What should i be feeding a Tb x 2 yr old struggling with weighjt

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thehorses2013

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My 2 yr old has always struggled with weight, you can see his ribs,

2 jugs sugarbeet, 2 jugs Baileys no 3 stud cubes & a little honeychop fed twice daily breakfast & dinner, nice grass & plenty to run which he loves in daytime, haynet when stabled @ night normally only half eaten by morning, i cant see why he cant keep weight on??? He has one of those over the stable door feed buckets & its normally 3/4 full, We walk about 6 miles a week & lunging for 10 mins once a week, any ideas what i can please be feeding him

He dont seem to have any shine to his coat but seems to be happy enough

Please help??

Thanks in advance
 
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I have no idea what a jug weighs so cannot figure how much weight each amount of feed is. You may find that feeding more feeds per day but no more than 4-5lbs per serving is more beneficial to your horse. If you are feeding almost a large bucket of feed in each serving then that must be way more than 5lbs, in which case you're basically pouring money down the drain.
 
He is 2 half so is starting his schooling this summer, then turned away for winter ready to break next summer when hes 3 half.

Its a 1 litre jug its one of the cheap 50p ones you get from Tesco,

Thanks
 
Cut out the work and get him onto, very slowly, a high protein high fibre no sugar no carb diet and he will probably thrive
So several feeds of a stubbs scoop alfalfa chaff, a coffee mug or even more up to half a kilo micronised linseed and speedibeet to damp it I feed grass nuts well soaked too as the grass isnt great
To be honest though if he was mine I would turn him out for as long as possible on really good grass if he has to come in which personally I wouldn't he needs his feeds split into many small ones and good quality haylage. or hay
Make sure he is worm free either with a worm count plus bloods for tape or a comprehensive wormer scheme
 
Have you weight scored him properly?

My gelding would go quite ribby after a growth spurt but his front end and hindquarters still carried condition, so his overall weight score was OK. My Vet said that he looked perfect to her even though he was a bit ribby.

Remember that overfeeding a growing youngster is not wise.
 
Buy the best hay you can find , this will help no end. I dont think you are workingh him too hard , The simple fact is that if the bulk of his forrage intake is low in energy ,you cannot hope to try to make it up with hard feed. I do take the other posters point that he is growing , but it is not the lacck of flesh on his ribs that concerns me .but the lack of "shine " on his coat.To me this is a sign of going back, he is using more energy than he is consuming. The big picture is not the few kilos of hard feed but the many kilos of hay. Hope this is of help
 
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