Topline build up and weight gain for tb?

H

hot-hoof

New User
Joined
21 December 2013
Messages
9
Visit site
i was given a 16.2 8yo tb in the summer, she wasnt in the best condition but i tried my hardest to build up her topline, nothing seemed to work,lungeing,pessoa,draw reins, change in food e.t.c but nothing changed, now its winter she is on good grass 24/7(will be stabled soon) fed once a day and is having a 'fatty break' time off to fatten up before i begin her retraining again, i am feeding her a scoop of beet pulp,a scoop of carm and conditioning and a scoop of malassed chaff, i just wandered if anyone had any ideas on if im feeding her right, and what i should do about building up her topline when i bring her back into work, ive heard of muscle up and zanoBOLIC but do they work or are they a waste of money(p.s i want to get her in good condition with good muscle and weight for next summer as my plan is to retrain her and sell her on) any advice welcome but please nothing nasty! thanks in advance
 
Plenty of good quality forage, e.g hay or haylage and micronized linseed. I had a terrible year last winter keeping condition on my tb mare, mainly due to poor hay. This year I started feeding up in September and although she has lost a little weight around her flank she still looks good. Keeping them warm is also a key point. Top line will come with work
 
For weight gain, mine looked AMAZING on Alfa-A and competition mix, but did go a bit mental. ;) Vegetable oil is good, didn't heat him up at all. Agreed, as much hay/haylage/grass as possible :)

Topline takes a while, I would avoid draw reins because they usually don't really work through in them. Hills are the best thing for bums, and pole work will really help everything else :)
 
I tried so many different foods with my tb and couldn't get any weight on him - change of grass and micronised linseed, Alfa a oil and supplement made a huge difference! He's just started dropping a bit of weight again now so started adding some sugarbeet and hopefully he will start putting some weight on again. Also he needs extra rugging because he really feels the cold the big wimp!
The top line will come with work, my boys been back in work for 3 months and it's slowly coming but he needs bulking out more which is the hard bit for him.
 
thanks for all the quick responses, i started feeding her about october time, she always has a bale of hay in the middle of the fencing to share with others, the grass is on a farm and is very good, she also has a stable rug,fleece and medium weight rug on and is nice and toasty! thankyou for all ideas though, still open to any others :)
 
Well I wouldn't bother with the calm & condition the actual amounts required to have any amount of weight gain are huge...far too much for one feed a day. Molassed chaff is also pretty useless.
I'd be tempted to start feeding Haylage in the field - you say the grass is good but TBH there is very little nutritional value in it at the moment.
Feed wise I'd base it on alfalfa oil & soaked grass nuts. Extra calories can be added with a decent conditioning cube or a racehorse cube (tend to be pretty much the same just cheaper). An oil supplement will help I've used Outshine with good success but all of mine get micronised linseed now.
If you can split the feeds into a minimum of 2 then feed the correct daily amount of conditioning cubes for the weight of your horse you won't need to supplement or use a balancer.

Work wise : hill work is great. Pole work is also good. Sadly thereos no short cut. Working in the correct outline with the horse using it's back end is the only way to build up the correct muscle .
 
hot-hoof said:
thanks for all the quick responses, i started feeding her about october time, she always has a bale of hay in the middle of the fencing to share with others, the grass is on a farm and is very good, she also has a stable rug,fleece and medium weight rug on and is nice and toasty! thankyou for all ideas though, still open to any others :)
Click to expand...

There is very little in the grass this time of year, do you know when your forage was harvested? If it was late (end of July, into August) it won't contain much protein, but there could be lots of reasons for lack of muscles - protein shortage is just one, inability to properly digest the food is another, lack of calories is a third.
Calories are in copra and linseed and oils, as mentioned above, but if none of those make a difference you could consider yeasacc to boost his gut bacteria and make his digestion more efficient, or supplementing protein such as lysine to boost his muscles and immune system. There is a lot of info on the Forageplus website about lack of minerals, amino acids etc.
 
I had the same problem with my TB. His condition massively improved when I started to feed him as if he had ulcers...never had him scoped but he's a classic case for them. So feeding low starch and low sugar is key. I was feeding him Saracen Re-leve which made a huge difference. That along with speedibeet and alfalfa. Unfortunately he then went off the re-leve so he's now on Dengie Healthy Tummy, speedibeet, micronized linseed (for condition and the omega 3 helps to line the stomach and protect from acid splash) and top spec joint balancer (he won't eat the recommended amount of healthy tummy, plus I wanted a joint supplement for him). He's a different horse now the starch and sugar are minimal, and he's developed topline which before he never did, and he's in the same work as before. I pessoa lots, as well as hillwork out hacking and lateral work.
Good luck, TBs can be tricky, I've had mine 6 years and only found the right combination for him in the last year! (And he'll probably go off it soon and I'll be back to the drawing board!!)
 
Mine used to be really skinny, is looking his best yet this year and is on good grazing, good quality and plenty of hay (has 2 haynets at night, which he doesn't always eat all of but would rather he had enough that not enough). And his feed is Alfa-A Oil, Saracen Horse feed Re-Leve (FAB company when I emailed and spoke to them they gave me soooo much in depth advice) and Fast Fibre which is great as its not heating and some oil.

Every horse is different, but this has been excellent for my horse :)
 
My magic cure was always a scoop of sugarbeet with 1/2 scoop of conditioning mix and 1/2 scoop of topline nuts, with a dollop of vegetable oil, twice a day.

Puts weight on in 2 weeks.
 
The only thing that works on mine is Alpha A oil and baileys topline mix with as much hayledge as i can cram into him! And hes looking great on it and lives out and currently isnt in work atall!
 
As you will have read in this thread virtually every poster gives a different diet for putting on weight. You will needto decide yourself what works for your horse. Most of the feed companies have a telephone number or web address that you can contact with all the details & they will recommend you a diet to follow.

As for topline, that does not come from feeding, topline comes from the correct working & exercising of your horse & then topline will build. It won't happen over night no matter what you feed. It takes time & considerable work. Good Luck.
 
My ISH has a lot of TB in him and i struggle with weight in winter, however this winter he is doing very well so far. He lives out now (this is because he is happier out), only in when the weather is appalling. He is on calm and condition, 2 scoops per meal, one is not enough, you have to feed the amount they say. He also has a balancer, currently on baileys but moving him onto top spec (has a few extras in), alfa a oil chaff and a scoop of wet speedi beet. Mine is ulcer prone (been scoped) so i will soon be taking him off calm and condition and onto top spec cool conditioning cubes along with the balancer and keep the chaff, it will take the bulk out. I think calm and condition is great but personally for my boy its not helping his stomach with so much bulk.

There are lots of ideas so good luck. :)
 
Lots of oil and lots of fibre. I think the main thing is to always have them eating. Not necessarily hard feed but fibre. I use micronised linseed for putting weight on my oldie along with alfalfa pellets and beet pulp. For chaff I feed spillers conditioning fibre.

If your horse is stabled overnight you could give them a tub trig with alfalfa nuts soaked mixed with linseed meal just for it to pick away at as well as the hay. It's pure fibre and oil and does work :) as does beetpulp.

D+H build and glow worked for my friends WB she just added a cup to his three feeds and he looks great now, she's taken him off it he's picked up so much.
 
Swap chaff ro Alfa (the oil heats my tb but Alfaa is ok) copra coolstance (small quantities) toplibe conditioning cubes, and swap sugar beet for fibre beet. That's what I'd do, my lads chubby now! Plenty of hay a must, bug has 4 large nets a day.
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
As you will have read in this thread virtually every poster gives a different diet for putting on weight. You will needto decide yourself what works for your horse. Most of the feed companies have a telephone number or web address that you can contact with all the details & they will recommend you a diet to follow.

As for topline, that does not come from feeding, topline comes from the correct working & exercising of your horse & then topline will build. It won't happen over night no matter what you feed. It takes time & considerable work. Good Luck.
Click to expand...

What Toby_Zaphod said :).

What worked for Kal was a high fibre/high oil and low sugar/starch diet (like someone else mentioned above I feed him as though he has ulcers), keeping him warm and varying his work to include hacking/hill work, pole work, jumping, flatwork and (this winter) hunting. I probably only lunge once every two weeks or so - using two lunge lines and poles. I also stuff him full of as much good quality forage (hay and haylage) as he will eat.

Give a nutritionist a ring.

P
 
My poor doing tb got positively fat on Alfa a oil, speedi beet and a bit of extra soya oil, as well as piles and piles and piles of excellent quality hay,
 
Thankyou all so much! she has now been on speedibeet, Alpha A oil, dodson&horrel topline conditioning mix and bluechip(quite pricey but cheaper if you order from bluechip online) and she has dramatically put on weight, aswell as having a bale of home bailed hay whenever they need it! although her weight has all sunk from her topline down, and the top of her bum looks very bony, one i bring her back into work and she developes more topline, will the boneyness dissapear? thanks
 
Maybe try a bit of strapping? I had exactly that problem with my pony - good weight but skinny topline. He gets strapped every day and two weeks on looks so much better - he does get worked too though
 
The sunken boneyness should disappear once in correct work and the muscle along the top line builds up. TB's do tend to have huge shark fin withers, my boy can look very sunken in this area when out of work but does improve somewhat once he's doing more. Hill work will help improve his back end. Unfortunately there is no quick fix to building top line!
My TB has ad-lib, quality hayledge, and twice a day a scoop of speedi-beet, hand full of mollichaff original, a scoop of baileys NO:4 and 1/2 a cup of outshine. His weight is fine this winter...I do still need to work on his topline though
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top