TB won't gain weight!

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Gingey

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Ok, so I’m a bit stuck in terms of my TB’s weight.
He’s come out of winter a little lighter and ribbier than I’d have liked, a combination of dropping a little weight after hunting and also having to be stabled for a week due to paddocks being fertilised- he’s a bit too interested in the yard goings on for his own good, and would rather be standing at his stable door having a chat with everyone who passes and watching the world go by rather than eating his hay! Hence he dropped off a bit, previously I would have said he was in near ideal condition. He is a fairly substantial TB, not naturally a v LW one.
Vet came out last week for routine jab and condition scored him as a 2.5 (5 point scale), and wasn’t really concerned about the ribbiness once teeth and worms ruled out, as he is obviously happy and healthy, reckoned the spring grass coming through would help him put the weight back on. He’s pretty fit at the moment (ridden 5-6 times a week, jumping/schooling/hacking) and fairly well muscled, but basically just doesn’t have much spare fat at all! I know 2.5 isn’t bad at all but his ribs are really are more visible than I'd like, given as I said he's not of a really light build for a TB.
He had his teeth done last week, and a worm count done (all clear), so that’s those two ruled out. He’s very enthusiastic in his work (powered round a 32 jump hunter trial this weekend ,jumping out of his skin, finished barely in a sweat and quite literally felt like he’d happily go round again!), always alert and with a shiny coat, which seems to rule out a virus or something as far as I can judge?
He’s currently fed Alfa A Oil, Speedibeet and Baileys No 4 (which I switched to from Power and Performance a couple of weeks ago, partly for weight gain and partly because feed shop was out of P&P!!)- scoop of Alfa, just under a scoop of Speedibeet (soaked) and half a scoop of No 4, twice a day. He’s out from 7am til 5pm ish, and as his other paddock is still resting and the grass is getting short in current paddock I’ve been giving him a couple of slices every day. The problem is getting him to eat it! He’d rather wander round grazing and investigating everything- same problem as in the stable! He quite often won’t finish his breakfast as he gets bored half way through and wanders off (I leave it in the field with him when I turn him out).
For the past week he’s also been having haylage mixed in with his hay, to tempt him to eat it more than anything else. At night he has about 5 slices, but nearly always leaves at least a slice, so it’s basically ad lib. I have been known to sprinkle a scoop of Alfa A over his hay on the floor just to get him to keep eating it! :o It’s good quality hay (have tried it on other horses and they like it), but being a very un-food orientated animal he just loses interest.
He hasn’t put any noticeable weight on in the past 10 days or so, even though he’s also started having another feed during the day as well as morning and night. I know 10 days isn’t long, but generally he can put on or lose condition literally within a couple of days and I feel like he should be plumping up by now.
Am I being very overly paranoid, and should I just be giving the spring grass a chance? :o I will be putting him into his rested paddock ASAP, have started gradually introducing a little time into it, don’t want to put him straight out on it as he can get swollen grass glands from the new spring grass. I’d rather not go onto total haylage if at all possible, seeing as I’ve already bought a load of hay! :crazy: Any suggestions, feed or otherwise? Sorry for the essay..
 
I would probably reduce the speedibeet it is not really doing much, and up the no 4 , does he get salt in his feed, he is working hard and may benefit from salt added, this may also help increase his water intake as often they do not drink enough.
Otherwise he will probably pick up on better grass, possibly cut the work back for a week or two so he is using less calories that way.
 
Have you ever tried showmix? My old TB looked amazing on it all thro winter. High in oil and fibre so depends on whether he heats up on oil....
 
Try adding just a couple of glugs of oil to his feed. But he sounds like my boy who needs little and often else he gets over faced and leaves his food. Spring grass very likely sort it :)
 
Thanks for the replies, be positive- I'm actually tempted to change the no4 as I actually think he was doing better on the p&p..
He gets electrolytes in a sloppy feed/in another bucket of water when he's worked really hard, but yes maybe I should add salt to his diet generally.. I was thinking about getting a salt lick, would that have the same effect? I do like to give him the speedibeet though as I think that alone increases his water intake, but agree that maybe reducing the bulk of his feed might be a good thing.

Vicstress, no never tried showmix, is it made by a specific brand? No he's generally ok with oil, i do have to play it by ear when adding a glug of veg oil to his feed as it can send him a little over the top, but is fine on the Alfa A oil.
 
SplashofSoy said:
Try adding just a couple of glugs of oil to his feed. But he sounds like my boy who needs little and often else he gets over faced and leaves his food. Spring grass very likely sort it :)
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Didn't see this post before i did my last reply! :)
Yes, he has had oil before, generally when it's on offer in Tescos :o So will probably start that again.
Wish i was able to be there all the time so he could have even more than 3 feeds a day, but unfortunately unhorsey life gets in the way :rolleyes: :p

Thanks, hope the grass will work its magic :)
 
Omg reading this is like reading about my own horse!!! I feel like bad mum at the min!!!

I am having exactly the same problem. My horse is also on Baileys No 4 and hi fi original. He has just started to put on weight. He has been on Baileys for nearly 2 months now. However, he is currently having 3 scoops of it per day (split).

How big is your horse? My boy is 16hh and i was originally feeding him 1 1/2 scoops which made no difference. I was advised to increase it to 3. Since feeding 3 he had begun to put weight on.

I may resort to a blood test to rule out a virus but he too has shiny coat and appears happy.
 
Broke_But_Happy yes think you could be right, maybe I need to be less neurotic and give the spring grass a chance..! ;)
Well I wouldn't call him a good doer in general, when he arrived 2 years ago he was a bit of a hat rack, filled out 2 saddle widths in six months as he settled down and matured, and turned out to naturally be a chunkier TB than I thought. Generally it's related to his stress levels, work levels and how much excitement is going on (eg he will be tucked up for a bit after seeing hounds or going cross country)! how he does, but he's a lot better with good grass in summer- last summer he was on maybe half a scoop of Alfa A oil twice a day and a large handful of nuts and looked like this.

IMG00512-20110626-1900.jpg


Not the best pic as he's not standing up square but you get the general impression.
 
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1Lucie said:
Omg reading this is like reading about my own horse!!! I feel like bad mum at the min!!!

I am having exactly the same problem. My horse is also on Baileys No 4 and hi fi original. He has just started to put on weight. He has been on Baileys for nearly 2 months now. However, he is currently having 3 scoops of it per day (split).

How big is your horse? My boy is 16hh and i was originally feeding him 1 1/2 scoops which made no difference. I was advised to increase it to 3. Since feeding 3 he had begun to put weight on.

I may resort to a blood test to rule out a virus but he too has shiny coat and appears happy.
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Glad to hear someone else is in the same boat of bad mum feeling! :P Mine's around 16hh too.. With 2 feeds, sometimes 3 a day, he's having between 2 and 3 scoops already though :confused: Just beginning to feel like Baileys isn't working for him and inclined to go back to the Power and Performance, which is less conditioning I know but seemed to work better for him!
 
Readymash Extra by Rowen and Barbary is fab for putting weight on - I had a TB which came home from two months in hospital looking like a neglect case - I put her on Readymash extra and a couple of months later she looked absolutely amazing....
 
Gingey said:
Broke_But_Happy yes think you could be right, maybe I need to be less neurotic and give the spring grass a chance..! ;)
Well I wouldn't call him a good doer in general, when he arrived 2 years ago he was a bit of a hat rack, filled out 2 saddle widths in six months as he settled down and matured, and turned out to naturally be a chunkier TB than I thought. Generally it's related to his stress levels, work levels and how much excitement is going on (eg he will be tucked up for a bit after seeing hounds or going cross country)! how he does, but he's a lot better with good grass in summer- last summer he was on maybe half a scoop of Alfa A oil twice a day and a large handful of nuts and looked like this.

IMG00512-20110626-1900.jpg


Not the best pic as he's not standing up square but you get the general impression.
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He looks fit and healthy, no ribs showing there.
 
My friend had a similar situation recently and she phoned one of the feed co's nutrition lines..she had an ex racer and they were great.. If the baileys no 4 isn't working? The professionals really know their stuff.. her mare has improved in 3 weeks. Good luck
 
Gingey said:
Glad to hear someone else is in the same boat of bad mum feeling! :P Mine's around 16hh too.. With 2 feeds, sometimes 3 a day, he's having between 2 and 3 scoops already though :confused: Just beginning to feel like Baileys isn't working for him and inclined to go back to the Power and Performance, which is less conditioning I know but seemed to work better for him!
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Yes exactly the same as me. My boy has a 3rd small feed if hes ridden to replace anything he's burnt off. My horse has probably gained around 20kg in past 2months (he's only put this on in past 2weeks). I feel like im buying feed like its going out of fashion at the min! I'm intrigued to see whats recommended because i'm starting to wonder if it is actually doing anything.
 
Megalini_22 said:
My friend had a similar situation recently and she phoned one of the feed co's nutrition lines..she had an ex racer and they were great.. If the baileys no 4 isn't working? The professionals really know their stuff.. her mare has improved in 3 weeks. Good luck
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Hmm I did want to do this, but was aware that each company will only want to be pushing their own products, so I wouldn't get an overview of the best feed out of the range of different companies' products, if that makes sense?
Sure it would be really useful I'd just have to make sure i thought carefully about which company to call! :) Thanks
 
1Lucie said:
Yes exactly the same as me. My boy has a 3rd small feed if hes ridden to replace anything he's burnt off. My horse has probably gained around 20kg in past 2months (he's only put this on in past 2weeks). I feel like im buying feed like its going out of fashion at the min! I'm intrigued to see whats recommended because i'm starting to wonder if it is actually doing anything.
Click to expand...

Eexactly :o About to do some searching on here for recommendations I think!
 
Holly Hocks said:
Readymash Extra by Rowen and Barbary is fab for putting weight on - I had a TB which came home from two months in hospital looking like a neglect case - I put her on Readymash extra and a couple of months later she looked absolutely amazing....
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I second this! I won't put the pics up again :p but my mare had such a dramatic weight gain that Rowan and Barbary used us as an advert!
 
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