Still need weight gain

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4x4

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Well they're eating the grass as fast as it's coming through, been wormed, the boy's looking fine but the mare's still needing a bit more condition, she's turning her nose up at the hay, does Calm and Condition send them loopy if they're sensitive to starch/barley/sugar, should I get another bag of grass nuts or what? Am feeding linseed, unmolassed chaff - the Dengie one, Baileys outshine and A + P Ride and Relax. She just needs a bit ore sparkle and weight on - if I had another paddock I'd say 2 weeks of turnout in spring grass would do it. Any ideas my learned friends?
 
I got advice from the vet and from a nutrionist at Saracen feeds, which were really helpful. Vet recommended being quite careful about monitoring amounts of feed (other than grass) so you can check if you are feeding the right amount and the make up of the feed, and trying to focus most of all on getting more roughage into them.

Mine's on a conditioning mix, equi-jewel (rice bran, solid oil supp), micro linseed, tons of hay plus some chaff and a bit of sugar beet. Have noticed a real change in 4 weeks in weight, coat and condition generally. Not sure which is working the most, this and/or spring grass. She's also on a regular exercise programme to build up muscle, not sure if that's relevant to yours.
 
Not everyone on here likes calm and condition, but I gave it a go. Both horses did not react and go loopy or anything despite one of them having a reputation for doing so on most non- pure fibre feeds.

One after being on it 6 months got too fat so was taken off it, however he persisted in maintaining more weight than I wanted when just on a balancer and dengie molasses free chop, so he is now just on ad lib haylage + balancer. Before the C&C he had to be on 2 big buckets a day (beet, oils, chops, yesacc and cooked barley when his weight got low). I feel for him the C&C improved the gut dramatically so he now really absorbs all his calories from fibre sources really well - I now have a really good doer who I need to keep an eye on! The other is now on less than half the ration he started on and just ad lib haylage and he maintains really well (he now has 2x stubbs scoops a day and is 17.1 ID x). He was very difficult to get weight on and really fussy - he would not touch any feed with even a small amount of oil added.

I recommended it to someone on the yard who has just got a very skinny arab youngster, he is now on it putting on weight well and not gone loopy. She is also very happy with the results. I'd say the one of mine that had to be taken off it does not have as nice a sheen to his coat as the one who stayed on it, so it is a pity we lost that advantage.

If you don't go for C&C the other solution I would have tried next would have been micronized linseed. Many people swear by that too for weight gain and condition.
 
Well, as I'd had no replies this afternoon I rang A&P and spoke to the nutritionist, she said calm and condition might be a bit too high for her given her history, so we decided to try the Veteran, even though she isn't old, so I popped down to the feed shop and bought a bag, which I am going to introduce gradually to eventually replace the Ride and Relax. I have also booked the dentist. However, A & P, the feed store and the dentist assure me that I am not alone and it's the long winter, lack of grass, wet, cold etc etc and cyberhorse I am already feeding micronized linseed. It's very difficult with her as if I over feed her even slightly she becomes unpredictable to ride and then has to have a calmer.
 
Linseed wise I was told that you could have a full mug in breakfast and tea without any worries. Also how many times a day do you feed? They absorb their calories better with smaller more frequent feeds. Our really skinny one was on 3-4 small feeds a day to start with.
 
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