Weight gain

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Lamehorses

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So 15yr old coblet has always been a good weight, but coming into this winter his workload has dramatically increased (from max 2 days per week to regular 6 days)
He has dropped a little weight & I want to add something to his bucket feed.
He lives out 24/7 with a very good doer, so increasing forage isn't an easy option.
He currently has some speedibeet & chaff with a powdered balancer & a mug of linseed. This has done him well for years. Ive never tried to feed a horse for weight gain 😅.
Adding a bit of energy would be OK as he is very laid back, but don't want anything molassed/ sugary because of his type.
Any suggestions?
 
Lamehorses said:
No forage analysis, I use several different hay suppliers, although at the moment there is a fair bit of grass still.
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I see. Then I'd definitely use alfalfa, that works in most cases and counts as forage (not sure if that's the exact right word) so less risks than many other extra feeds. You could use something fancy, but I don't really see the point. Especially not when you don't know what you're feeding, hence neither what exactly you need to add.
 
If you add much alfalfa do it very gradually. It needs a different suite of microbes in the gut than grass-based feeds so swapping/adding much at the usual pace can be too fast for the gut to acclimatise - hence the reactions some horses can have to it.

My go-to is grass nuts, linseed and Equijewel.
 
How much linseed can I feed, currently on a mugful, I'm aware it's low calcium high phosphorus, currently I think balanced by the use of speedibeet.
If I increased the linseed would I need to add something for the calcium & how much linseed can I feed?
Thinking currently that the alfalfa pellets, added slowly may be the way forward. He's currently a good weight, but I can see he will drop more weight with workload & winter.
 
Lamehorses said:
How much linseed can I feed, currently on a mugful, I'm aware it's low calcium high phosphorus, currently I think balanced by the use of speedibeet.
If I increased the linseed would I need to add something for the calcium & how much linseed can I feed?
Thinking currently that the alfalfa pellets, added slowly may be the way forward. He's currently a good weight, but I can see he will drop more weight with workload & winter.
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1 gram per kilo body weight is the max iirc.
 
I swear by omega rice these days. It's useful as you don't have to feed much for it to be effective and I found it much better than just linseed and feed it at the same rate so a bag can easily last a month making it pretty cheap compared to other feeds.
 
How much are you feeding? The easy solution is normally just to gradually up quantities of what you’re already feeding until you find a happy balance. If you’re already feeding a substantial bucket feed though you could swap out the speedibeet for FibreBeet which has a higher D/E but is a similar forage based feed.
 
Given what you are currently feeding him, I'd look at either upping the amount of micronised linseed, or adding grass pellets into the mix.

Of course it depends on the size of your current meal - if it's already a fair whack, I'd be leaning towards the micronised linseed, or if it isn't that big a portion and is still within the rules for bucket feeds I'd lean towards the grass pellets x
 
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