Underweight Thoroughbred help

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rab7225

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I recently got a thoroughbred, who retired from racing in March this year. He is quite underweight at the moment, hardly has any neck muscle and lacking topline. His ribs are slightly visable.

He is 17.2hh and not in any work at the moment. I have had him checked by the vet and there are no issued with his teeth, ulcers or worms.

He is currently being fed:

910 grams of Baileys no4 topline conditioning cubes,
200 grams of Alfa A Oil Chaff
100 grams of Alfabeet dry.

He is fed this 3 times a day. Additionially he gets 2 nets of haylage and is turned out on grass 24/7.

I was considering adding Equilibra 500 to his feed, as I hear this is good for muscle tone and weight gain. Does anyone know if this will help?

I have never had a problem with an underweight horse before and I'm at a loss on what would be best to feed him, to gain weight and muscle.

Could anyone adivse on a diet to feed him to help or advise on products that are good for weight and muscle tone?

Thank you for your help.
 
I use Baileys to put weight on my old pony and of everything I tried this has been the best for getting his topline on and maintaining his condition over the winter. I am not sure what the recommended daily amount is for a horse the size of yours but it is likely to be more than you are currently feeding him, 3 kilos is not much, my pony gets about that and he is only 13.2, so I would increase the cubes and add linseed or oil for some extra calories without making the feeds too big.

The main thing is plenty of forage, if he will eat more haylage let him have more the grass will have less goodness now so he may prefer the haylage.
 
Micronised linseed. Best thing I have come across for condition, added bonus it gives a silky coat and strong hooves.
 
Don't forget to make sure he is warm enough. If he is out 24/7 he will need a very good rug & I would probably feed ad lib hay as there is little or no goodness in the grass now until April/May depending on where you are based
 
Buy baileys racehorse cubes... Cheaper than no 4 and exact same composition!

You could try adding 250g stud balancer (baileys is the one I use) and 250g linseed.

Try signing up to website ******.com, I found it great for doing a full analysis of what nutrients my tb needed, given his height and it helped me with a formula for measuring his exact weight, hay needs and grass too, plus how much of everything to feed him, etc. And helped me cut down my costs too.
 
Thanks for that. Just noticed the racehorse cubes contain the same ingredients as the topline cubes!

Does anyone know if Blue Chip Pro is any good for weight and muscle gain and if it will make a big difference adding this to his feed?

Thanks
 
Fire the linseed meal into him :)

Also copra meal is supposed to be good, never tried it as Im allergice to co**** so bad for me but probs good for the horse :)

Ive had good results with allen and page calm and condition as well :)
 
I tried heaps of different feeds to try and get my Tb round (he was neglected when I got him) after two years I think I changed him to lucerne chaff / oats/ a complete vit and min /yeast and salt along with hay (I balanced my diets through a feed program)

My trimmer recomended I try it and sent me this link http://www.thehorseshoof.com/oats1.html

The results were amazing he rounded up before I had even finished transisitioning him. He went through winter on 1.8kgs oats and similira chaff and a mix of lucerne and meadow hay and was nice and round. This summer is the first summer he hasn't needed any hard feed just chaff and his supplement and he is round.

He is out 24/7/365 minimum of covers as he doesn't like them and BF.

Simple is best in my book.
 
is he turned out alone or with others?
how long has he been at current yard?
some tb take a long time to gain weight after stopping racing and it can often be a stress related thing, i would feed as much good quality hay as he would eat and micronised liseed as suggested but i am not one for feeding hard feed in any amount unless they are working really really hard.
there is more than one way to skin a cat though and you have to try a couple of approaches before you find the one that works for him
 
You aren't really feeding enough weight of hard feed considering the size of horse IMHO. I would personally be feeding 3x 2Kg meals per day and ad-lib haylage.

If his ideal weight is around 600KG then you want to be feeding in the region of 15Kg of feed per day. I wouldn't count grass at this time of year as there is so little of it and it is poor value. Therefore I would be aiming for around 6Kg of hard feed and 9Kg of haylage (ideally even more haylage if he will eat it)

I own a poor-doer TB and I appreciate it is a bit of a struggle! I have had him worm-counted, blood-tested, teeth-rasped and gastro-scoped but it has all revealed nothing so only answer is to keep feeding as high protein feed as I possibly can. No point wasting my time with fast fibre, calm & condition etc. etc. as these are not designed for true poor doers.

I do appreciate that a really fibre-based diet works for some, but I haven't found it works for mine lad and he really does require the high quality hard feed to stay in work. He simply doesn't have the appetite to eat enough forage to supply his needs. Silly horse.

You could also consider soaked sugar beet or grass nuts as an additional high-quality high-energy fibre source as an additional choice to have in the stable alongside his hay/haylage.

I personally wouldn't bother with adding a balancer. If you are feeding a mix/nut at the appropriate daily rate it is already balanced with vits and minerals and you are basically throwing money down the drain by adding equilibra/blue chip etc etc

Adding Oil and Linseed will make more difference than the balancers mentioned.

I would also make a point of weighing your haynets and working out just how much weight of hay/haylage he is actually eating. This will give you an idea of how much more feed you need to give him to make it up to a 15Kg daily portion.
 
RachelFerd said:
You aren't really feeding enough weight of hard feed considering the size of horse IMHO. I would personally be feeding 3x 2Kg meals per day and ad-lib haylage.

If his ideal weight is around 600KG then you want to be feeding in the region of 15Kg of feed per day. I wouldn't count grass at this time of year as there is so little of it and it is poor value. Therefore I would be aiming for around 6Kg of hard feed and 9Kg of haylage (ideally even more haylage if he will eat it)

I own a poor-doer TB and I appreciate it is a bit of a struggle! I have had him worm-counted, blood-tested, teeth-rasped and gastro-scoped but it has all revealed nothing so only answer is to keep feeding as high protein feed as I possibly can. No point wasting my time with fast fibre, calm & condition etc. etc. as these are not designed for true poor doers.

I do appreciate that a really fibre-based diet works for some, but I haven't found it works for mine lad and he really does require the high quality hard feed to stay in work. He simply doesn't have the appetite to eat enough forage to supply his needs. Silly horse.

You could also consider soaked sugar beet or grass nuts as an additional high-quality high-energy fibre source as an additional choice to have in the stable alongside his hay/haylage.

I personally wouldn't bother with adding a balancer. If you are feeding a mix/nut at the appropriate daily rate it is already balanced with vits and minerals and you are basically throwing money down the drain by adding equilibra/blue chip etc etc

Adding Oil and Linseed will make more difference than the balancers mentioned.

I would also make a point of weighing your haynets and working out just how much weight of hay/haylage he is actually eating. This will give you an idea of how much more feed you need to give him to make it up to a 15Kg daily portion.
Click to expand...

Thank you fo this information. I was advised that barley rings that have linseed in them are ideal for weight gain as well and got a bag today.

Could anyone advise on what the ideal amount of each product below he should be fed per feed?

Baileys Topline Conditioning Cubes
Alfa A Oil
Alfabeet
Barley rings

Was advised by my local feed shop that the balancers are a waste of money and that the barley rings would work a lot better.

Thank you for your help guys.
 
I would personally feed this 3x a day;

1.5Kg Conditioning cubes/mix
0.5Kg Sugar Beet (dry weight)
+ Micronised Linseed and Oil

I haven't had a lot of success with barley rings, but can't hurt to add them in at 0.5Kg a meal.

I would cut out the alfa-a oil as it's a bit of a con in my opinion. Cheaper to add the oil yourself, and you are already feeding a good fibre ration in the haylage. Unless your horse bolts his feed and you really need it to slow the eating down I don't think it's neccessary.

I would also choose sugar beet over alfa beet as it is has a higher calorie content.

I am feeding Hilight Improver mix at the moment. It is made by Baileys but is considerably cheaper feeding in the quantities that I do.

I think if you've had the all clear re. ulcers and you genuinely do have a poor-doer then you do need to pile the calories in and look for food which is 13% protein plus. Baileys racehorse cubes are another option as cheaper than the topline cubes and nearly identical composition.
 
I have owned a naturally skinny thoroughbred for 20 years. I have literally tried every feed possible including conditioning mixes, linseed, sugar beet and barley rings. I finally realised that I was actually just feeding him too much in quantity in my efforts to keep his weight up. Last year I changed the amount and gave him him Alfa A oil one bucket to give him something to make him keep eating for longer and in another bucket I gave him a mixture of Baileys No 1 cooked cereal meal - high fat in a small quantity , and soft n' soak ready mash extra from Rowan Barbary. This made it easy to eat and digest but in quite a small quantity so that his stomach wasn't overloaded. This and aslong as possible outside. It has taken me 20 years and I can honestly say finally he looks quite plump!
 
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