Poor condition Tb (please comment - Gypsy Girl)

[TommisMum]

Inspired by Gypsy Girls post, as I am stunned by how well her Tb looks, I thought I'd seek opinions on here -

I've just been "given" a ex racer TB to get weight on and if you look back at Gypsy Girls post mine is even thinner!
(Got Tb as a companion for daughters pony as my horse is staying away for the winter)
Now I have never had Tbs and have always had horses on livery yards with others to ask so am slightly nervous about having them at home.
So from your experience what would you do?
We have turned out in a paddock that hasn't been grazed for over 2 years and was topped this spring so the grass is still lush though I expect lacking sugar now.
Need to try and use at least some of the same feed that I have to hand so that OH doesn't moan too much .....
So currently have an own brand pony cube, hifi lite, hifi original, hifi lite, flax oil and BSS (Black sunflower seeds).

suggestions please.

Will try and post some photos of progression over the winter so you can see how we do.

BTW horse is not in ridden work and if she starts looking better may be walked (with the dogs!) and lunged.

 

[be positive]

Plenty of good grass will be a good start, feed little and as often as you can,I would start with HiFi, oil, plus some cubes a good supplement or highly recommended NAF Pink Powder.If she doesnt improve get a conditioning feed instead of the basic cubes.
Access to ad lib hay or haylage as the grass goes plus a rug for warmth.
Good luck, some before and after photos would be good.

 

[A1fie]

mircronised linseed is very good for putting on condition without fizz. I add a cupful to my TB's feed. He is also a few months out of racing.

 

[AmyMay]

Plenty of good grass, plenty of good haylage (when it's required).

Start off with the pony nuts twice a day and the hifi original and add corn oil to both feeds.

Keep the horse warm, and weight tape weekly.

 

[Mince Pie]

I second micronised linseed, and also sugarbeet and grass nuts (both very cheap so hubby shouldn't moan!).

Plenty of good grass, plenty of good haylage (when it's required).
Keep the horse warm, and weight tape weekly.

Also agree with this, when I was getting weight on my TB I also took weekly photos (like confirmation shots - standing square both sides and from the back.) so I could see where the weight was going on.
Are you in a position to feed little and often, without knowing how skinny s/he is perhaps feeding 3/4 smaller meals a day to start with would be more beneficial? Also rug up well so that all his/her energy is being used for weight gain.
It took about 10 weeks to get my girl up to weight, I had never had thoroughbreds either (always fatty natives!) so was a steep learning curve for me too, if you have a look through my threads you will find some great advice.

Good luck

 

[russian_charm]

Make sure he is up to date with teeth and worming. depending on how reputable the place you got him from, he might need his teeth checked (we had my thoroughbred done every 6 mnths for about a year and a half after we got him off the track as his teeth needed a fair bit of neating up). And even if he was wormed recently with his previous people, it doesn't hurt to give him another tube of paste a few weeks early to be safe, I've always been told that when a new horse comes onto your property its a good idea to worm them to avoid the risk of bringing parasites onto your place. Make sure you keep him (him?) rugged too.

I've found oil really good for fattening up, and my horse also gets something called Copra meal (not sure if you would have it where you are), its like ground coconut somethingness, but its really good for weight without excess energy.
If your concerned about nutrients in the grass being low, mabye stick a mineral/salt lick in the paddock too.

 

[Firewell]

I agree with others fibre, fibre, fibre and build up his bucket feed slowly as he may not be used to feed like that.

My TB is fed HiFi, pony cubes and oil instead of pink powder I use a pelleted balancer but I don't think it matters and mine does really well on this simple diet.

I think the 3/4 small feeds idea is good as well.

It's better to put weight on slowly and properly with a high fibre diet then to pump him full of sticky, rich conditioning mixes which could cause metabolic disorders like tying up or colic as his thin little body isn't used to such rich feeds. Maybe only consider those if after a few months the fibre isn't working but with a teeth check and worm and making sure he has no pain the fibre diet should work fine

Vickijay on here brought an emaciated TB who looks a million dollars now so you could pm her for advice?!

 

[Dizzle]

My tb was about a condition score of 1.5-2 when we got him, skinniest horse I have ever seen that wasn't a rescue. I was told that he'd always been light even in racing.

Well two years on I have a STUNNER! He keeps his weight really well, even over winter and hasn't really ever dropped off.

He's fed ad-lib hay more than he could ever possibly eat and grass, his hard feed is graze-on and pony nuts with added oil in the winter.

Speedibeet helped get weight on him but made him silly, Copra meal is WONDER feed though and adds condition without fizz.

This is him at a show in May of this year, he'd dropped a little here as there was no grass and he was back in proper work:

This was him last summer (I think he'd gained a little too much weight here):

This was him in 2009:

Grass and hay seem to the best things for adding condition, cereals made him really grumpy and made his cribbing much worse, Pink Powder by NAF was super stuff for resetting the balance of the good bacteria in his guts.

My ugly duckling is a beautiful swan!

 

[Bryndu]

May I suugest a worm count?
I had a freinds' TB who had lost an amazing amount of condition when bought and the horse came over to me to 'eat the grass'. I had lush pasture.
After a week, there was little improvement and one day whilst poo picking I saw the poo squirming...the horse was full of red worm!
The proper dose of the correct wormer and the horse picked up amazingly and within 6 weeks on grass and hay....a podgy horse went home and has since gone on to event!
Bryndu

 

[maggiesmum]

Pretty much all of the above, a slow but steady weight gain on a fibre diet is my preferred option - bear in mind though that if he's not long since out of training it will take some time for him to adjust to a normal eating regime, its often the case that they won't eat much hay at first, sometimes they almost have to learn to eat again. And their system is used to getting large amounts of cereals and very little forage so it takes a bit of time for it to get used to things being the other way around.

 

[RolyPolyPony]

I have had such difficulty trying to find something to get the weight and condition on my old lad after last winter and since adding NAF pink powder to his feed and giving him Spillers conditioning fibre (i know you dont have either of these already!!) his weight has piled on!

 

[amage]

Would def agree with get a worm count and teeth check done. If we have one come in not looking great and lacking condition we may get the vet to stomach tube wormer into them and then some oil (usually Curragh Carron Oil) as it seems to make a massive difference. It is a very old fashioned thing to do but we find it very successful. Another vote here for Naf Pink Powders and little and often with the feeds.