Sugar Beet large amount?

Devonshire dumpling

Devonshire dumpling

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Our geriatric TB who has always been a poor doer looked a bit ropey in the summer so we started her on 1 scoop of sugarbeet and 1 scoop of Geriatric mix twice daily, within weeks she looked beautiful, shiny, full of life, she even went hunting at the grand age of 23, she is wormed and has her teeth checked.... vet health checked her heart recently for Dormosedan, anyway we kept her on this amount of feed and adlib hay up until now and shes lost a bit of condition again, does this seem alot of food to you guys or do you think 2 scoops of beet twice a day would seem fine? she is 16.1 Thanks in advance
 
I don't think there would be a problem with unmolassed beet but I'd be a little wary of feeding that much if it were molassed. If you're feeding that volume of food you would be better to feed it in three or four smaller feeds rather than two massive ones.
 
I believe unmolassed sugarbeet can act as a total forage replacement, so should be fine. Could be worth trying something else in with it too for extra calories? like micronised linseed
 
By scoop do you mean Stubbs scoop?

Upping feed is an option, it's what I do for my 26 year old in winter. But when he was 23, the addition of some Alfa A Oil (a generous double handful per feed) was enough to put extra weight on. Beet pulp is good as well for adding condition so if you don't want another feed bag laying about, you can feed more, some of the horses at my yard just get extra and it works for them.
 
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yeah it's the stuff you soak over night! so 4 of my scoops and 2 buckets of water! She seems hungry, scoffing her haynet every night, this yr she is on hay instead of haylage too! She is out in the field on just grass during the day, she feels as fit as a flea to ride, I guess we should have upped it as it's colder than the summer, just seems alot and she is the slowest eater in the world! Perhaps we shall try the Alfa A Oil!
 
We used to make up that amount for the entire yard daily! Or do you mean wet scoops?
All ours had things added to the beet though.
One poor doer did very well on sb, Alfa-a and oil. Can't remember which oil now.
Is there a reason for hay? I do both for poor doers.
 
Wet Scoops sorry!! Yeah we made Hay this year, so we are not buying haylage in, but to be fair, she ate hardly any haylage and is scoffing the Hay like it is going out of fashion, so guess it's all evened out!
 
I've had this problem with my rising 23yo this year, first time ever he's not maintained his weight. What I've been doing is giving him his normal feeds of conditioning mix, chop and sb, plus haylage, but twice a day he has at least two huge scoops of mixed plain chop and alfa-a, mixed with two heaped round scoops of soaked sugar beet and grass nuts. It weighs a ton when mixed up, but he loves it, can't rush it because of all the chop, and he is putting his weight back on.
 
I wouldn't worry about giving a full scoop of speedibeet per feed but alongside a full scoop of mix it is a big feed to digest in one go and I wouldn't want to increase the volume further.

If you can't or don't want to split it into three or four feeds I would add something non-bulky but conditioning. Last winter I used Sunflower oil to add condition without increasing the size of my feeds, this year I'm using micronised linseed.
 
If you want to feed more sugar beet or chaff just feed it separately, before the feed containing conditioning nuts. Or leave the extra bucket of forage in the stable for horse to pick at overnight with the hay ration.
 
You could try adding an oil to the feed as some have already mentioned. I would give a nutritionist a call and see what advice they can give you. Most feed brands have one, ie Dodson and Horrell, and the number will be on their website :)
 
I'm currently feeding my Clydesdale 2 wet scoops of in molasses beet, a scoop of hi-fi, and a scoop of Alfa lite twice a day. My understanding is that as fibre it's not a problem.
 
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