I show all around with my 7 year old AQHA gelding. He has ALWAYS been such a hardkeeper. He is warmed regularly, gets his teeth done once a year, routine vet checks, and fed about 6 flakes of grass alfalfa hay a day with 2 scoops of a high quality grain a day.
He started to look really good this winter... He was at a very good weight... not too fat... not too skinny but since show season is approaching I have been riding him more and for longer periods of time.
My horse naturally sweats a lot too so I am worried that he will just sweat his weight right off of him once it start to really heat up.
I want to add a supplement that will help him keep/gain weight. I want something that is healthy and that won''t make him "hot".
My friend put her mare on weightbuilder and she claims that her horse got really hot off of that stuff and never came back down to her normal self... I don''t want to have to deal with that!
Any suggestions would be much appriciated. Thanks! : )
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Start with more hay and the peace and quiet to eat it. Get a weight tape and find out how much he weighs. He should normally get 2.5% of his body weight in hay/day. Weigh the hay he is getting and see if its enough. If not, increase it gradually to 3% of his body weight. More fiber is the first and foremost goal. Since hay is 3/4''s of his diet anyway, that''s the place to start. And water! Feed 1tbn. of iodized salt/day, because it drives thirst. With sweat losses like you describe, don''t be afraid to increase that to 2-3tbns./day. Keep tabs on his water consumption and keep him hydrated throughout.
A horse can get into a situation where he is fooled that he is hydrated, when actually, he is not and can get into serious trouble fast if he goes past the point of no return, so encourage water always.
Alfalfa cubes will help up the protein and I''d go to one scoop of oats and replace the other half with beet pulp soaked and rinsed. Flax, which is fat with the omega balance just right for a horse....fresh ground....4-6oz/day. Minerals, no blocks.....fed....make sure he gets them. Yeast for healthy gut.
Put all this in a bucket and add water to make it soupy, more water consumed and fresh water nearby because the salt will have him drinking more.
This will give him the added nutrition he needs without the iron, sugar and starch provided in store bought bags. All three of these baddies will take him towards IR/Cushings. This is the stuff that makes him hot. Avoid anything molasses. Once he gets out on grass, things will start to improve faster.
Be patient. It does take longer to gain weight than to lose it and keep that weight tape handy and keep checking and keep adjusting gradually and accordingly.
Speak to your vet about the selenium in your area and if it needs supplementing. If on a hay only diet, you also need 1000IU of Vit E/day. It comes in a powder form with Selenium in it. They are absorbed better if paired together. (E+Se at Uckele.com) If in powder form, add 1tbn. of olive oil to it because the E needs the oil to be absorbed and Se needs the E, so think of them like the 3 Musketeers. So put them together before adding them to the bucket as well.
You can add salad fixin''s to that pail as well. An apple a day to keep the vet away, 2 carrots will also give him 16,000IU''s of Vit. A. in its natural/nontoxic form. Even a couple handfuls of grass from the other side of the fence.....the stuff he only gets to watch grow.
Keep on top of the trim on his feet. The operative word is "balanced" whether under a shoe or not. A horse has 5 hearts and 4 of them are in his feet. If they are not working properly, the one in his chest is working harder than ever to compensate. Know it and always fight thrush.
Take note of what you fed last fall when he looked good. Did this carry him over the winter? Did he only start losing when you started back riding? Work your way up gradually increasing until you know that he is "holding" his weight under this increased workload. Then you will know how much more it takes to handle it. A month before you start back riding, start increasing his food to handle it. The tank of energy stores must be full when you start exercise. That''s all you get. When its depleted, it takes 2 days to recover it. If its depleted, he leaves glucose and starts pulling on fat to feed himself the energy that you are asking for. Since its not enough and he''s losing weight, then he''s robbing himself to please you. He is already on a hurt for these things. He should always have them, just taper up for the riding season a bit ahead of time and taper down when the snow starts flying to maintain him. With patience and observation, you should be able to establish a winter and summer diet that he needs.
Don''t worry about the sweat. Its when they stop sweating that you''re in trouble. Just keep encouraging water consumption.
- I keep my show horse on a homemade feed with oats, corn, soybean meal, and alfalfa pellets. And grass hay. But if hes a hard keeper try adding a flake of alfalfa hay or a double handful of that dehydrated alfalfa to his feed. Rice bran and beer is good too. The darker the better (beer). Just pour it on his feed. Most like it. I also feed mine MSM, GLC 5500 for joints and GLEAM AND GAIN year round and hes a little overweight but in great shape and thats how they like them these days.
- We have always used this type of powder called rice bran it works like a charm and keeps their coats nice and shiny too! We normally buy our rice bran at producers.
- Rice bran works really well for my horses too. We''ve taken in a few rescues that were underweight and rice bran put weight on them pretty quickly. Don''t feed too much though, you don''t want him to get fat ;)
- Beet pulp or alfalfa or Timothy pellets soaked in water to make mash. They''ll love it and its not to expensive. Also about the rice bran WARNING TO ALL it can make your horse colic and if used to much it ties up their intestines. It does keep weight on and gets them fat real quick but it''s not good for them. It''s actually a product that was just in a vet study and they found out the above. It''s obviously not going to happen to ever horse but a great percentage. It''s better just to not risk it and go with the beat pulp or pellets! :) Hope he can get some fat on! Good luck & hopefully I helped!
- You do not say how big your horse is, whether it is field or stable kept and whether it has grazing access too.
I know that some horses tend to sweat up - I had one pony who would be dripping wet after 5 minutes of being tacked up! It was a nervous thing with him.
If he is stable kept could you clip him out? Or if he is field kept could you clip him out and give him a waterproof and keep him indoors at night or in bad weather?
Before you start feeding supplements, you could try increasing the hard feed, given with more bran and roughage, sugar beet pulp and flax seed oil or similar. "good quality grain" is hardly helpful to us as we do not know what that consists of, or how much a scoop weighs. Increase the number of feeds if possible, and if you cannot give it to him, mix an extra feed (except the sugarbeet) and keep it ready for someone else to give to him midday. Smaller feeds more often is better than one large feed.
I suggest you take some measurements - length, height, girth and loins, and then take photos of him from front, back and sides and take this information to the feed merchant who is better qualified to advise on what to feed. - 6 flakes a day... Wow. Your horse should take lessons from mine.
Try doing a flake of pure alfalfa. They love it plus it''s sugary - Rice bran, flax seed, beet pulp, or vegetable oil. Start slowly and build up. No e of these make a horse "hot" or contribute to metabolic disorders. Keep in mind, some horses just weren''t meant to keep much weight on no matter what. If he''s fit and healthy, that''s the important thing.
- Purina strategy or healthy edge 1 scoop twice a day, then 1/2 scoop of purina enrich 32 in the grain and 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in the grain I know it sounds crazy but it works like a charm. I had a baby that got strangles and then colic, she was skinny as all get out we gave her this and she looked great in 2 months. It also helps tho if you feed more often bcuz horses like to graze and always be eating feed him the same amount but 3 or 4 times a day. And if your worried about him sweating and not drinking enough give him some salt in his food just a little bit or if it''s hot dump a scoop of Gatorade mix in his water I use it at every show. And always make sure he has a mineral block and salt lick.
- there are lots of products to mix with hardfeed, just search it up, some are expensive . try weight keeper
- You could put corn oil on his grain or hay, It is a great fattener and does not give the hot that grain will I have given 1/2 cup per day.
- Try Purina 10% fat 10% protein this works fairley quickly in putting weight on horses and it also makes their coat, mane and tail very shiney and healthy.
- So, how much is "two scoops"? Your horse should be fed according to the weight of the food and the weight of the horse or desired weight of the horse. Your starting place will be on the food bag. Look at it and then after a while, you can alter the need for food as needed for your horse because they are all different.
First off, I would say he is not getting enough feed. I would give him at least twice as much as he is getting. If his work load is really heavy, you not only need to increase the feed but give him a third feeding everyday. You could add some soaked beet pulp to his diet as this is a forage type food and is well digested and adds cool calories. Hay should be free choice 24/7 with a white salt block and clean water available all the time.
That would be my starting place. I don''t use oils and chemicals and weight gainers and all that garbage. If it is not OK for me to eat it, I won''t give it to my horses.
