What would you feed him?

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Skhosu

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17 hh 3/4 tb. Energetic and prone to get fizzy hence neds to be non heating. Eats his grub up.
Turned out during the day, ad-lib hay at night, in light work.
Tends to lack a bit of stamina, always underweight, wormed up to date, did well turned out 24/7, but then started stressing so had to come in, and has started to drop condition so needs something to keep the weight on as he is brought back to fitness for eventing.
So any suggestions?
 
Rang them all and tbh they were fairly useless, just pluggin their own brands, the only one useful sounding (winergy's new conditioning feed) doesnt stock northern ireland!
 
What is he on at the moment and what brands can you get over there? When you say you want non-heating, do you want totally grain-free or will he tolerate low cereal levels? Are there any ingredients he doesn't like or is intolerant to? Are you on a budget?
 
He is currently on a scoop(round one) of cool muesli twice a day, and this doesnt bother his head, he has been on top line conditioning before and it took 6 scoops (big square ones) to keep him in any sort of condition, which isnt ideal but if needs must! and he's reasonably calm on it.
We can generally get spillers, baileys, red mills, the big brand names and then some local ones.
Ideally not too expensive, thinking max around 10/bag, top line is about 12/bag so can go to that.
IT's mainly oils that send him a bit doolally, only I cant recall if its soya or linseed or both which sent him particularly strang!, cod liver is fine.
 
I'd speak to Redmills - and think about using their Horse Care cubes which seems to work really well for horses needing a little more energy without the fizz.

However, have you had him blood tested to check for anemia if he is lacking in stamina???
 
I have considered blood testing , only problem being he is needle phobic so getting him still long enough to take a sample is our dilemna, it may be possible though.
However, as he was copper deficient earlier in the year, I treated him as if he was aneamic, giving him supplementation to that effect, but he may get tested at in the hols if I can convince the vet!
The horse care cubes, will they help him gain weight?
thanks
 
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The horse care cubes, will they help him gain weight?

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They are not a conditioning feed. However, they are designed for horses that can be a little stressy - prone to ulcers etc., and so given what you have said about your horse were the first thing that came to mind.

I would never feed mix of any sorts to a stressy horse anyway.

The 18hh heavy weight hunter on yard is fed on them - and looks absolutely superb. Holds his condition beautifully on them - fed with Alfa and good quality haylage. So certainly worth considering I'd say. And Redmills are in your neck of the woods I think - so pretty easy to get hold of (?)
 
Bit difficult if he goes doolally on oils, as most of the conditioning feeds contain oil in some form, especially so if they are cereal-free as well - the Winergy Condition is 10% oil, for example!
 
top spec flakes,cool and condition cubes if in light work,spillers slow release cubes if in heavier work and alfa a has always been a winning combo for me and I don't know if you can get these where you are but I also feed a product called le brick which has been really good as well http://www.horsefair.co.uk
 
I've got my big lad (17.2hh) that's prone to hotting up and hard to get weight on, on Calm and Condition, Alphabeet, Alpha A Oil and Micronized Linseed. It's keeping him on a nice stable weight without the hysteria.

I found Baileys No.1 very very good at getting the weight on initially. One word of warning is to introduce it gradually to avoid any unwanted antics
smile.gif


I also had his teeth done which made a huge difference.
 
Have you spoken to Judy Maxwell from Baileys, she was really helpful a couple of years ago when Ben my old welshie was dropping weight. I know she will probably recommend a baileys product(s), but she is v knowledgeable, and at least Baileys is easy to get hold of in NI.

Fiona
 
Have been having a ponder about this, and if you don't want to feed him too much cereal or oil, you need to increase his fibre intake. Now you already feed him adlib hay in the stable, but would it be possible for him to have hay in the field too? You could get your hay analysed (only costs £5) and if it is rather low in calories, then you could see if you could get a higher quality hay (or haylage if it suits him). Horses will also tend to eat more roughage if more than one fibre source is available - so might be worth putting a big tub of fibre in beside his hay at night - a mix of unmolassed beet and grass/alfafa pellets, or an alfafa/beet product such as AlfaBeet/Fibrebeet, or a tub of a dried grass chaff such as Readigrass or Graze On.

If you can increase the fibre then hopefully you won't need as much conditioning feed.
 
Sorry, yes its haylage and just been added to the field as well in the last week or so, in previous years he has had a big round bale to help himself to, and he is the dominant horse so gets his fill, and it still didn't help.
We have alfalfa, is that any use in this situation?
Where would I get the haylage analysed?
 
Dodson & Horrell do forage analysis:

http://www.dodsonandhorrell.com/helpline/forage/forage-analysis/

You would only need the proximal analysis which will tell you what the digestible energy (calorie) content of your hay is.

To be honest, if he is getting tons of good quality haylage and large quantities of conditioning feed, but still struggling with weight, then I would agree with AmyMay that veterinary investigation is a good idea.

Alfafa is good, but not wise to feed it in quantities greater than that suggested by the manufacturers, which is why I prefer it mixed with unmolassed beet when it is used as a bulk feed. (Plus unmollassed beet is a very cost-effective source of calories - or at least it is at the prices we pay over here!)
 
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