Questions about Oldie feeding!

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little_pink_piggies

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Hi, sorry to be a pain but really want to put a bit of weight back on my boy!
Hes a 16.1hh Hann x Tb, 20 next year, and just does a bit of light hacking/lungueing/schooling now to keep him interested in life as he gets bored otherwise... he used to do medium dressage/newcomers SJ/JRNs with me... We've had him for 15 years now and hate to see the condition drop off him like this and we're not prepared to let him go downhill like this

He's currently on Winergy Senior, Spillers conditioning Fibre, a bit of linseed meal, equiveg sugarbeet (unmolassed but has bits of carrot/parsnip in it and he LOVES it!), a fair but of cornoil in the morning/equijewel in the afternoon.

Heas a really fussy eater and hates cubes (leaves thecubes in his winergy most days!), and also hates alfa A chaff...

So questions! Would it be worth me changing the winergy senior to Baileys no9 conditioning mix? I was going ot keep him on the conditioning fibre as its really soft... I was going to keep him on the linseed... And would bluechip or outshine be more effective as a conditioning measure compared to the equijewel/cornoil or is it all the same stuff? And although he loves his equiveg, would alfa beet be more conditioning? or if he hates the chaff will he dislike the sugarbeet too?

Sorry for so many qs!!! Any opinions/suggestions welcome x
 
i use dengie Alfabeet for extra weight with soaked grass nuts, they get about 2kg a day or everyother day. As he is older it would be kind on his digestion and not affect his energy level where as grain may creat digestive difficulties.

we feed our 20+ on this along with Primero and he is looking better than ever!

all my horses are fed on this from birth to oldies.

Also as its fibre it helps prevent colic and with it being soaked it adds a good amount of water into the diet. i have done so much research on equine diet and found this to be the best.

good luck
 
use oil to keep condition aswell, dont bother with the expensive oil, just nomrla veg oil is fine..

a tablespoon a day i think, or in each feed!
but can be upto 500mls!

xx
 
Another good tip for oldies is NAF Pink Powder, it helps them use their food effectively. No point chucking all that feed in him if he's not absorbing it!! I feed my 19 year old TBx on Baileys No 4 which is the conditioning cubes and she looks great so the mix should do your boy some good if he doesnt like cubes.
 
How much hay or haylage is he eating? Does he have it adlib? Is he stabled overnight? I presume you have had his teeth checked as that can make horses reluctant to eat certain foods.

Has he ever shown any tendency to laminitis or a sensitivity to molassed feeds or cereals? I've found the best way to keep weight on my veteran 7/8 TB mare is to feed adlib hay/haylage together with 450ml vegetable oil, molassed sugar beet and micronised barley - split into two feeds a day. Obviously, this method is not suitable for all horses and such a diet should be introduced gradually, but my mare is looking the best she ever has, after trying most of the veteran and conditioning feeds on her.

To give you an idea of cost-effectiveness of feedstuffs, to gain 100 MJDE from Outshine would cost you £7.20 whereas to gain the same amount of calories from Sainsburys veg oil could cost £3.30. (Although you have to bear in mind that the Outshine has the advantage of less mess and better palatability for some horses).
 
My horses have blossomed with baileys stud balancer plus baileys top line mix for weight, once the weight is on you can reduce the mix and stick with the balancer. I also feed D&H safe and sound, its not high in calories but is very palatable and high in fibre.
I also feed Corn oil and lots of good quality hay or haylege (pref haylege for weight gain)
 
have you thought about swapping the winergy senior to the condition version? if he quite likes that type of feed it might be an idea and you could always add oil to this if you needed to.
 
Why don't you drop the conditioning fibre if you're feeding Winergy, as it's a complete feed, didn't think you needed to add extra fibre! Then you could feed more of the senior feed.

I would go down the Alfabeet route, as it's always worked for mine and he looks great at 30. He also has the spillers senior mixes (one or the other!).
 
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