Weight Gain Feed

[FineFilly13]

Just wondering what would be the best feed to help put weight on a lean 17hh TB?
Currently he has barley rings and sugarbeet in his feed to fatten him up.

Would feeds such as Blue Chip, Baileys Outshine/Top Line give a better result?

 

[blitznbobs]

Oil. Big bottles of cooking oil from the supermarket and mix them with his feed. Fat has more calories than carbs or protein so adds weight quicker

 

[Miss L Toe]

I think you need to look at his whole regime, are the teeth rasped regularly, does he need a worm count. does he have ad lib forage, to me these are the basics for maintenance, and the hard feed is to top up for any shortfall, and to give him something for his work.
How much is he getting, barley rings and sugar beet are fine as an addition to his basic feed, but are not balanced,, I like the Allen and Page feeds, Calm and Condition is very good and palatable, but as it contains sugar beet, I would only add the barley Rings. To be honest feeding oil from the supermarket is going to end up quite expensive, and it has no fibre, so useful in certain training regimes, but not for a leisure horse.
You don't want a fat horse, you want a well muscled horse, so plenty of regular exercise, including hill work, not too much bombing around!

 

[gemma21]

I tried every weight gain feed to put weight on my warmblood, veg oil did help a little and gives a lovley shiny coat but the best one i found ,which my fussy horse also loved was ready mash extra- soak it for 5 mins and ready to feed, in winter you can use hot water, a really nice feeed. Gave him one scoop a day aswell as his usual feed and he kept a lovely weight all winter. I wouldnt use any other feed!

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

What I fed my 17.2hh tb when he came out of training was Top Spec. Ring them up, they are very helpful! The Hocamaffe got: A double handful of Alfa A and a loaded scoop of Top Spec Conditioning Flakes 4x a day. He had 750g of Top Spec Balancer a day splint between morning and evening and he had just enough sugarbeat thrown in to dampen the food. Once he was up to desire weight he got cut down to half of that - still in 4 feeds as he was used to just half the amount in each feed except for the balancer. He also had pretty much adlid good quality hay and a Horselyx stable lick. This regime worked wonders for him along with a good work load.

I got him home in time for the stubble fields and so we went out every day walking and trotting round them really stretching and collecting and working up the hills and it built him up no end. It's no use feeding the food without putting in the work.

He had of course had his teeth done and wormed before he came home to me so that was never an issue.

Phone up a feed company and they will help design a feeding program for your horse to help you get it to how you want it.

 

[Mince Pie]

I tried every weight gain feed to put weight on my warmblood, veg oil did help a little and gives a lovley shiny coat but the best one i found ,which my fussy horse also loved was ready mash extra- soak it for 5 mins and ready to feed, in winter you can use hot water, a really nice feeed. Gave him one scoop a day aswell as his usual feed and he kept a lovely weight all winter. I wouldnt use any other feed!

this!

beginning of june:

beginning of july:

 

[Herpesas]

Plenty of grass and hay .... then I've used Fast Fibre - takes 30secs -1min to prepare so great especially on early winter mornings. Falcon Feeds Omega Rice and Horse&Pony nuts, sugar beet and alfa a or hifi.

I went to a lecture day last year where a vet from Liphook was giving a talk on equine obesity and diabetes and asked his advice on feeding skinnies afterwards. He said that more than 12-13% protein in a leisure horse's diet is a waste of money. He advised a high fibre, high oil diet wiith adlib hay.

 

[Aces_High]

Bailey's No.4 Top Line Cubes - brilliant for weight gain. I feed this and also add soya oil (huge drum of it works out very cheap.) The problem with what you're feeding him at the moment is it's not an all round balanced feed. Both sugarbeet and barley rings are designed to be added to a complete diet and are not a complete diet on their own. I'd fill him up with No.4, add sugarbeet if you wish - and as much hay as he will eat if your grazing is poor. Do not feed him more than 2 Stubbs Scoops per feed as it will not be digested in a user friendly way. I would also try and feed him 3-4 times a day, depending on how thin he is. I feed cubes dry and on their own much to many people's disgust. The horses love them and have never turned their noses up at them!

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

Check out the difference between Bailey's Top Line Conditioning Cubes and Bailey's Racehorse cubes

Racehorse Cubes have 0.5% more protein than the Top Line Cubes - everything else is the same.

 

[Aces_High]

The Racehorse Cubes are more expensive!!

 

[CBFan]

I typed a massive long reply earlier but it got deleted in error!!

Anyway, what I was basically saying is that unless your horse is getting a balanced diet (as another poster has sugested) it will struggle to gain and hold weight. Therefore putting him on the full ration of a feed balancer should be your first step. Then I would be adding oil (sunflower oil from asda is great - £6 for 5 litres) and I would definately recomend baileys topline cubes.

My friends TBx gelding was really struggling last year and earlier this year she asked me what I'd do. He WAS being fed almost a scoop of veteran mix (he's 17) and a scoop of apple chaff twice a day. I explained that mixes are harder to digest than cubes and therefore I'd swap to a cube of some sort (either veteran or conditioning) and also as he wasn't getting the full ration putting him on a balancer would ensure he got al his vits an mins in a smaller quantity. We put him on Baileys top line cubes and spillers veteran balancer plus reduced amount of chaff (again to reduce the bulk) and a good glug of oil. Weight piled on him in a matter of days - no exageration!! and he now looks a healthy enough weight. she has since reduced the amount of baileys topline and increased the chaff and he's still looking good.

 

[Spyda]

I can recommend Gravenhorse's Lingold. My 16.3 TB filly is on Baileys Lo Cal balancer, Badminton Conditioning Nuggets and Lingold, with chaff to mix. We've had absolutely no grass for most of this summer (imagine... dustbowl!) and mine's looking really well on this diet. I normally use the Lingold as a supplement in winter to boost condition and coat shine, but it's been really useful this summer. A 10kg bag lasts us months.

 

[Aces_High]

We put him on Baileys top line cubes and spillers veteran balancer plus reduced amount of chaff (again to reduce the bulk) and a good glug of oil. Weight piled on him in a matter of days - no exageration!! and he now looks a healthy enough weight. she has since reduced the amount of baileys topline and increased the chaff and he's still looking good.

HALLELULIA - someone else who also reduces the bulk (ie chaff) so they can increase the concentrates. Seeing this written down has actually made my day!

 

[Spyda]

HALLELULIA - someone else who also reduces the bulk (ie chaff) so they can increase the concentrates. Seeing this written down has actually made my day!

Ummmm.... I think you'll find chaff is useful to keep the hard feed portion 'open', to help slow the horse's consumption and masticate the concentrates properly. I wouldn't ever look upon the chaff part of the diet as a detrimental addition to the correct weight of hard food fed per feed????

 

[Firewell]

Baileys lo-cal balancer is just such a great supplement. My TB thrives off of it, it gives him everything he needs but it's not too high profile that it causes problems with excess starch, protein ect and it's not as expensive as other balancers.

My TV held his weight well last winter with just the lo-cal and adlib haylage and a scoop of decent chaff (Alfa or HIFI) plus glug of oil.

Now it's the summer and he's on rich grass I've cut the amount of lo-cal down and added it with some fast fibre instead of Alfa chaff which he loves.

If I needed to put on condition instead of conditioning feeds which can still be high in starch I would use the slow release energy feeds like spillers slow response cubes or falcon feeds oat and barley free or Allen and page calm and condition as these feeds have very low starch levels around 12% and are high in oil and fibre.

If not those then a high fat supplement like outshine, omega rice or equijewel added to the balancer and a double handful of Alfa chaff is also a good option .

If none of that works then try a biotic/yeast supplement as well.

Adlib hay/haylage is a must but I do think TB's especially those in work need more.

 

[CBFan]

Ummmm.... I think you'll find chaff is useful to keep the hard feed portion 'open', to help slow the horse's consumption and masticate the concentrates properly. I wouldn't ever look upon the chaff part of the diet as a detrimental addition to the correct weight of hard food fed per feed????

Believe me, I believe in high fibre diets and feeding concentrates goes quite against my gut instinct BUT when you are trying to provide MAXIMUM calories in MINIMAL volume (baring in mind the size of the horse's stomach is about that of a rugby ball) reducing the bulk provided by chaff and feeding more concentrated food is an effective way to feed. I am not sugesting removing it alltogether, just REDUCING the volume. Say half a scoop instead of a scoop. The proof is in the pudding as they say, and it worked for this particular lad, who of course had add lib access to hay overnight too...

 

[mulledwhine]

My old tb was in, build up, alpha-a, barley rings and sugar beet

 

[Aces_High]

Believe me, I believe in high fibre diets and feeding concentrates goes quite against my gut instinct BUT when you are trying to provide MAXIMUM calories in MINIMAL volume (baring in mind the size of the horse's stomach is about that of a rugby ball) reducing the bulk provided by chaff and feeding more concentrated food is an effective way to feed. I am not sugesting removing it alltogether, just REDUCING the volume. Say half a scoop instead of a scoop. The proof is in the pudding as they say, and it worked for this particular lad, who of course had add lib access to hay overnight too...

Thank you CBFan - it is complete common sense in my mind. I was waiting to be shot down!!

I also do not see why horses have chaff added to their hard feed diet when they are on ad lib hay or grazing. It is a waste of money - unless you have a horse which bolts it's feed and it's to try and get it to slow down.

 

[CBFan]

Thank you CBFan - it is complete common sense in my mind. I was waiting to be shot down!!

I also do not see why horses have chaff added to their hard feed diet when they are on ad lib hay or grazing. It is a waste of money - unless you have a horse which bolts it's feed and it's to try and get it to slow down.

Well yes. But that said, my own boy is fed Graze on Gold blend chaff and high fibre cubes as his bucket feed... but he doesn't need the concentrate for calories. just a few vits and mins added for good health.