TB Feed/Supplements

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elliettegore

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Hey!
I've just bought a 13yr old TB who's not in great condition at the moment and wanting advice on what feed/supplements to give him without him getting 'hot'. He's pretty skinny, has mud rash, rain scald, and a pretty dull looking coat.
Thanks!
 
My go to is speedibeet and linseed. Grass nuts are good too with a little bit of sugar free chaff. And then plenty of grass and hay. Hopefully someone else can give you better advice on supplements although both of mine are on aloe Vera.
 
I use Grasstastic, Sugarbeet, linseed and copra. (Also has Agrobs Musli as he's fussy and looked for the most expensive chaff he could find and won't finish his feed without it).


Also forage, make sure the hay or haylage is good quality. I find unless I do that, I can't keep weight on with bucket feed.
 
criso said:
Which could mean a haynet the size of a small car.
Click to expand...
If he can eat that much then he needs it IMV; Tb's rarely stuff themselves that much but ad-lib is always best; keep something in front of him at all times and decent hay is far better than haylage.
For me, my go to is micronised linseed, brewers yeast (the basis for Pink Powder) either soaked grass nuts (not alfalfa ones) or sugar beet/Speedibeet along with basic rolled oats. I also like Bailey's Stud Nuts for weight gain as they're easily digested if you can't feed any of the others. Feed little and often rather than one big meal a day.
D & H Barley Rings are also very good but some can react to the barley; they are much 'hotter' than oats in that respect.
Apart from that, plenty of time on good grazing will always help; they don't call it Dr Green for nothing.
Another thing could be a dental check up and a wormer of course. If he can't use his teeth than no amount of food will improve him. Also, keep him warm (not over hot) otherwise he'll burn off those calories keeping warm and not improving his build.
 
I've got Arab's so they can be a bit like a TB when it comes down to feed I don't feed alfalfa it sends them crazy, I feed grass tastic unmolassed sugar beet and micronised linseed.
 
I have found with elderly TBs that, as other posters have said, ad-lib forage, lots of grass and linseed are invaluable. I would also add in a decent balancer (I like Spillers or Feedmark's new Benevit) to help take care of any mineral deficiencies.

If he is in poor condition, I would also feed a dried hedgerow herbs blend to just make sure he is getting everything he needs, particularly if he doesn't have access to a hedge to browse.
 
I've seen so many posts on FB with thoroughbreds being fed all these mixes and nuts etc. so it's really interesting to hear you've all found the same as me. Bit of chop, sugarbeet (unmolassed) with a balancer and then in winter if more weight is needed, some micronised linseed and grass nuts. Mine also does better on hay than haylage, he can eat the most unbelievable amount of hay and he has as much grass as possible - again he can eat the most unbelievable amount of it - when you put him on a new field it's the equivalent of releasing a lawn mower 😅
 
My tb likes his hay more than grass!! He has grass nuts, alfa a oil, salt and oil. He is looking fantastic at the moment. He does drop weight I winter though. I keep looking at rolled oats. Are they good at keeping weight on? OP I hope your horse picks up once on good food.
 
Oats can help but current horse doesn't like them, he gets Copra.

Mine does really well on haylage, we have a few different options at my yard and he gets a local big bale haylage. However he eats it so quickly he also gets hay to pick at slowly. If myself or the yard manager are around, he won't eat it but does when we're not looking.
 
Mine are on Equerry Conditioning Mash. I find it puts weight on without adding any fizz.
Used it for years on a number of different horses with great success. I also find their hooves grow really fast all year round when on it.
If I want to add more, then Spillers Conditioning Fibre is my go to.
 
Mine isn’t a TB but might as well be from a feeding point of view. He did really well over the winter on A&P Calm and Condition, he’s now on the Muscle and Focus which is similar but not quite so high calorie as he’s out 24/7 in summer. He also gets the Premier Performance muscle strength which is meant to help maintain condition.

I’d have loved him on something like others above have suggested, but he will not eat Speedibeet/Fibrebeet/grass pellets etc. We tried adding linseed when he dropped a bit of condition, he took one mouthful, started chewing, spat it on the floor and refused to touch his bucket feed for 3d 🙄

Most important thing for him is access to grass, keeping him warm, and feeding his forage in a way he likes. He always has something in front of him, but if he has to work too hard for it (eg. Net with holes he thinks are too small) or he doesn’t like that particular batch of hay, he won’t really bother and will barely finish one standard sized net overnight. He’s a fussy b***er!
 
Mine has never been able to put weight on and maintain but found high fibre, alfa-a, linseed, a good balancer (I use Forage Plus Winter Hoof & Skin), some additional bits and bobs as grazing isn't very good (Vit E, MSM, Yeast Magic, and think I've added a few other things but can't remember what), and dried oily herbs work really well for him (as well as half and half hay and haylage). I recently added L-Glutamine as an experiment and noticed his coat has become deeper and darker though it's too early for me to have an official opinion on it.
 
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