too high in protein.

Keep him well rugged so that he is not burning of weight keeping warm.
 
My TB exracer always suffered as a poor doer and looked like a rescue case each winter. Her weight started to drop off last month (when the grass went, despite feeding haylage etc and my usual alfalfa/Build Up/sugar beet). Well ..... The Pure Feed Company were doing a 50% off their Pure Condition feed so I bought 10 bags which was the maximum I could get at that discounted price. I received the food on 1st December and since then she is TRANSFORMED!! I really cannot get over how much weight she has put on. If you google 25% off (that is all they are doing at the moment) Pure Feed Company and look at Pure Condition. It is low starch and high oil and honestly it is far better than anything else I have ever tried in the 5 years I have had this mare - and I have tried a lot!
 
When you say you've had no success with sugar beet, does it not put weight on or will he not eat it?

I found the only way to get weight onto my super skinny TB was a mixture of unmolassed beet, ordinary cubes, and sunflower oil. I think the oil was the key, although none of the high oil commercial feeds helped. Agree with ad-lib haylege too, if there's nothing left even with 12kg, feed more.
 
I have seen Blue Chip work miracles on numerous skinny TB's who look like rescue cases. Its not cheap, but I would certainly recommend it! At 3 cupfuls a day, one sack would last you ages... Instead of the magnesium and haylage balancer you currently feed. I would also try and make the hay/haylage ad lib.

The other thing that is really good but again expensive is Bailey's outshine, a high oil supplement.

Plus what about rugging? Could he be either too cold or too hot in what he currently wears?
 
Last edited:
Copra Meal, I recommend it to EVERYONE it's worked wonders on every ex-racer I've suggested it to, including one that had never really carried weight after having grass sickness. You feed it like sugar beet (it's coconut based) and it's very high in fibre and oil and adds condition without fizz.

I cannot recommend it highly enough, feed it with a high fibre chaff such as graze-on or readi-grass.
 
My little stressy flat racer goes mental on anything that contains ANY cereal - so all conditioning cubes/mixes are out.

She does really well on:

- Dengie Alfalfa pellets (you can feed more with less bulk than Alfa A for instance and it is very high in protein and good digestible, high nutritional value) mixed with a little Hi Fi original for something to chew on.
- Ad lib haylage
- Vit & mins supplement

Just bear in mind that anything that makes an excitable TB more excitable, will more often than not make them lose weight through stress - which is why feeding conditioning cubes is often counterproductive.

Also remember that a horse's stomach is about the size of a rugby ball. Giving them any more than that in a single feed means the surplus bulk just goes to waste and doesn't get digested. So if you can feed more than twice a day, that might help too.

I hear Blue Chip has worked well with some horses, but again, I believe it is cereal-based and if your horse (like a lot of TBs) is a bit oversensitive to cereals, then it might not work for him/her.

Good luck x
 
I have a 26yr old WB x TB who struggles to hold weight in winter, He gets fizzy easily on some feeds but I've found giving him Spillers Conditioning Fibre and Allen & Page Calm and condition have filled him out lovely and he's not fizzed up on it. I also started giving him Pink Powder which seems to have helped with his condition too.
 
Have you checked him for ulcers? Nearly every ex racer will have them and if they aren't managed/treated then that will stop him gaining weight.
 
Dizzle said:
Copra Meal, I recommend it to EVERYONE it's worked wonders on every ex-racer I've suggested it to, including one that had never really carried weight after having grass sickness. You feed it like sugar beet (it's coconut based) and it's very high in fibre and oil and adds condition without fizz.

I cannot recommend it highly enough, feed it with a high fibre chaff such as graze-on or readi-grass.
Click to expand...

I feed Copra too though I mix it with a little unmolassed sugarbeet and adjust quantities depending on time of year.

The other thing is Micronised linseed - about a mugful a day.

Both of these are high oil feeds so they usually don't fizz up and they make them very shiny ;)
 
I personally have had success with a mixure of a balancer and the baileys conditioning cubes with a generous helping of sunflower oil.

Are you sure it's the conditioning cubes heating him up and not the alfa-alfa? Maybe worth putting him on hi-fi mollasses free with added oil just in case.

I like good old high fibre cubes - my boy seems to do very well on them.

Agree with others who have said add-lib hay though.

My advice would be to try a simpler diet - you've tried a rich one which has caused as many problems as it has solved so try something like:

hi-fi mollasses free
high fibre cubes
beet
and a mug full of oil
then your supps as you are (I can also reccomend equivite general purpose too though)
 
Mine is on 1 heaped stubbs scoop of alpha a oil, 1/3 scoop high fibre cubes, 1/2 scoop speedibeet, pink powder and as much hay/haylage as he can eat.

He started putting on weight when I moved yard and he got adlib haylage (rather than rations) and has put about 35kg on since end of Oct :)

Lots of fibre, lots of forage and some form of oil seems to do the trick for most of them :) Good luck :)
 
My late mare went a bit nutso on blue chip so I'm a bit wary about that!

First of all make sure his teeth are ok.

Eating enough fibre is what will put the weight on as well as having a healthy gut and teeth to chew.

So I would try a course of biotics and once that has finished either pink powder or brewers yeast.

Then fibre, fibre, fibre! Nice and safe as well so no naughty pony episodes :).

You can try alfalfa but I think in the volumes you have to feed it in order for weight gain it's too high
in protein, which can cause lumps and itchy skin and taxes their liver.

Most important thing is to feed hay and haylage that they like and decent grass if possible. This is what will make the most difference.

Then I like fibre nuts (D&H) as you can feed lots and they will stay calm. Fibre nuts soaked in nonmollassed beet (if he will eat it) and oil (up to a mug per day). Try and split into as many small feeds as possible.

Also a tubtrug full of readigrass, graze on, HiFi, HiFi lite whatever you think will suit best will also give them another fibre source. This can help if they are picky about their current batch of hay or whatever.

My TB is worked and is FAT on a fibre diet, he has really good feet and he is chilled and happy but with energy.

:)
 
I would start off by using a decent feed balancer, then he is getting all required vits+mins, you can work on it from there.

Personally I like the topspec one, as then you can add their cool condition cubes as a top-up to put condition on, or maintain it at the rate you want.

My other choice would to be put on a conditioning cube, and make sure fed at recommended levels, so again is getting required level of vits/mins etc.
 
I have a poor doer tb who's prone to silly behaviour on alfalfa & starchy feeds. Also tried readymash & copra,both of which sent him nuts! He does best on spillers conditioning fibre or mollichaff condition,pink powder,linseed & either spillers slow release cubes or top spec cubes . He's had ulcers & I was advised to use ERS pellets which are very low starch but high oil, they are more calorific than the spillers or top spec cubes so I'm slowly introducing them & he's coping well so far with them. He also has adlib grazing & I keep
him well rugged. He's never going to be a porker but looks well at the moment & he's sane!
 
after many years experimenting and trying various conditioning cubes/mixes we have hit on success with ad hib haylage plus hi-fi with a feed balancer, both Blue Chip and Spillers work as well as each other. Plus magnesiium to keep his head level. Also have had success with Allen and Page Calm and Condition or Sumo but disaster with Baileys conditioning cubes as he went off his head with them.
Out TB is only in light work at moment but once competing will probably add Allen and Page C & C as seemed to suit him the best.

If you want to feed sugar beet then stick to unmollased type - eg Easybeet, Fibre beet also good.

Best of luck it takes time and patience and experimenting until you find the best mix for your horse. Only took us 5 years!
 
my horse is a poor doer and a stressy type, after trying various conditioning feeds over the last 18 months he is looking great now on mollichaff fibre condition(low sugar/starch)speedi-beet and topspec cool cubes with adlib hay, and a scoop of charcoal supplement.

haylage is too acidic for his gut and gives him loose droppings, feed as others say low starch/sugar and lots of fibre.
 
Are you sure that it's the conditioning cubes heating him up?

My boy recently lost the plot when on Alfa A (Molasses free), it did dreadful things to him, so I'm now very wary of it.

I find micronised linseed the best thing for putting on weight without any adverse side effects. It is also good for their joints and coat.
 
Hi all,

Firstly I must say a huge thank u for all the responses, I was overwhelmed by the amount of people willing to help and offer advice. Feeding seems to be a mine field howeevr going thru the replys it seems that there is a common feature, high fibre, high oil!
I am going to take on peoples advice and consider a few options:

Linseed
Hi fibre cubes
Oil
and of course my trusty fibre beet!

Watch this space!
Emily x:)
 
They are doing 50% off with a code I saw on H&H tonight, I think HH2011 (but may be wrong!)
I would agree with feeding pure equine, I used to make up my own feeds for my ex racer until I found their feeds. If you want to make up a feed use fibre and oil as the basis of the diet, sugar beet (unmolassed) and either veg oil or an oil pellet such as saracen rice bran plus a unmolassed chaff.
Conditioning cubes/mix can be to much and cause excitability so the horse stresses off the food-my horse was on conditioning mix and very thin but went nice and fat on fibre and oil. He put on weight in the worst weather and snow 2 yrs ago using it (had been on loan til feb, so I had my poor boy back skinny as a hat rack during the worst winter for ages but that is another story ;-))
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top