Straight cereals for weight gain???

Roasted Chestnuts

Roasted Chestnuts

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As in title who feeds straights for weight gain??

I am looking for something to add to a feed rather than change the feed. I have used bruised barley and oats before for weight gain in the past, looking to see if people still do this :)
 
I personaly think barley can cause problems if it is not Flaked. Oil is a much more efficient and less risky way of increasing the energy intake. And remember ,food does not produce muscle,burning it during exercise does.
 
Mike007 said:
I personaly think barley can cause problems if it is not Flaked. Oil is a much more efficient and less risky way of increasing the energy intake. And remember ,food does not produce muscle,burning it during exercise does.
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It's not for muscle need the weight on before I can actually build that :o
 
The idea of turning fat into muscle is a myth. Some horses simply wont put on fat (like some humans ) Feed for the work and build up the muscle.
 
Yup my mare has dramatically lost weight avenues are being explored as to why, oil is already being added to her feed and she is in very light work due to typical Scottish weather :o
 
I'm sorry but that isn't making any sense to me at all, if I work her in her current scoring all I feel I am going to do is make her worse, they do need to have some covering to have the energy to work surely??

I am not looking to make her fat thinking it will magically convert to muscle but I need to ge some weight on her before I can think of riding her, no school or dry ground so hacking is all I have :)
 
Just had another thought (I'm on a roll today!), how about feeding a balancer? I've been feeding that new Spillers Original Balancer to my two for about 5 months. It's made a hell of a difference to them. One is a TB and one is a Warmblood. It has made them keep their weight all winter and I'm only feeding them pony nuts and alfalfa. Worth a thought?
 
you could try naf pink powder as this makes them use all the food you give them but maize is quite fattening and heating !! try build up mix which is brilliant and feed more chaff maybe 2 scoops per feed and then perhaps an extra one at some point thru the day . what are you doing with your pony?? are you able tyo turn it out for a month or so and just let it relax and put some grass weight on or is this not an option?
 
At the moment my part of Scotland is mega soggy so all the horses are doing when out is poaching ground :o there is about two inches of standing water in all four of my fields :o

She hasn't been in work since October due to injury and looked better as little as four weeks ago, she has been ridden about ten times since dec so not really in anything I would call work :o

Never used maize before might get a little to try, heard of cooked linseed how big a bag does that come in???

:)
 
you may want to avoid maize at the moment or any straights if i were you until the horse is doing a bit more or you could have more problems than being a bit light i would seriously advise build up mix and pink powder and chaff and have conditioning mixes rather than heating mixes especially if you cant get out in the field much to burn off any excess energy.
 
Well i have been fortunate that the next door neighbour had lert me use their 20 acre stubble park that has been left untouched since harvest last year, there is a fair amount of green on it at the moment and I have turned them out with a haybox full of haylege (jus in case they are hungry :)

So they will now get some exercise, I Kia my other horse round the field today to check the fencing and its all just been refenced so is safe :) Hoping they enjoy this turnout, might not be able to find them again lol!! Nice big field for them and only standing water at the bottom of the hils :)
 
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