Too thin!

yhearia said:
She was on a scoop of sugar beet, and half a scoop of soaked calm and condition twice a day, but now on nothing as i am hoping that natures best will work!
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Ah, not getting much grub then - and even less now :o

You can actually feed quite a lot of soaked Calm and Condition - and that along with something like Alfa A Oil fed twice a day should start to help.

Obviously you are allready feeding ad lib hay / haylage to ensure that she maintains what weight she has (??)

But it may also be worth speaking to some of the feed companies for their advice.

Clearly withdrawing hard feed is not the way to proceed - but turning out on really good grazing is an excellent idea.

Also try feeding 3 or 4 smaller feeds a day (up to the max quantity etc) as this will be far mor beneficial than two big feeds.
 
Allen and Page also do a feed called weight gain, bizarrely it looks like barley flakes but has no barley in it! It is a brilliant feed for TBs as it gives the extra calories without the spark. My old TB was a very poor doer - he was 17.2 and in an xxxnarrow saddle - get the picture? He was also very fussy with his feed. I feed him clam and condition, alongside the weight gain and some chaff, he was also fed 3 times a day so the feeds weren't so overwhelming. Obviously if that is not an option then 2 should suffice.

I would definately increase the hard feed as for a TB that is really not enough. I have the opposite problem - I've always had TBs and now have very good doers lol!! Also a vitamin supplement or balancer might help, especially if she is older.

I will also go against the grain here, both mine are in heavyweight stable rugs at night, one is full clipped and the other has no clip, they are not too hot and they have not lost any weight - mores the pity!! They are both turned out with medium weight full neck rugs and are most probably colder than hot!

Hope you manage to find something that helps with your mare.
 
Louby said:
I bought a very underweight TB a good few years ago. I felt so sorry for her. No amount of food or haylage put weight on her, she just ended up a stress head and began leaving most of her net each night. Probably why she was so poor in the first place, to make her sane to sell!! It was like a vicious circle but the turning point was when I moved her to a farm with very good grass, after the summer there she looked great.
I did continue to feed her though but cut out the conditionoing cubes, baileys no 1 etc etc that Id been desperatly feeding to try to get some weight on her.

Alfa A is a great as a base instead of the cherry chop you are feeding. Lasts much longer too.
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This was exactly my situation. nothing can subsitute a happy horse
 
people!!!

check the date of the posts nearer the start of the thread!! Just dont want you all to waste ages typing a helpful reply for no point at all :) not sure how this has been brought back up!
 
I had some really good advice from Baileys Horse Feeds - have you thought about giving some of the feed companies a call?

They suggested as a last resort Baileys Outshine - increases calories without increasing bulk and I believe includes soya, linseed and something else :)

Even if she's on grass I'd top up with haylage too

Check for worms and teeth, and perhaps get the vet out to check for digestive upsets because no amount of food will put on weight if the gut isn't utilising it properly

Is there anyway you could feed 3/4 smaller meals a day?
 
Some of you are really rude! She came on here to ask for advise and got people calling her a troll and slagging her off... completley out of order imo! My mother once told me "if you have nothing nice to say then say nothing at all" Nobody knows for sure if she is over rugging as no one actually knows all the horses circumstances... some are just particually thin skinned plus she may well be clipped or even where the person is posting from.. it may be a particually cold area.

I would suggest that you contact a feed specialist after having her teeth checked and being wormed. What you are currently feeding her isn't enough imo.
 
I have found hay is the best thing to feed if underweight, up the hay first before any hard feed, mine are out all day but in the winter they get hay chucked out everyday and chaff and sugarbeet twice a day, agree grass has no nutrients this time of year.
 
LOL - all the helpful advice recently posted just goes to show how few people actually READ through the posts before answering!

(I'd also like to say that it struck me as a troll post too, and I don't think anyone was particularly rude - the OP seemed a bit loopy to me!).
 
Not really getting real feed was it? Weight gainers/maintainers I use are grass nuts/micronised flaked maize /rolled barley..plus the fillers like sugar beet and mollichaff. None of these make a horse over crazy,but with good hay or haylage they soon fill out nicely.
 
Pinkvboots said:
I have found hay is the best thing to feed if underweight, up the hay first before any hard feed, mine are out all day but in the winter they get hay chucked out everyday and chaff and sugarbeet twice a day, agree grass has no nutrients this time of year.
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It must have something cos mine are all too fat and haven't touched the top quality hay I've put in. Mind you I did spend a fortune on fertiliser this year so perhaps that's it
 
Teeth and worm count first job.

Lots of tasty fibre, depending on what your field is like and the amount and type of grass in it may of may not make any difference, so you just bare that in mind specially at this time of the year, not much goodness in the grass etc

Offer as much good quality hay as you can within reason.

Naff Pink powder is really good for kick starting the insides again, healthy gut means a healthy horse and can help towards reducing your feed bill (in general that is).

Sugarbeet mixed with either A&P CC or the fast fibre (all soaked obviously, which will also help should his teeth not be great), barley rings, Alfa A Oil mixed with the hifi (for added fibre) and a few glugs of vegitable oil, split this into 3 small feeds a day if you can to begin with.

A senior type vit & min supplement will also help.

You horse needs to feel a bit of chill at times, this will encourage your horse to eat to keep himself warm.
 
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yhearia said:
She is the grey one, and yes she is definately too thin, but I will try the pink powder/vitamins and get her teeth done asap!
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Look Guys I know someone who by now will have her horse in AT LEAST a heavy weight (poss even a second rug) and a HEAVY WEIGHT stable rug, she will probably be considering adding a duvet too! There were recent posts regarding under and over rugging and the general consensus was that if the horse is used to being 'over rugged' then they are not too hot. My TB x is in a lightweight she is just about to go to medium and is out all night, this does not mean that the OP is a troll.

OP good idea for letting your mare out to graze on decent grass, you are right, can't get better than nature itself, but what is your reasoning for taking away the food? I would suggest that it would make sense to keep her on it. C&C is good but I use Fast Fibre (also great to promote weight gain)

Perhaps you want to look at something like:

1 chaff,
1 SBeet
1 C&C/FF
bloody good slug of oil

(the above morning and evening)

TBH with a full stomach of grass too, I wouldn't feed more than this at a time, it wont be processed by the gut enough.

Multivitamin lick in stable or field

Also If she comes in at night good quality adlib haylage, regardless of grass quality we often put it in the field aswell in the winter.

Do ring the EDT and check her teeth. Please heed the advice you are asking for and up your girls feed (keep it simple and don't faff with too many supplements to begin with, heavy on the fibre based hard feed should do it)

Good luck
 
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