Feed Question - advice needed!

S

SarahC

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Jul 13, 2004
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Hi everyone.

Just a question about feed....sorry if its a bit long!

Spang is generally a very good doer and doesn't normally loose any weight in the winter.

However, due to the horses all being in 24/7 for some time and getting very little exercise (long story...unavoidable) she went completely loopy for a while and I cut out the balancer which helped to settled her down a bit (she is normally quite laid back!).
So now she is purely on Apple Chaff, vit & min supplement and carrots (mainly hidden in the haynet with a couple in her dinner). She is now out for 5 hours a day and ridden 2 or 3 times a week at present. I have noticed that from the time they were kept in 24/7, she started to drop a fair bit of weight and she's still steadily loosing. Now she's far from thin or underweight...but I don't want her to drop anymore. She gets a jam packed haynet and a smaller one with it in case she runs out at night. She gets the chaff twice a day.
She CAN'T have Alfa of any form as she has a nasty reaction to it....

So what I wondered is, should I give her some speedi beet with the chaff to bulk it out further or go for something like Hi-fibre cubes? I wasn't overly chuffed with the balancer as to be honest, I think it gave her a bit too much in energy requirements for the work she does over winter.

Any idea's??

S
 
You could try Hi Fibre cubes (I like Spillers ones) but they may not be enough if she's losing weight, if they don't do the trick then try conditioning cubes instead. Also useful is adding oil, it's high calories & shouldn't fizz her up at all.

Can you get her back out more? I wonder if she doesn't really like being in & is worrying the weight off? I may be totally off the mark there though, you know your horse & I don't!
 
Are you rugging her? Is she clipped? It could be that she's using all her calories to keep warm so it may be worth increasing rug weight or adding an under-rug.

Does she get ad-lib hay throughout the day as well? The hay is the first thing that I'd add if she isn't. Failing that I'd add some oil or maybe some linseed to the diet (gives a great coat).

I'd certainly look at the rugs though!
 
I agree with the other replies, maybe she is worrying some weight off, or is a bit cold. Droughty conditions in a stable block can be worse than actual cold weather. Is there another horse nearby that's worrying her?

I would definitely try some Speedibeet and some high fibre cubes. Many horses do well on Speedibeet and it is a laminitis trust approved feed.
 
Thanks for replies everyone...just to answer some questions....

She's not clipped and is fully rugged...ie: tonight she has a fleece and a 400g high neck stable rug on. When she's out she has a high neck heavyweight on. So I really don't think she's getting cold. I reckon she won't be able to stand up if I put any more on her!!! :D

5 hours is the absolute max they can be out in the field...and we've had to beg for that so no possibility of any more at the moment. (My friend Horsesports26 did a separate thread on the yard issues and turnout so won't go into it here). She does get adlib hay during the day aswell.

She's not in any way a worrier generally...but she did get really angry about being kept in 24/7...and I'm sure that didn't help. luckily she is totally back to normal now temperament wise.
Doris - the horse next to her can be a worrier at times and spang tends to settle him down quite a bit. They are 'husband and wife'!

Will try the oil....standard veggie oil or would soya be more beneficial?

carthorse - I did think of conditioning cubes, but they are mega high in protein and energy and I think could be too much?
 
Hi Sarah

conditioning cubes shouldn't make her fizzy, they're usually designed for horses that can be sharp & tend to worry or run off weight so creating too much energy would be counter-productive. I'd certainly give them a try if the hi-fibre nuts aren't enough.

For oil I'd use normal sunflower oil that you can get from the supermarket.

The other thing my YO sometimes feeds poor TBs is milk pellets. They seem to find them very tasty & put weight on quickly.
 
I would try speedybeet first, its high fibre and great for putting weight on :D and shouldn't fizz him up at all, then a slug of oil if you think a little bit more is needed, I normally just use veggie oil to start and if thats not giving enough then swap to one of the more valuable (nutritionally) oils, like soya or linseed.
 
She's not in any way a worrier generally...but she did get really angry about being kept in 24/7...and I'm sure that didn't help.
Click to expand...

The only time I've ever struggled to keep weight on my girl is when she was on a yard that restricted turnout. She hated it and became quite dangerous to handle. Despite masses of feed she didn't really fill back out until she went out 24/7 (different yard) on spring grass.

We're still at the yard that offers 24/7 turnout all year and she now chooses to spend quite a bit of time in her stable at this time of year with no problems at all. I really struggle to keep weight off her now, she's not rugged in anything but the worst weather and even then only in a 100g fill rug and during the day for turnout, not in the stable. I feed her ad-lib 12 hour soaked hay and a handful of Happy Hoof and she has yet to shed any weight this winter, in fact people keep telling me how well she's looking (banghead smilie needed!).
 
My girly can look a bit poor off grass, we had to move yards and the only one near suitable has no grass - just dirt turn out paddocks :( I have found grass nuts soaked to a pulp really help them look like they are still on grass and it helps a bit with weight and they really enjoy them and don't get fizzed up on them :D
 
thanks for all the replies...very helpful.

I'm sure I will be struggling to keep the weight off as usual when they are on a normal turnout regime...

As I said, she is definitely not thin or underweight but as she's consistently dropping, I need to nip it in the bud now.

Thanks again for the help.

S
 
it's likely that the stress of being in caused her to lose weight above anything else; you are feeding her a low-calorie, balanced diet and she is getting some exercise ridden and in the field, as well as rugging to the max...
still, losing a bit now means sher can afford to put a bit back on again in the spring/summer.
 
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