what to feed my tb?

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Poppys_mum

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As its nearly winter and I have a thorough bred I'm looking into changing her feeds so she can put some weight on her topline and in general can antie suggest what to feed her?
Also what are the benefits of feeding garlic?
 
What is she fed at present in terms of bucket feed, hay/haylage and grazing? Will she be stabled or living out during the winter? What is her current condition score? What work is she in at present and what is her winter workload likely to be?

Is she sensitive to any feed ingredients, have a tendency to be fizzy/excitable, etc?
 
At the moment she's fed on chaff veteran mix (she's 16) speedy beat and garlic. Also she has hay in her field as she lives out. Hopefully throughout winter she will be working about 2/3 days a week.
I'm not sure what she's scoring at but she weighs 450kg.
And to my knowledge she is ok with all foods.
Thanks
 
A couple of discussions on this in the last week or so, annoyingly "tb" isn't an allowed search term, but here's one from January:

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=432878&highlight=feed+thoroughbred

Garlic has a downside - a strong antibiotic which can destroy the good bacteria in the hind gut so best not to feed unless you really need it - supposed benefits are better blood flow and as a fly repellent, but I've not seen evidence.

I always recommend low starch feeding based on fibre (forage), protein and oil.
 
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Firstly, you need to be able to condition score your horse in order to be able to monitor her weight properly - there is a good pictorial guide at the bottom of this the page of this link:

http://www.dengie.com/pages/feed-advice/feeding-the-overweight-horse.php

Will she have hay available at all times in the field (ie ad lib)? This is pretty important for a poor doer once the grass has gone and you will struggle to keep weight on without it. Personally, I find haylage better than hay, as it is usually tastier (so they eat more of it) plus contains more nutrients.

What brand of chaff and veteran mix do you feed, and how much do you give? How many feeds a day does she have?
 
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