PUTTING WEIGHT ON...HOW QUICKLY?

[travelmad]

My horse seems to be taking forever to put on weight (wish i was like that, but sadly no )

Trying to build him up for last several months but particularly concerted effort the last 8 weeks. he lives out (not clipped) 24/7, ad lib hay, well rugged, TB, 16 hands, wormed up to date plus worm counts, teeth ok. He is skinny, easy to see ribs - condition score prob a 3/9 though I am a bit paranoid about it so someone else might score him a 4/9.

His feed has changed to rowen barbary ready mash extra (1 heaped stubbs scoop), 1 scoop alfa a, 400g rowen barbary muscle builder, 20g magnesium, 20g brewers yeast. (x2 a day)

I don't really trust the weight tape to be correct but have stuck with using the same one all the time so I am at least tracking changes accurately... in past 8 weeks he has gone from 425 to 451kg, with 6 kg of that put on in the last 2 weeks. Is this a reasonable weight gain over this period? how quickly do you see horses put on weight?

I have done feed profiles for him tracking nutrients, nutrient needs etc, and this amount of feed plus his hay seems to be about 110% of the requirements for what you need for a horse in light work that needs to put on weight.

I was just wondering if i should be expecting him to gain more quickly based on what he is eating or if this is average? If it isn't and I'm spending a fortune pumping food into him then my next step would be bloods or scoping I guess.

Anyone got any ideas? Should I just stick it out and eventually he might put on the weight he needs - is it just a slow process and am I too impatient?!

thanks

 

[Shysmum]

HHO cliche coming up..........I would get the vet out to look at the horse, for a check up, and take it from there. Bloods may be a good idea. Hope you get it sorted.

 

[travelmad]

I do love a good cliche

My question isnt really if there is something wrong with him (hes happy, not in obvious pain etc) more how quickly should a horse put on weight if you are feeding them up i.e. would a horse gain 10 kilos a week, 20 kilos etc

 

[ellie11987]

dependent on how underweight the horse is, it can take a good 6-9 months to get all weight on. Without any health problems obviously.

 

[be positive]

If he is gaining at a steady rate of 3 kilos a week, or thereabout, I would think he is fine he should continue with a very gradual increase which may level out through the winter months as the grass quality will be less good. You have to consider everything, he will be using a fair amount of calories just moving around in the field, he will be eating grass which fills him up but will not really put weight on him until the spring .
The more slowly the weight goes on, the more likely it is going to go to the right places and stay on him. I think you may find that he stays pretty much the same then blossoms in the spring once the grass comes through and he gets some sun on him.

 

[travelmad]

I think you may find that he stays pretty much the same then blossoms in the spring once the grass comes through and he gets some sun on him.

I hope this happens, would make me very happy!! I will prob start to introduce grass nuts to him at some point in Feb too to start getting help from the grass

 

[Abbeygale]

Can you feed more smaller feeds in a day? When I've had a skinny one I've fed them in 4 meals a day, so that their stomach can handle the food. A horses stomach is surprisingly small!

If he is consistently gaining a small amount each week, then he is going in the right direction. I took on a very skinny Arab a few years ago, and it took me a good 18 months for him to start looking normal - but he did have other issues as well. A steady weight gain would be a preference for me, rather than just piling weight on really quickly. (Just in the same way that is wouldn't want a fat hose to lose weight very rapidly either).

This is the most difficult time of year for putting weight on a poor doer, and as be positive said, I would think that give it a few months and a bit of grass to come through, and he'll be well away!

 

[travelmad]

Can you feed more smaller feeds in a day? When I've had a skinny one I've fed them in 4 meals a day, so that their stomach can handle the food. A horses stomach is surprisingly small!

If he is consistently gaining a small amount each week, then he is going in the right direction. I took on a very skinny Arab a few years ago, and it took me a good 18 months for him to start looking normal - but he did have other issues as well. A steady weight gain would be a preference for me, rather than just piling weight on really quickly. (Just in the same way that is wouldn't want a fat hose to lose weight very rapidly either).

This is the most difficult time of year for putting weight on a poor doer, and as be positive said, I would think that give it a few months and a bit of grass to come through, and he'll be well away!

Livery yard I'm afraid, so its not really manageable to pay for more feeds a day/ for me to get there during day to feed more (he is honestly costing a small fortune to feed!)- its the reason i changed feeds really to pack as many calories as i could into 2 feeds.

still it seems like im moving in right direction thanks

 

[Abbeygale]

Livery yard I'm afraid, so its not really manageable to pay for more feeds a day/ for me to get there during day to feed more (he is honestly costing a small fortune to feed!)- its the reason i changed feeds really to pack as many calories as i could into 2 feeds.

still it seems like im moving in right direction thanks

Ah ok. I am incredibly lucky that my guys stables are about 2 metres outside my bedroom window so extra feeding is never a problem

Yes I would say so, just stick at it. When my current 2yo Arab arrived in march this year she was also incredibly skinny, and I thought I was going to have another like my old Arab. So I spent the first 4 months spending a fortune throwing food at her, and now she's a right porker! Well, a healthy baby horse rather than a bag of bones anyway . So be patient, he'll come good xx

 

[BlackRider]

I've decided its a case of trial and error to find out what suits.

The Rowen & Barbury feeds with the exception of solution mash are full of molasses, you might find going for a lower starch / sugar feed may help.

Ie fibrebeet or the Allan Page range - calm & condition, or grass nuts etc.

I seemed to be struggling with my horse, then all of a sudden, she seemed to start slowly gaining weight, which seemed to coincide with me adding A&P veteran vitality. I also feed soaked oats and grass nuts too.

What suits one horse doesn't suit another, so if you've been feeding the ready mash for sometime, and it isn't getting results, then perhaps its time to try something else.

 

[Louby]

My horse stressed badly when we moved yards, losing losts of weight, I was quite worried. I started feediing Solution Mash and he got a lovely coat but wasnt gaining much weight. He was also not eating much haylage due to it being quite poor quality, not through want of trying. I changed the mash to ready mash extra, added conditioning cubes and finally found some excellent haylage and hes starting to look his old self again. This horse in the past lived on fresh air, could not tollerate anything other that hi fi and high fibre cubes without blowing his top so Im amazed hes tollerated this. I am going to stop the conditioning cubes after this bag and see how it goes.
Its taken a few months but thankfully I think we have nearly got there..

 

[Shysmum]

Has anyone mentioned the Alpha A Oil ? A friend used to to build up a very poorly horse, and it worked really well.

 

[travelmad]

I have mixed between alfa a and alfa a oil but looking at the energy of each decided that alfa a oil is not worth the extra cost per bag, though he had a few bags before I started worrying about my purse!

He is only on the rowen Barbary with 3 weeks so far, he was previously on top line conditioning nuts, with alfa a, and I have tried several different things including full fat soya, balancers, barley rings etc. Level of gain seems to stay about the same on all of them though when I tried outshine there was not much gain (a pity as it's expensive).

He lost the weight within the first 10 days of owning him when he moved to new yard and was very stressy and with competing just didn't seem able to put it back on over summer, though he is much calmer now he has settled and he is mostly off over winter so I wanted to fatten him as much as I can. Ideally I would like another 50kg on him, but of course I need to see where that sits.... He has a rounder belly now but none of the weight has gone to his ribs. I do need to start bringing him back into work properly in Jan as I want to build up his muscle and getting him going properly on flat (he was never schooled properly before so I need to work up all his muscles as he has very high head carriage), but I wanted as much weight as I could get on him before then.