Putting weight on a TB

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horseluver4eva

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My tb seems to of dropped some weight recently. Due to the hay shortage were on small hay bales rather than large haylage bales. Currently he's having 1 net of hay during the day soaked, one soaked hay net at night with one net of bagged haylage. He is on 1 scoop of calm and condition and 1 scoop of chaff both morning and night. When he's turned out he gallops about so hes ruined his pen. however ive sectioned some off to grow. So in the mean time and ideas on how to get weight on him? do you think he needs a different type of feed, more haylage? advice would be great from those who have a tb and put weight on them
 
horseluver4eva said:
My tb seems to of dropped some weight recently. Due to the hay shortage were on small hay bales rather than large haylage bales. Currently he's having 1 net of hay during the day soaked, one soaked hay net at night with one net of bagged haylage. He is on 1 scoop of calm and condition and 1 scoop of chaff both morning and night. When he's turned out he gallops about so hes ruined his pen. however ive sectioned some off to grow. So in the mean time and ideas on how to get weight on him? do you think he needs a different type of feed, more haylage? advice would be great from those who have a tb and put weight on them
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Our tb was on c/c but when he had his ulcers it didn't help at all so I did a lot of research and found Dodson and horrel ERS Pellets. The are high calorie and fibre low starch and sugar he had that with Alfa a molasses free (tho some horses can't tolerate Alfa a) and alpha beet.

He has really improved weight wise and it didn't send him hyper!:D
 
C&C did nothing for my poor doer TB. I swapped to soaked grass nuts, speedibeet, Spillers high fibre cubes, brewers yeast and pro balance. Also gave adlib hay.

Really made a huge difference and she looked fab after a few weeks.
 
Firstly he needs SPACE - it's not good to pen a TB up. They really like to have a burn up each day and if they can't they get on the move constantly.

Feed wise - is there a reason for soaking the hay as you are losing a lot of it's nutrients by doing so.

My TB's have always done very well on Crushed Barley, Sugarbeet, Meadow Chaff and Linseed.

Work through the standard check list for weight loss - Worming, Teeth, physical problems, a sore back/neck will often cause weight loss due to pain. Find out if he prefers to eat from the ground or up higher - if he eats better up higher then it would be worth getting the chiro in to have a look.
 
Thanks i might change from the c&c then. They have to be penned off at our yard unfortunately he has a very large pen, but he gets excited and he gallops about when you let him off.:( Yeah the hays pretty dusty, well really dusty in fact its rubbish:( yeah hes up to date with everything; its because he's not getting quality haylage of a night i think, as before the hay shortage when he was on decent haylage his weight was perfect. also as ive said it needs soaked and also we cant use too much because the shortage is awful:( so basically its not good for a poor does:mad: he goes through bagged stuff in 2 days and thats only with one haynet of it at night! otherwise he would be on that 24/7
 
however the dentist will be down our yard this month so ill get him to give him a check, also will get the back person out again to make sure.
 
I tried Calm and Condition on my TB when I first got her - it was total rubbish. Then I looked at the ingredients and realised why. As I remember it's mainly unmolassed sugar beet with a bit of wheat feed and chopped straw. A very expensive way to feed what could be bought at about a tenth of the price for separate ingredients and then put your own balancer in...
 
What quantity of food is he getting? Often bigger horses might be being fed the right foods but just not enough of it...

Is he finishing all his hay/ haylege?
 
If you want to put weight on , let me have a sit on !!!

Seriously though , another route I've heard works is a supplement to help your TB make the best use of his food such as life force I think it's called
 
Thanks everyone! hmm looks like ill be stopping the c&c!! im off horsey shopping for some show things tomorrow so ill buy some new feed whilst im at it.Hmm he might not be actually but again i think its due to not having the haylage, and i wont be having it until next winter by the looks of things so i think a better feed is needed. So yeah i might have to up it! He finishes all of his haynets
 
Dave282B said:
If you want to put weight on , let me have a sit on !!!

Seriously though , another route I've heard works is a supplement to help your TB make the best use of his food such as life force I think it's called
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hahah;) hmm oh ive never thought of a supplement. ill have to think about that then it never even crossed my mind:o
 
horseluver4eva said:
Thanks everyone! hmm looks like ill be stopping the c&c!! im off horsey shopping for some show things tomorrow so ill buy some new feed whilst im at it.Hmm he might not be actually but again i think its due to not having the haylage, and i wont be having it until next winter by the looks of things so i think a better feed is needed. So yeah i might have to up it! He finishes all of his haynets
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Give him way more hay then if he's finishing. Ideally, he'll be leaving some- if he's finishing it, he's probably still hungry...
 
I try my best to give him as much as i can, but because its 'rationed' in some respect then we have to share the hay between us equally which is a pain:mad: he has one haynet double netted which has the bagged stuff in and the other has small holes which has the hay in. Im going to start buying more bagged haylage so that he can get more of a night. mind you he is greedy he used to have two FULL haynets of haylage when there was plenty around and he finished it all:rolleyes:
 
I don't think that's greedy, that's pretty normal going for a horse who isn't a good doer! Ours all get about 4 huge haynets a day and the grazing is pretty decent and there's a reasonable amount of grass out.

How many scoops of what does he get a day in hard feed/ chaff?

Tbh, I think the answer isn't in supplements or in special feeds but merely in the sheer volume of food he's getting.
 
Ad lib hay
Alfa A oil 2 double handfulls am and pm
Baileys no.4 build up cubes, 1scoop am amd pm
Speedi beet i wet scoop am and pm

My t/b was on this over the winter and is looking good, with regular gymnastic flatwork and jump exercises, hill work and hacking shes an absolute power house when shes event fit, having been off injured for 9months i cant wait to get her muscled up again.
 
He gets 3 haynets a day that are jam packed!yeah it might be the amount hes getting but i think its down to the quality more than anything. he used to be on 2 haynets of haylage a day and he looked fantastic! so whilst im on this hay i want to give him something else as well. He has 2 scoops of each per day. It might be the fact of needing more hay but i cant give him loads because its the yard rules only one hay net of it and theres nothing about so we have to use as little as we can. As i said earlier if i could afford bagged haylage i would but thats £8 a day with the amount he would have, £56 a week isnt realistic really. He isnt awful but could do with a bit more on him
 
Firstly I would ditch the calm and condition, did nothing for my tb either.

Fibre and oil are your friends - my tb is literally on speedibeet with a handful of linseed and her general supp and looks great, on poor grazing but does have ad lib hay to compensate.

If grazing is poor maybe give him a tug grub of soaked grass nuts or grass chaff like graze on to munch on through the night.

If he is finishing all his hay then he's telling you he needs more

Good luck! :)
 
Beet pulp, alfalfa pellets or unmollassed chaff versions, linseed and I'm using either ERS or Staypower cubes for my veteran, the TB who also has dropped is on the above but solutions mash as well :)

The veteran is also getting spillers conditioning fibre :)
 
When you say you're soaking your hay, are you submerging it in water for several hours or just running the hose over it? if it's the latter, the nutritional content won't have altered that much from dry, and to be honest that is more than sufficient for removing dust...

I agree with others, it sounds like he could do with more hay / haylage. How can you restrict hay when every horse has different needs? I just don't get it?! I don't know how big your nets are but my guess is that they don't hold much more than 6kg of hay each if that...if they're empty though, it sounds like he needs more. Failing that I would give him a grass based chaff like graze-on, some speed-beet and to that I would add a mug of micronised linseed a day. That should do it :)
 
sorry just read these replies now! having different problems now...Has as much turnout as possible which is great, happily eats 1 haynet of bagged haylage per night but now he's decided he's too good for hay :rolleyes: Been doing the exact same as usual but think this bales not as good as the other so he's been leaving just under half a haynet of it per night and so has the other horse who's on it! and it doesnt help that weve had the dentist, chiro, farrier, rent, vet and wormer to pay for!!!! skint isnt the word:rolleyes:Also a horse nutritionist that did a talk advised alpha beet, been on it for a week and he hates it! grrr such a nightmare! hopefully found a proper haylage bale for next week though, so hopefully soon things will pick up
 
Sounds like the quality of he forage is the real problem. If you can get that decent haylage that'll be the best thing you can do. Other than that you need to be adding good quality fibre to the diet - grass nuts are good, as is unmolassed beet. Then you can add oil to increase calories... Micronised linseed is a good source. Try and avoid sugary starchy mixes, as these aren't great for gut health.
 
I use Topspec for an underweight TBA i bought. He was on cool conditioning cubes, chaff and their feed balancer. He is looking fab now and i have taken him off the conditioning cubes. He does have ad lib hay at night and is now on good grazing too. Have you got any pics?? X
 
source your hay from somewhere else and get good stuff and feed as much as he will eat, what area are you in as in my area all the hay suppliers hay far too much hay left in the barns and some are starting to reduce the price as they will need the space for this years hay
 
Sorry cant quote on my phone! it definetly is the quality at the moment. Im in cumbria and only have one local supplier which is where i get my hay from because everywhere else has ran out! my friend knows the people with haylage however isnt telling us because she needs to ensure she has a supply guaranteed for her horses or something along those lines...The c&c does seem to be making him fizzy he was off it for a couple days when id switched to alpha beet and took him on a hack. no rearing, prancing and just generally as quiet as a mouse! I bought some veg oil however after purchase i read somewhere it is a slow poison? is that true? ive got some pics ill upload tomorrow when im home
 
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