Underweight mare?!!

ImmyS

ImmyS

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We have just bought a lovely 16.2 thoroughbred mare. We know that she has sort of been pushed around from pillar to post and through the winter she was pretty much left in a field causing her to lose a lot of weight.

Another girl bought her from the field in January where she started riding her and feeding her up. She unfortunately could not afford to keep Celine any more and so now we have bought her and we have now had her around a week. Although she is a lot better than the previous owner said when she first got her, she is still underweight, her hip bone is quite prominent and you can see a bit of ribs and she is generally lacking muscle. She isn't dangerously thin just a generally underweight.

The previous owner gave her one meal a day. We are now feeding her routinely twice a day, she has 2 scoops of Allen and page calm and condition, 2 scoops of chaff, 1 scoop of pony nuts and a coat shine supplement in the morning and evening. She is also on 24/7 grazing which is much better quality than before and she is rugged up well over night. We have been doing about 10 mins of groundwork or light hacking each day as she is willing to work. She is also a very chilled out thoroughbred, not the type to worry weight off. Do you think this diet and amount of exercise will get good results and if so how long would you expect to wait before you see results?

Sorry for waffling on!! Thank you for reading, look forward to hearing your replies x
 
I think you need to wait and see a bit... I wouldn't be shovelling too much hard feed into her really. Spring grass and preventing her from getting cold will make a massive difference, also some regular light work will give her some muscle coverage. Keep us updated, seems like she has fallen on her hooves! XX:D


Forgot to add our 16.2 .. 20 yr old TB is on 1 scoop of cool and conditioning Mix twice a day, grass from 7am until 8pm... then Haylage overnight, hope this helps (she is in great condition).. rugged by night X
 
Thank you! We'll wait and seee, hopefully it won't take her too long so we can get out and have some fun! :) Yes we're hoping to have her for many years to come! Being and ex racehorse she has had the most loving life bless her!

Immy x
 
The diet sounds ok but rather large feeds for her to really benefit from, they can only manage about a rugby ball size at a time, the rest will pass through too quickly before really being digested. I would cut back the chaff and the pony cubes and give some oil which is easily digested.

As the grass picks up so should her condition, if it goes on slowly it tends to stay on better and the muscles build up well at the same time with light work.As you see her every day you may not fully notice how much she is putting on it is worth monitoring it by tape or photos then you can really see the difference.

I assume you have wormed her and had her teeth done so that she will really get the benefit of all your care.
 
She isn't on hay at the moment as the pasture is very good, we're going see how she goes on the grass but may introduce hay if needed x
 
Mmm, I'd be inclined to feed less hard feed (as positive says, they're too big really anyway at the moment) and get ad lib hay in to her.

Personally I wouldn't work either. And obviously you need to make sure she's wormed appropriately etc.
 
Thank you be positive for the advice. Yes she has had her teeth done recently and being checked again in June, she has also been wormed and will also be done again in the summer so all good there.

That's a good idea, we'll take photos each week too monitor her progress (:

Immy x
 
I bought an under weight tbx in january. he went from living in 24-7, not having adlib forage but alot of conditioning hard feed.

to living out 24-7.

The grazing was very good (not been graze since hay taken off it the summer before) I still fed hay/hayledge.

You generally can tell if they need the hay. If the grass is good enough they dont hoover it all up. I gave him 2 small hard feeds a day just half a scoop of econamy pony nuts and half a scoop of ready grass, nothing really.

I decided if he didnt pick up I would up the hard feed.

In two weeks the differance was huge!

Adlib forage is the key!

Editied to say during this time we had temperatures of -9 and I worked him- he still put on weight
 
The feeds are far too big. I would spend your money on some good quality haylage instead. She will only need a scoop of hard feed once or twice a day to provide her with her vitamins and minerals. I would buy haylage rather than hay, because they tend to eat more of it as it's so yummy. If you can't find a good supplier, get some Marksway Horsehage in the meantime and feed her as much as she will eat. Haylage is by far the best way to get weight on a horse.

If you order 20 of these it only costs £5 to deliver:

http://www.efeed.co.uk/products/haylage/horse-hage/rye-grass
 
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