Worried about Archie's weight - advice please

[Archiesmummy]

Archie is well enought in himself, although I have been concerned as suddenly he has dropped weight.

I have been paranoid about lammy this year, though he has never suffered before so wanting to keep his weight down I dropped his hard feed some weeks ago.

I think this and a combination of some cold nights with him unrugged has taken its toll and he has noticeably dropped weight. His teeth are fine, appetite fine, he eats ad lib hay but I know he is yearning for some decent grass. So I bought him a show mix today, non heating but should give him back some condition. What do you think? It was recommended by the feed shop. I thought a balancer but that was what they come up with.

So today I gave him a feed of the show mix, with some speedibeet and his usual ad lib hay, which to be honest I think he is sick of. His paddock has some grass in but not brilliant and any chance he gets he tries to snatch the lovely stuff, along the track, the other side of the fence ... anywhere he can. He can't be hungry, just missing its lushousness, I think.

I love my boy so much but just lately I seem to being doing nothing but wrong trying to do right.

 

[tangoharvey]

if you have time, take him for an hour up a lane where he can graze for a bit? I have the opposite problem, all ours at our yard are already looking like candidates for weightwatchers!!

 

[Archiesmummy]

Yes, have already thought about that and when I get the chance (that would be a fine thing) will walk him out in hand for a nice nosh on the green stuff x Many thanks for your reply x

 

[UnaB]

I have this problem with my young mare right now. My field is currently recovering after the horses being out on it all winter and there were no suitable fields on the yard for my horses to go to so I had no choice but to put them in a tiny, bare temporary paddock and have them in at night and try to feed them up. My little connie is fine, he's a fat little thing!!! But my friesian is not a good doer at the best of times, but really needs decent grass all year round and her weight dropped quite quickly once she was lacking grass, even though she was having about a bale of hay a day and 3 feeds a day. I have had to move her from the yard to somewhere with some really nice, lush grass to get the weight on and it is piling on very quickly... I dont have the laminitis issues you do though sso i guess thats not really an option for you.

One thing I would definately recommend is Dodson & Horrell's Build Up Mix. I have tried stud/conditioning mixes and they dont seem to put the condition on as well as the Build Up Mix, I have found that to be really good. She gets 3 decent sized meals (I was told one big meal is useless so split it throughout the day) of alphalpha, Build Up mix and sugar beet and she is really looking better after only a couple of days on this and the new grass. The mix is completely non heating and my mare can be a bit fussy and she loves it so it might be worth trying for your horse