[ellisr]

I have a 17h ex racehorse and he has started dropping weight even though he is fed twice a day. Can anyone advise food that would help get his weight back on but not fire him up as he can be quite head strong.

Unfortunately we have no grazing left on the smallholding due to the drought, so he gets haylage every morning and night in addition to his food

[geebee]

assuming he's on a worming programme & his teeth are okay, try Allen& Page's Calm & Condition. I used it for my very old pony with good result. In fact I phoned Allen & Page & they were brilliant with advice, sent me a pack about all their feed range & money off voucher!!

[ellisr]

Great I will give it a go, he is on a worming programme and his teeth are really good he is starting to drop condition a tad as I can't ride him at the moment.

[piggy]

Midds is good for putting weight on and is by far our best seller over winter,is very cheap as well.

[doganjo]

Is the haylage good quality?  Do you know where it came from?   Grass can vary a great deal in varieties and therefore the goodness in it, so I imagine haylage does too.

[pikilily]

Top Spec pruduce very good quality Conditioning Flakes, almost guarenteed to put the weight on - and very palatable according to my very fussy 30 yr old TB.

Another suggestion is to get NAF Pink Powders it has a gut balancer in it which helps the horse to utilise and maximise what feed he is given. all the Top Spec porduce has the gut balancers too, but their are more expensive.
HTH Emma T

[Roxy]

All horses start to lose condition now, as the goodness has gone out of the grass.  Teeth and worming are the first starting point, and also make sure your horse has access to a mineral block.  Reduced grazing means they do get short of vitamins and minerals.

I agree calm and condition is good, only needs soaking a few minutes,  and soaked speedibeet puts weight on too.

[ellisr]

Thanks all I am going shopping ths weekend to get him a good mix of stuff, thank goodness he is not a fussy eater. He needs a new mineral block anyway and a couple of new rugs for autumn/winter as he doesn't like stables at all and need to keep him warm as possible to help his weight.

I was looking at the speedi beet on Sunday so I think I may get some of that as well and see what works well with him, he just looks so slim and out of condition at the moment I need something to help.

Oh BTW if anyone is near a countrystores and needs new horse rugs they have most reduced to silly prices

[Daisys Mum]

In winter I feed boiled barley to mine and it helps keep the weight on without fizzing them up, cheap as well just put some in a slow cooker in the morning and its ready by evening.

[ellisr]

Oh never thought of that and my grandma used to give the shires it, how much do you think to add to his food to give him a boost but not to make him bloated.

Honestly I will try anything with him he is so special to me and such a big loving horse who likes to just wander around behind me when I'm busy it is like having a best friend that can't talk but you know how he feels.

[Frieslandfilly]

How old is the horse? We have a 16 yr old TB 16.2 and he dropped loads of weight over the winter before last, my daughter was feeding him up to 6 hay nets a day plus his large bowl of chaff and nuts, he is quite excitable in the spring so we couldn't use anything that would worsen that, then we put him onto 16+ because of his age and he came through the last winter beautifully even though it was a tough one!
 
Dawn

[ellisr]

He is 17 so maybe it is his age effecting his weight maybe I should be thinking about a more senior diet.

So much to think about now, not really as easy as choose a feed and then ask how many scoops lol.

I think this maybe a bit of trial and error until I get it spot on, I am working trying to get him to settle in a stable so that winter won't be so harsh for him and so I can keep him out of the mud which he can spot a mile off and he must roll in it and become a mud monster. Spent over an hour last night trying to get mud out of his main looks like he is having a bath this weekend which he really doesn't like

[Frieslandfilly]

Ha ha sounds a lot like ours, my daughter like to make him look good, brushing and clipping him, then he goes out a rolls as if to say 'you wasted your time'. It was a lot of trial and error with ours too, lots of hay nets on top of his feeds until his weight started to pick up, we did use sugar beet too as well as haylage (not all at the same time) to see what worked best, and it all depends on the horse. Hope you work it out even though it will be a long process!
Dawn

[Daisy]

I've been using linseed meal from Charnwood Mills to keep the weight on my oldie

[loosey]

I have the same problem with my 19 year old TB. I'm lucky that I still have very good grazing at home but I've become rather good at weight gain tricks from time to time!

Top spec feed balancer is brilliant to add to his normal feed. Alfa A Oil is good on my boy but I've known it fizz some horses up, T has it mixed with D&H Build up cubes and his normal supplements. In the winter he'll also have Readymash extra and oil added into his feed and they'll increase to two or three meals per day. I think I'd go for as much haylage as he can eat rather than feeding at set times.

The best I've used for weight gain is Boomerang Copra Meal which is coconut based and soaked as sugar beet would be but I know it's hard to get hold of these days!