best feed to help fattening up a horse

wiggy88

New Member
May 14, 2008
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middlestown
one of my horses as lost weight since been kept out over nite for the last month, ive been givin him 2 massive feeds a day which consist of 1/2 a skip full of ssugarbeet, 3 scoops of mix, 2 scoops of conditioning cubes as well as half a bale of hay which he shares with 2 greedy ponys. my friends a vet and hes checked his teeth and gave him the all clear. Anybody got any tips or ideas.
 
Hi there. I've used Sharps wheat in the past with really good results. It's cheap (looks like sand!) and was really effective on my TB.

Good luck.

forgot to add - also vegetable/sunflower oil
 
Yeah when we want to keep weight on the TBs and the horses that are wintering out, we give them Coolstance Equine. It's coconut based, looks like sand and smells divine. You mix it 1:3 with water, soak for an hour. I don't know where you would get it in the UK (I'm in Ireland) but your usual feed supplier should be able to advise (or Google it).
 
Make sure you weigh out what you're feeding, and keep it to 2KG or less per feed as their stomachs can't handle more than that. If you're feeding quite a bit more, split it into a third lunchtime meal. I found that when my TB was very underweight after being ill a few years ago, I was giving him two very large feeds a day, but he simply wasn't gaining weight. When I dropped it to three 2KG feeds, the weight started to go on.

For weight gain, I use Allen & Page Calm & Condition, with Alfa A Oil. Pink Powder made a massive difference to him as well - he'd been on a lot of penicillin, so the Pink Powder re-balanced the bacteria in his gut and meant he was getting more out of his feeds, rather than just passing it through his system. At one point I was feeding Speedibeet as well, because my RI suggested it, but to be honest I didn't feel the beet really made any difference. D&H Build Up cubes are very good as well, and I used these with great success.

Check out something like the Baileys website, as they have a calculator utility which you can put your horse's weight, workload, etc, into and it will give you a rough idea. It's not foolproof as there are various factors which the calculator can't take into consideration (your horse's breeding, whether they're a good/poor doer, how many hours at grass, etc) but should give you a good starting point.
 
Alfalfa is an excellent bulk feed and weight gainer, I was specifically told NOT to feed it to Cherry when she was on a diet, it was actually the reason she got fat in the first place :eek:

Sugarbeet is meant to be good too I think :)
 
go for quality, not quantity - horses have surprisingly small stomachs! Rather than bulking the feed out, it might be worth trying a specific conditioning feed and rationing it out into more, smaller meals. Oil and Barley can be useful too.

I'd start with doing a bit of research into the main feed manufacturers - they all have loads of info on their websites and most have helplines so you can ring and ask as many stupid questios as you can think of. I'd start by looking at things like D&H Build Up Mix or Cubes, Allen & Page Cam & Condition or Weight Gain Mix, Baileys Topline (no. 17), Dengie Alfa-A Oil, Spillers Conditioning Mix or Cubes.
 
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