Skinny Mare...Hows She Looking?? + HACK FROM HELL (Long Sorry)

I also would say don't ride/exercise... Your just burning off the calories you're trying to put on....

I would change the apple chaff, that's not gonna be doing anything for her. Put her on Alfa Oil, and maybe add Alfa beet. Another feed that is AMAZING at putting on weight is EQUI JEWEL, you add 1 mug into each feed. I helped a client with a mare in a similar state going into the winter and within a month she had total coverage. It's distributes by saracen I think. Google it. It isn't cheap, about £30 a bag, but it's not a long term feed as soon as she puts on the weight you can reduce it until it's out.
 
I remember seeing the first photo and commenting on your last post but don't remember seeing the second photo with her untacked. She looks dreadfully poor there and I don't think she looks much better now (sorry). My 28 year old looks better than your mare and I think my girl looks very poor at the moment coming out of winter.

You really do need to change your feeding regime. Is she getting ad lib hay or haylage? If not she needs it. Three or four feeds a day is a must too, ring the feed companies for advice.

Please find a feeding regime that works for your girl before next winter or we will see the same thread all over again...........
 
As Cougar and others have said, this mare should not be lunged as she is in far too weak condition. I don't agree that ridden work at a walk should not be undertaken. This will help with mobility and also to gently start strengthening her muscles as she rehabilitates and that is exactly what this mare needs - proper rehabilitation.

At the end of the day, if the mare cannot be fed to her requirements maybe it is time for Jadeyy to think about putting her into livery short term in an environment where she can be ad-libbed on hay and haylage and fed at least 3 -4 times per day. It is consistency of feeding and gentle work that Lady needs and some good spring grass to bring her back.

She looks like a geriatric but anyone know how old she is? If she is old then obviously she will have natural muscle wastage. It is possible she may have early stages of Cushings something I am very familiar with in older horses.

At the moment it seems there are too many variables to get this mare right. Her coat is dull and her dry skin indicates ahe is not getting the right vitamins and minerals. Oil is invaluable and skin conditions can be addressed by feeding oil or supplements with oil.

Jadeyy, you are a good kid, you have come for help and have been honest with all of us and everyone has given you good advice. Your mare is a super girl and looks beautiful in her "before" pictures. Somebody on this board offered you practical help and said they would come to have a look at her and help you out with designing a programme for her. Please please take them up on their offer. It would be great if you had a mentor to help you through this. It is very clear you adore your horse but I feel you do not have enough experience to deal with this alone.

It will take a few months to get her condition back but a month on you should be seeing some improvement in her condition.

We all want to see lady plump and shining like a conker in a couple of months. It is expensive to keep and feed horses but you can keep costs down and I don't want to confuse you but a TB rehab diet that has worked for me is

1/2 to 3/4 bale hay per day

Two feeds per day: (Divide into three would be better)

Each feed:

1 scoop Soya Bean Meal (1llb)
I cup of oil
1 scoop Grass Nuts soaked (2lb dry weight)
scoop/s Oats (2lb)
Vitamin and Mineral Supplement To manufacturers dose rate

This also may work out cheaper for you than some of the specialist manufactured feeds.

Keep trying and please let one of us come and help you.

Good luck
 
The mare needs adlib haylage or decent hay. Feed only goes so far, it's forage that makes the difference. She needs her teeth checked, a worm count carried out and rugged up.
 
OP I was not suggesting it was your brothers fault that your mare was stressed I was trying to point out that this is unusual behavour and that maybe she was upset for another reason eg. saddle not fitting, teeth sharp etc. The fact that she does it with other people only makes me think this more.

I read your first post and I think you want the best for your horse but I am beginning to think that you really do not want to listen to anyone as you still haven't answered the questions about Wheezy and my question about the RSPCA being happy that she is ridden.

People on here are trying to help but it seems that you are not really interested in their replies.
 
As others have said, no work in any form, get vet out to do bloods, horse dentist to check teeth. How old is the horse?
Lots of weight gain feeds to try, soaked barley rings, instant linseed is fab, calm and condition, fast fibre, fibre beet, sugar beet, redigrass - the list goes on - any good feed merchant would give you good advice, failing that call Allen and Page, Baileys etc there helplines are very good.
Please do this for the sake of your horse and good luck.
 
Sorry have to agree with the previous posts, she still looks really poor. Ditto, don't work, worm (if not already done) and check teeth. I feed mine Alpha A with Badminton Equipower (Blue) Base Feed & plenty of (good) hay. This seems to work well for young, old, big WB & small native just fed in differing quantities. For your mare I would then add the Badminton Triple Top Up (expensive but only fed in very small quantities) to this, which is really good at putting condition back on. She looks a nice mare and hopefully with lots of food, tlc and the kinder weather, she will soon be back in good condition.
 
This mare needs to be on HAYLAGE, hay is hardly going to put weight on her, if we did we wouldnt be feeding it to our fatties. She needs ad lib, good quality haylage. If she were mine first id be getting a vet out to do bloods and check teeth. Then id be asking to have an entire big round bale out for all horses to share so she can eat as much as she wants. Id stop riding her and id change her feed to Alfa A oil (or just alfa a and added veg oil) or Alfabeet with a decent conditioning mix or conditioning cube. Allen & page fast fibre is also fantastic for weight gain.
I also see that your rug doesnt have and holes in so that she cant be getting rain scald.

I would also take Weezy up on her offer, sounds like you need it.
x
 
Echo what the majority of posters have replied in this thread; Get a complete health check done e.g vet, dentist ect. Those patches do look to me like they could be rainscald so do keep an eye on them. I do not think her condition looks any better than in the previous pictures - sorry.

Alot of good recommendations posted on here with regards to feeding, maybe even consider contacting a nutritionist?

With the riding, I would scrap it completely for now until she has at least started to improve weightwise and then build her back up slowly, she just doesnt look strong enough IMO.
 
I agree that she is definatly too thin and out of condition to ride.

Thought I'd share my mare's story with you to give you some ideas, although it's a slightly different senario. I bought my 8yr old TB 3 months ago in a really poor condition (see first picture). I gave her a month off to chill in the field and her stable and eat lots. We feed her on Simple Systems feed and ad lib hay. We then started lunging her gently and progressed to gentle hacking (see 2nd picture). She is now in way better condition and being ridden every day (see 3rd pic). She's still got a bit of weight and muscle to gain and we're working on that. She also did a tiny SJ round yesterday and went clear which is great!

I reckon if you get her vetted, give her lots of TLC and food she'll get better and then you can gradually bring in the work again.

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Thank you to everyone who commented. im sorry i havent replied to EVERY comment on here, and to someone who said i dont care about what people have to say? thats not true if i didnt care i wouldnt be asking for opinions. i know ive still got along way to go its only been a few weeks so theres not exactly going to be an amazing improvement straight away.
ok, so ill completely scrap riding until shes gained alot more weight, and im getting the vet out soon anyway so she'll have a good check over :)
oh and about someones comment about the RSPCA knowing shes being ridden? yes they do and they didnt see a problem with it, but i wont ride for a while now :) thank you for the advice everyone x
 
You are feeding her apple chaff because the other horses get it????
She obviously has different needs to the others, and her feeding plan should be tailored to HER and her alone!
If I fed all mine the same, I would have completely different looking horses. Some would be overweight, others would fail to thrive. Thats why they all have their own feed plans!
You need to sort this out and quickly. She is an 18 yr old mare that quite frankly looks years older than she actually is. My 25 yr old welshie looks better than your 18 yr old!
PLEASE pm weezy and invite her over to give you some much needed advice. Tb's can be the devils own to get weight on, but at 18 she really ought to not be looking like that!
 
I can understand where your horsey neighbours are coming from. Stop!!!!! riding her and put her on Winergy low energy or get in contact with them. My horses are on it,plus a little apple chaff to bulk it out. It is more expensive but well worth it. But she has no muscle so couldn't support you weight on her back. She's a classic RSPCA photo, that they like to put out in magazines or tv programs and get the vet out to tests if you are feeding her well cause could be worms ulcers, but looking at her bad mangement in the past
 
I don't think she looks any better in the 2nd lots of pictures either :confused: :(

3 weeks should be long enough to see a difference, my horse has had a tough winter and was looking like **** not so long ago (not all diet related!) I changed his feed and gave him ad-lib hay and he went from looking like this
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A week later he was looking like this
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As others have said I would give her ad-lib hay, bring her in at night if you can and give her a good conditioning feed. She really needs some TLC.
 
TBH I can't believe that you are still riding her in spite of everything that was said in response to your last post. As I understood it then you had increased the hay slightly but still weren't giving the horses in that field ad-lib hay. Has this changed now? Ad-lib haylage would be even better. We feed our oldie on grassnuts and a mixture of dried grass and alfa-a oil which keeps her looking well. We adjust the amounts according to her needs and monitor her weight carefully with weekly weight-tape. The bald patches look like rain-scald to me. Could it be that her rug has been taking in water, not necessarily through holes but just because it has lost some of its waterproofing? Do you take the rug off every day and check her? I really cannot imagine why the RSPCA inspector said that all was well.
 
I agree 3beasties.

I have seen several horses improve within that time, we had a couple of ponies used to come to the stables when there owner went on holiday, always in pretty poor condition. 2 weeks of sensible feeding they always went back looking much better than they arrived.

eta pearlasinger, after fairly recent events on here I dont think many of us on here have great faith in RSPCA in making adequate judgements on horses condition. :( ie them saying is ok doesnt mean it is.
 
jhoward said:
ive looked at the pictures 4 times and going by her quarters and along her spine i actully think shes lost more conditon. granted it could be the picture angles.

what are you feeding her now?

i do agree with the others, you really shouldnt be riding her at the moment.
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I agree, I think she has lost more condition.

Personally I wouldn't be working her at all and if she is still loosing weight on a build up mix and oil then I would get some professional advice on her feed. I would have worm counts done and have her teeth checked too.

Well done for asking advice!
 
JDChaser said:
The mare needs adlib haylage or decent hay. Feed only goes so far, it's forage that makes the difference. She needs her teeth checked, a worm count carried out and rugged up.
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Agree 100% with this.

I didn't post on the last thread but I can't see any difference at all in the latest pics. IMHO you need to stop riding the mare because she just isn't strong enough, and don't listen to suggestions telling you to lunge her either. I don't think stiffening up is an issue for her as she's out 25/7 anyway so moving around.
 
I'm really glad your vet is coming out and will have a look over her - please make sure they go into everything about her condition, weight, feed, teeth, bloods etc. It might be that she has an underlying health issue you need to get sorted NOW rather than leaving it.

I would also ask the vet to recommend a nutritionalist. We, the forum, could be giving you well meaning but duff advice, so could your yard friends/owner etc etc... a qualified nutritionalist is really the best person to speak to regarding her diet.

Good luck with it all :)
 
big woops to you for asking for advice, she is poor but we have seen way worse (done years of re-hab work) I agree with the nutritionist route and am very happy to send one over to you he is highly qualified and non-judgemental.
 
Are you certain she's only 18? We had a very old horse (and very good doer thankfully) who looks like that, just with more belly.

She is thin but more than anything else she lacks muscle, which is a very common symptom of cushings (and old age in general).

Totally agree with others RE not riding her - she just doesn't have the back muscle to be able to support a rider at present. If you'd like to spent time with her you could always take her of gentle inhand walks (maybe to munch some grasy verges)
 
I got told off on the other thread for getting exasperated at you not listening to all the helpful advice you were being given. It still doesn't read as if you are on this thread.
The mare is supposed to be 18, she looks much older, she is very poor.
She should not be ridden or worked in that condition, no lunging, no gadgets, nothing.
The rainscald or similar on her back needs to be gone before you put a saddle on her.
She needs to see the vet and dentist, and when she gets some weight on, a saddle fitter before you ride again.
The vet will probably tell you that she needs ad-lib forage, even if that means sectioning her off from the other horses for at least part of the day.
Feeds, whatever the vet or nutritionalist suggest, little and often, at least 3 times a day. Her stomach is the size of a football, big feeds therefore are not a great idea.
She does not need to eat the same as your other horses, she needs extra help.
I think that is a summary of the good advice you've been given so far. If you follow it then she should pick up a bit in a matter of weeks, but probably still not be ready to work.
You've also got the offer of a visit from a helpful H+H'er, why not take her up on it?
 
I am not trying to be unhelpful and I don't know the full story as to how she has ended up in such a bad way but you need this information to prevent it happening again. There has been plenty of good advice on here but I can't understand why you have not had the vet out already - If one of mine got even half as bad as yours the vet is always the first port of call.
I have been in your situation on a new purchase it does take time and money if this is something you are not able to give maybe you need to re-think your position. I am sorry if this seems harsh but it won't if you have your horses best interests at heart.
 
I'd echo what everyone else has said. She's either a lot older than 18 or she's in very poor condition and may have some underlying problem that needs urgent veterinary investigation. IMO, the 2nd pix are no better than the first - sorry. You say you'll stop riding her and just lunge her and work her unridden, but I think you're missing the point. She's too poor to be worked AT ALL. I'm assuming this is a genuine post because it's beginning to sound as if it isn't.
 
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