Trying to bulk up my mare

[AliceCrail]

My little mare is TBxID, 15hh. She looks very fit at the moment, plenty of energy, lean and hard (think racehorse!)
The problem is, we haven't started the fittening work yet!
She lives in with limited turnout each day, due to the weather, is worked about 4 or 5 times a week, mostly schooling at the moment, although I do a lot of pole work and try to hack out when possible.
She is fed on SS Lucie nuts, Pura beet, chaff, a feed balancer, oil and salt (x3 feeds a day) with ad lib haylage. She doesn't need anymore energy, she is pretty chilled at home (doesn't stress, box walk etc) her back, teeth, worming etc all fine.
I could really do with getting a bit more weight on her before I start the fittening work at the end of February, otherwise she will end up as a hat rack! I've tried grass nuts but not sure they made a great deal of difference. Oh, and she is clipped out, but wears 3 rugs and is never ridden naked unless jumping.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[ellie11987]

Mine has 2 mugs micronised linseed and 1.5 scoops whole soaked oats added to her speedibeet for her weight (TB poor dooer). Has made an astounding difference and is cheap as chips. Doesn't fizz her up or affect her hooves either (she's barefoot). I get mine from farmandpetplace.com

 

[AliceCrail]

Funny, one never considers oats for weight gain, but they do don't they. Hmmm, might give that a go. Not going to use linseed as she has a high oil and protein diet already. Thanks

 

[splashgirl45]

i have found fast fibre to be very good for weight gain...its very easy to feed as only needs a minute to absorbn the water..

 

[ellie11987]

Funny, one never considers oats for weight gain, but they do don't they. Hmmm, might give that a go. Not going to use linseed as she has a high oil and protein diet already. Thanks

I never considered it either. But it's worked for my mare and I've been through the majority of conditioning feeds on the market since I've had her.

 

[AliceCrail]

The SS feed I use is the same as fast fibre.
I've decided to up the amount she is getting, then add oats once we start the fast work.

 

[glamourpuss]

I'm always amazed when people suggest Fast Fibre as a weight gain feed. Allen & Page market it as a low energy feed with a DE of 8.
Given how much it swells I'd think you'd have to feed mountains of the stuff to have the same weight gain effect as a conditioning cube or even A&P's own calm & condition.

 

[amandaco2]

Copra, soaked whole oats did wonders for my lad. I also feed alfa oil, linseed meal.
Obviously also make sure teeth worming up to date.
Ad lib hay

 

[AliceCrail]

Thanks all.
After a very exciting hack today, definitely sure she doesn't need any extra energy! She was getting fed average sized feeds x3 daily, but actually looking at the maximum daily rations she could have a lot bigger feeds, so going to do that for a week or so and see how that goes. I moved her onto haylage about 2wks ago to help with her snottiness and to put some extra weight on.
She doesn't look poor, like my husband said "She looks like a good old fashioned chaser, but with short legs"
She is shiny, hard and lean looking, and obviously fitter than I expected (god knows how, wonder if she's been moonlighting as a highwaymans horse or something )