What to feed ex-racehorse that arrived today?

I would just feed hay/haylage until she has settled in and you have got a good idea of her character. The stress of a new home and hard feed might be too much.
 
hay and more hay and more hay at least for 2 weeks to allow for all of the racehorse mix to clear out of their system and allow them to settle and you to see their temperament, not haylage (makes them too fizzy IMO and experience).
 
beeswax said:
hay and more hay and more hay at least for 2 weeks to allow for all of the racehorse mix to clear out of their system and allow them to settle and you to see their temperament, not haylage (makes them too fizzy IMO and experience).
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This

If you want to give anything else I'd only add unmollassed beet and or Alph A oil.
 
Ditto the very little hard feed to start off with. Once she is in work and you know her, it really does seem to be a case of what works for a particular horse as for everyone person who says use x, there is another horse it doesn't seem to do much for. Good luck and lots of posts about progress please.
 
agree with much of what the others say about little hard feed til you know if she is a stresser or a laid back lady. Adlib forage, warm rugs though some exracers are good doers and keep quite warm without heavy rugs esp if unclipped. Last winter when it was minus 10 my mare who was fully clipped only needed a 300gram rug, she was a stressy poor doer but was always warm! She was on winergy senior, on their reccommendation even though she was only 10yo.

once you get to know her you cant go wrong with conditioning fibres IMO. The winergy range are great though can be expensive. Alfa -a-oil or something similar. Always found conditioning cubes good for most of them but as others have also mentioned some horses do great on them and others fizz up. Pick feed with low starch levels, cubes usually better than mixes on that front. If she is the stressy type a balancer with probiotics will help but if not then most of the cubes etc are complete feeds so a balancer wouldnt be necessary. Heard great things about baileys outshine for weight gain but it works out expensive i think, i use soya oil but just personal preference.

always found the feed companies very helpful if you phone up. Hope that didnt bore you to tears :)
 
As much hay as you can stuff into her!

We had a skinny runt of a 3yo arrive off the track about 10 weeks ago - he is positively pregnant looking now and has been fed on lots of hay/haylage and feeds of molasses free sugar beet (Symple Sytems PuraBeet or Speedibeet) and Alfa A oil. The only supps he has been given is Brewers Yeast as all our TBs get it to keep their stomachs settled and Omega Rice which has a high oil and linseed content. Has worked a treat!

Good luck!
 
Another vote for plenty of good hay,but I would give a hay ballancer like saracen waistline, with a bit of chaff. Especialy if he sees others getting fed! A high oil diet could be introduced at a later date .
 
Find out what she was eating before you got her and feed a smaller amount for a few days while you wean her onto your feed. This time of year she will still need some hard feed to maintain warmth and body mass. If she's just out of training she won't be carrying too much in the way of fat reserves.

Normally I turn mine out for a couple of months to de stress from their training, crushed barley, meadow chaff, crushed linseed and a good equine balancer and also adlib meadow hay.
 
Evelyn said:
Find out what she was eating before you got her and feed a smaller amount for a few days while you wean her onto your feed. This time of year she will still need some hard feed to maintain warmth and body mass. If she's just out of training she won't be carrying too much in the way of fat reserves.

Normally I turn mine out for a couple of months to de stress from their training, crushed barley, meadow chaff, crushed linseed and a good equine balancer and also adlib meadow hay.
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Only thing I would disagree with is the Barley, Oats are better ,pound for pound ,they have less starch, more protein , more oil and FWIW have a suspicion of barley,I find horses react to it badley, filled legs etc. Just an opinion.
 
Mike007 said:
Only thing I would disagree with is the Barley, Oats are better ,pound for pound ,they have less starch, more protein , more oil and FWIW have a suspicion of barley,I find horses react to it badley, filled legs etc. Just an opinion.
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I second this with the barley.

I think one of the huge problems with people getting TB's off the track is they do not feed them enough. These horses have had hard feed from the word go when they start on creep feed, until they are sold to do a different job. I think it's completely wrong to get a TB and to stop giving it hard feed. By all means if it's spring time and you've got acres of fields and you don't mind it dropping weight - which it will before it picks up, then do it. I would be feeding it a good few bowls of conditioning cubes/mix and a little alfa oil and Outshine or adding oil. It amazes me how much bulk the people on here give their TB's when they are also on ad-lib hay or hayledge. Hard feed is precisely that - if your TB is on ad-lib hay it doesn't then need a bucket of chaff in it's feed with 1/4 bowl of mix!!! Waste of chaff and the horse doesn't need bulk it needs grub to make it put on weight! I know all horses are different, I am speaking from experience with TB's and I've had nothing to do with natives, cobs etc - so I wouldn't try it with them.
 
I guess if you decide to go down the feed her route (I can't say whether you should or not-we made every mistake known to man with our ex racer) it might be a good idea to make her diet lower in starch and cereals and higher in fibre and oil, our ex racer is doing very well with Calm & Condition and Hi Fi Original right now which sort of matches this description. Last winter her diet was almost exclusively fibre (Hi Fi Light and High Fibre Cubes with Fibre Beet) and she didn't hold on to her weight well at all.

When we first got her she was 2 months out of racing and seemed quite thin to me, back then we opted for Alpha A Oil, Bailey's Number 4 and speedi-beet with Pink Powder which she seemed to do well on but she was very fizzy once she'd had a couple of months off and put on some condition!
 
Sounds like I had planned on doing right thing. she was either fed on baileys topline mix or racehorse food (I forgot to ask what they fed her on)

My diet plan was loads of hay, and a small amount of sugar beet, topspec balancer and topspec conditioning cubes until she gets used to eating it. (Or will eat it, she didn't look to fussed last night!)
 
wench said:
My diet plan was loads of hay, and a small amount of sugar beet, topspec balancer and topspec conditioning cubes until she gets used to eating it. (Or will eat it, she didn't look to fussed last night!)
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My TB (been out of racing 1 year now) is fed on topspec balancer, and topspec cool condition cubes (and alfa a oil, micronized linseed, speedibeet, oil and nettles) and looks great on it. She gained weight slowly and correctly, and her temperment is lovely. The linseed is simular to barley, in the sence it helps weight gain, bit has far less starch in it.

I would go for a low starch, high fibre and oil diet as it provides energy without the horse stressing or being fizzy. My horse was very stressy when she had starch in her diet and was very difficult to handle and ride. As soon as we cut this out and added fibre, etc she changed completly. I found that fibre feeds don't have as much protien as cereal mixes, which is why we add the linseed.
 
A TB is just a horse wether it's been hard fed from day one or not. From having many TB's off the track - all my school horses were ex racers as well as my own competition horses.
All have done very well on Crushed Barley and Meadow chaff. The majority do not need masses of hard feed; mine used to work off grass and were only hard fed when in to work. In winter they had ad-lib hay both Meadow & Lucerne, lived out 24/7 but were rugged, again only hard fed when working. Though in New Zealand we do get heavy snow and cold winds straight off the Antarctic. There is no need to molly-coddle them, make sure they have space to play, warm clothes and remember that the digestion of chaff & hay keeps them warm just like any other horse.

Most racehorses in triaining here will have about 10 litres (volume) of chaff in their evening feed. It helps them digest their grain far better.
 
Evelyn said:
A TB is just a horse wether it's been hard fed from day one or not. From having many TB's off the track - all my school horses were ex racers as well as my own competition horses.
All have done very well on Crushed Barley and Meadow chaff. The majority do not need masses of hard feed; mine used to work off grass and were only hard fed when in to work. In winter they had ad-lib hay both Meadow & Lucerne, lived out 24/7 but were rugged, again only hard fed when working. Though in New Zealand we do get heavy snow and cold winds straight off the Antarctic. There is no need to molly-coddle them, make sure they have space to play, warm clothes and remember that the digestion of chaff & hay keeps them warm just like any other horse.

Most racehorses in triaining here will have about 10 litres (volume) of chaff in their evening feed. It helps them digest their grain far better.
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The S.Hempisphere TB's are managed very differently to the UK racehorses. I spent a year track riding at Caulfield and the management of the racehorses there was very different to in Newmarket. The diet, regime etc etc is incomparable. The horses in training in UK are lucky to get a handful of alfa in their oats or mix/nuts ration. I have had decades with racehorses and that's how I've made a few bob and I disagree that they will survive on hay alone to maintain condition especially if you are wanting to put condition on them, when they come out for training.
 
Mine was a skinny 2 yr old on arrival 18 months ago, she is on masses of grass all year round, lives out 24/7 as keeps the weight on better this way, currently on winter off and fed scoop of mollichaff, cup of Baileys Lo-Cal feed balancer, brilliant stuff, 1/2 scoop of speedi-beet and seaweed. That is at night then half of that in the morning, she looks amazing on it. Serveral people have asked me what breed she is and two though she was a WB.
 
Aces_High said:
The S.Hempisphere TB's are managed very differently to the UK racehorses. I spent a year track riding at Caulfield and the management of the racehorses there was very different to in Newmarket. The diet, regime etc etc is incomparable. The horses in training in UK are lucky to get a handful of alfa in their oats or mix/nuts ration. I have had decades with racehorses and that's how I've made a few bob and I disagree that they will survive on hay alone to maintain condition especially if you are wanting to put condition on them, when they come out for training.
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Apart from the fact that I didn't suggest hay alone - Different countries - different methods, I'm from New Zealand - not Australia! I worked at one of the top Australasian studs, Yearlings winter out - hard fed twice daily and hay & plenty of space. Preparation for yearling sales - stabled at least 16hrs a day, hard fed three times daily.

From sales to breaking then training, stabled at least 16hrs daily - worked for 20 mins, turned out after breakfast. Only difference is that they may get turned out more - I've worked at some places where they have access to good turnout and others where the horses are stabled 24/7. When they spell they are chucked out for several weeks and are not often hard fed - they get the grass alone. They get masses of chaff and many don't eat much of their hay.

They are just horses! Each one is an individual!
 
my current boy and prev mare did very well on winergy equilibrium condition and charnwood milling linseed, plus sugar beet and ad lib haylage.

agree that if in any sort of work the majority of TB's need a decent amount of grub and a decent calorie contenet within that, in order to look well enough covered.

have not found the windergy or linseed to be heating either(in terms of whizzing them up i mean)
 
Evelyn said:
Apart from the fact that I didn't suggest hay alone - Different countries - different methods, I'm from New Zealand - not Australia! I worked at one of the top Australasian studs, Yearlings winter out - hard fed twice daily and hay & plenty of space. Preparation for yearling sales - stabled at least 16hrs a day, hard fed three times daily.

From sales to breaking then training, stabled at least 16hrs daily - worked for 20 mins, turned out after breakfast. Only difference is that they may get turned out more - I've worked at some places where they have access to good turnout and others where the horses are stabled 24/7. When they spell they are chucked out for several weeks and are not often hard fed - they get the grass alone. They get masses of chaff and many don't eat much of their hay.

They are just horses! Each one is an individual!
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I am not going to get into a slagging match with you and I saw you were from NZ and NZ and Aus do things pretty similar, compared to UK. I was talking about the Aus horses in training as I was track riding at Caulfield - obviously no weanlings etc turned out there..... In UK they are out of their boxes for approx 2 hours a day at the very most. The WHOLE training regime is alien from UK to Australia. They are so entirely different that you cannot understand that they get the same results but they do and still with happy horses. They don't get spelled in UK how they do in S.H and they also don't get the chaff and hay that they do in the S.H. I was merely noting the differences. Also the Aus and Kiwi TB's are a lot more wiry and hardy than the UK TB's. Something I noticed a good few years ago. I agree horses are individual and things are done very differently in Aus, NZ and South Africa to the UK. I personally wouldn't get a horse out of training and feed it hay and chaff and a handful of mix and expect it to maintain or gain condition. It's not going to happen. I have a huge amount of involvment still with the Internationals that come to the UK for the summer racing and I still think the TB's from Aus and NZ are a damn sight hardier than their European counterparts - also presently in Australia as was out for the Spring Carnival so keeping up to date with what's going on!!
 
Aces_High said:
I am not going to get into a slagging match with you and I saw you were from NZ and NZ and Aus do things pretty similar, compared to UK. I was talking about the Aus horses in training as I was track riding at Caulfield - obviously no weanlings etc turned out there..... In UK they are out of their boxes for approx 2 hours a day at the very most. The WHOLE training regime is alien from UK to Australia. They are so entirely different that you cannot understand that they get the same results but they do and still with happy horses. They don't get spelled in UK how they do in S.H and they also don't get the chaff and hay that they do in the S.H. I was merely noting the differences. Also the Aus and Kiwi TB's are a lot more wiry and hardy than the UK TB's. Something I noticed a good few years ago. I agree horses are individual and things are done very differently in Aus, NZ and South Africa to the UK. I personally wouldn't get a horse out of training and feed it hay and chaff and a handful of mix and expect it to maintain or gain condition. It's not going to happen. I have a huge amount of involvment still with the Internationals that come to the UK for the summer racing and I still think the TB's from Aus and NZ are a damn sight hardier than their European counterparts - also presently in Australia as was out for the Spring Carnival so keeping up to date with what's going on!!
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No plan to get into a slanging match either - I'm originally from the UK so definately know the difference and one of the first things I noticed about NZ TB's is that the ones that get turned out are much clamer and stress less on raceday. I also worked in racing stables for Graeme Rogerson for several years (in NZ) and have had many horses off the track. Maybe UK TB owners need to learn more about how the SH look after their TB's. Obviously straight out of training you still need to be feeding a reasonable amount of hard feed - though hopefully in the UK tradition the horses have been let down quite a bit before being passed on. To date I've only had one that didn't recover well and I believe he may have been on steroids because he was definately anorexic. It took a year to calm him down and get the weight on him. We used to get heaps of 'slow' race horses from the school owners brothers who were trainers, some went into the school - in fact most worked in the school before being sold on.

I do think the whole Kiwi attitude to their horses is much more laid back than we were in the UK. However I learned well there and worked in some top yards.
 
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