Yet another condition thread - sigh

[PolarSkye]

Kal is competing (on average) two weekends a month, and while fit and well-muscled is a little ribby.

Workload per week:

Hack/school over xc jumps on gallops
Schooling session on flat 30 mins
Jump in school either course or grid work avg height 90 cms
Lunge with pessoa
Recreational hack in forest (includes hill work)
One day off
One day competing - includes hour each way travelling and then jump cross/hunter trial/combined training

Feed per day:

Breakfast - half scoop (Stubbs) each Speedibeet, Readigrass, Alfa A Molasses Free, Blue Chip plus good glug veg oil

Lunch - half scoop each Alfa A and Blue Chip plus oil

Dinner - same as breakfast

Plus hay in field (which he doesn't really touch) and huuuuge haynet at night stuffed rigid with hay and timothy haylage. There us usually hay left in the morning.

Back, teeth, worming all checked and up to date and he is well rugged.

Any ideas or do I just need to wait until the grass really comes in?

P

 

[be positive]

His workload has increased significantly so it may be that with the poor grass causing him to look a little less well than you want ideally. Once the grass comes through it should really help but until then I would just increase the quantity of the beet and alfa a, he could easily have a whole scoop each for tea with it being all fibre there is not the concerns of having too much in one go for the stomach to cope with.
Micronised linseed would be something to consider for extra calories.

 

[PolarSkye]

His workload has increased significantly so it may be that with the poor grass causing him to look a little less well than you want ideally. Once the grass comes through it should really help but until then I would just increase the quantity of the beet and alfa a, he could easily have a whole scoop each for tea with it being all fibre there is not the concerns of having too much in one go for the stomach to cope with.
Micronised linseed would be something to consider for extra calories.

Thank you for this great feedback . . . yes, his workload has increased a lot and I am aware that the travel also takes it out of him. I have upped his feed quite a bit accordingly, but it may be that I need to up it even more so will increase his evening feed. Only added the oil this week and it is already making a visible difference . . . interestingly, I do see a drop off directly after he has been out so (travel?) so perhaps I need to up his evening feed on the days he goes out?

Will think seriously about micronised linseed, but am a little reluctant to add yet another type of feed . . . we'll see.

As he's leaving hay/haylage overnight, am I right in being confident that he's not hungry in the morning? We have NO grass, which is why he's having lunch in the field just to keep his belly working/give him something to fuel his metabolism and stop him using calorie reserves to keep warm. Ditto rugging . . . he is out today in a H/W with no neck b/c it's relatively warm here and I really want him to feel the benefit of sunshine, but while it's been cold he has really been wrapped up warm (against my principles of not using multiple rugs).

P

 

[Firewell]

Jae's the same, doing the same work. I put him on the Spillers slow release cubes a couple weeks ago (3.5kg per day) with alfa a oil and I think he is starting to pick up. Scrutinised him on the lunge last night and i'm positive he's looking slightly more covered. I choose them because they are good source of slow release energy for his work but hopefully won't fire him up too much like a conditioning cube. He's really lovely on them temp wise. Hopefully the darn grass will start coming through now the weather is warming up a bit!
Edited to add he's also like your horse leaving a bit of haylage at night, no grass, i'm keeping him smothered in rugs. It's this winter I think it has just dragged on and on (did we even get a summer last year?!).

 

[PolarSkye]

Jae's the same, doing the same work. I put him on the Spillers slow release cubes a couple weeks ago (3.5kg per day) with alfa a oil and I think he is starting to pick up. Scrutinised him on the lunge last night and i'm positive he's looking slightly more covered. I choose them because they are good source of slow release energy for his work but hopefully won't fire him up too much like a conditioning cube. He's really lovely on them temp wise. Hopefully the darn grass will start coming through now the weather is warming up a bit!

That's the problem . . . getting coverage on them without heating them up . . . and mindful of the spring grass just about to come through. Good luck with Jae .

P

 

[be positive]

Does he get salt? does he drink well? dropping off after a day out could be caused by loss of fluids, even if he is not sweating that much he will still benefit from keeping the water intake up.
Consider an electrolyte supplement in his feed, he will benefit from this if we ever get some warm weather, I use them as routine when competing, a few days before and after, if the weather is hot the competition horses get electrolytes daily, I also give salt most of the time , they do have blocks but not all use them and they cannot get enough from them.

 

[PolarSkye]

Does he get salt? does he drink well? dropping off after a day out could be caused by loss of fluids, even if he is not sweating that much he will still benefit from keeping the water intake up.
Consider an electrolyte supplement in his feed, he will benefit from this if we ever get some warm weather, I use them as routine when competing, a few days before and after, if the weather is hot the competition horses get electrolytes daily, I also give salt most of the time , they do have blocks but not all use them and they cannot get enough from them.

He does drink well, doesn't sweat up much but doesn't get salt . . . he does have a salt lick in his stable which he certainly uses but I stopped giving him salt in his feed once the temp dropped so will certainly find something to replace lost electrolytes . . . thanks for this, not something I considered. Will give him an electrolyte supp in his feed just before and just after he competes.

Great advice. Thanks.

P