| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| jaj |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 6:09:29 PM
K never does well over winter particularly the last 4 or 5 years since she hit her late teens. She's no worse than usual despite her recent weaning from S but as she won't wear a rug these days I feel I'm on a constant uphill struggle with her to keep weight on  .
Before she was in foal she was on the maximum amount of Spillers conditioning mix, alpha a oil, speedibeet, soya oil and pink powders but was still fairly lean. The last year or so she's been on D & H stud mix instead of the conditioning mix but now she no longer has a baby to feed I'm looking at a different veteran mix and wondered what everyone else uses?
I'm going to pick up some barley rings next week as I've heard many recommendations for them. What else can I do to chub her up a bit? She has ad lib hay and grass turnout all day, I'm not riding her yet as she's not shod so she's just pootling around with her pony mate at the moment.
Thank you in advance  !
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| 21 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| pinkvboots |
Posted - 15 Feb 2010 : 2:20:33 PM
A friend of mine has an old horse and his very fussy, she bought a bag of Eqi Jewel its not cheap about £30 but she only needed two bags and he looks amazing,you have to work out and weigh how much you feed everyday, now if he looks like his dropping of she will put him back on it for a while. we used to feed the oldies on soaked fibre cubes and sugar beet as they can eat quite allot of it through the day and its easy to eat no chewing involved. |
| jaj |
Posted - 14 Feb 2010 : 3:06:06 PM
Thanks so much everybody! Loads of fab advice on here to read through and digest.
She's been a bit under the weather for the last week or so, not surprising really after all the upheaval of the last month ~ but being mean to her field companion today so guess she's feeling a bit better  !
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| Lindsay |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 6:45:21 PM
My old boy came home underweight and he has put on 50kg since September. He is on ad lib hay and is fed daily divided into two, 1 round scoop Winergy Conditioing, 1 round scoop spiller senior conditioning, 1 round scoop alfa a oil and 1/2 round scoop (unsoaked) alfa beet he is looking wonderful and the weight is slowly creeping on. He is 29 though! Just find what works and stick with it. Good luck. |
| mogwai |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 4:13:13 PM
Poor Missy (rising 2 year old, so different to your girl i know) lost a lot of weight at the hospita. I didn't want to wack her full of protein or cereals, and alot of the conditioning feeds had stuff in that i'm trying to avoid at the moment with her lv (soya, alfalfa, mollasses). So she gets a huge bucket of dried grass (hers is "graze on" which is reletively high protein, but there is readigrass etc as well) and she's been switched to haylage instead of hay which she has ad lib. I have also started adding linseed cake into her feed too. She seems to be doing really well on this and her coat looks better and she's filling out a little too (although this may be just from being home! however, she's on box rest anbd she's very calm and happy. she's nevere been stabled before for long periods so we're doing ok!)
Topspec feeds are brilliant and have a fabulous helpline. I've always used their conditioning cubes prior to this. They don't have added vits or minerals so you can add in as much or little to an already balanced diet without worrying about giving them an overdose of certain nutrients (sadly it's choc full of soya which i';m trying to avoid in large amounts at the moment)
Roseanne, ad-lib hard feed!!!! WOW!
I'm sure your girl will put the weight on once she's chilled at home for a bit. His royal highness must have taken quite a toll on her energy reserves, looking at the size of him!
Ros |
| Roseanne |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 2:51:20 PM
We used to do the boiled barley mixed with linseed (you buy it in a bag of seeds and steam boil it with the barley) and it was a great base for the feeds; however we did have an industrial sized barley boiler which made enough for several days for 5 - 10 horses!
When Lance was a bit rangy he was on barley with conditioning cubes plus some ordinary mix and soya oil with chaff. In summer the barley was swapped for beet but they weren't fed much hard feed in the summer.
Nowadays mine are on ad lib haylage or good hay and have rolled barley from the farmer with their horse and pony cubes, beet, seaweed and soya oil. Like oats, barley should really be freshly rolled to get the best of the goodness. The rolled stuff from the feed merchant has lost quite a bit of goodness.
At the local show hunter yard they have a mixed feed delivered. It has molasses already in and the horses have ad-lib hard feed that's fairly sweet and fattning. The show hunters are always fat as bloaters!! |
| Smiler |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 2:36:48 PM
I also like D & H build up mix did not fizz my mare up , i also use to give her a large bucket of ready grass in her stable to munch on with her hay after her eve meal ,
you could try top spec conditioning flakes which are also very good ! |
| TanyaB |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 2:15:23 PM
Anne, have pm'd you. |
| vjc |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 10:06:03 AM
My Old Girl Tara (32yrs in march) still manages spillers stud nuts which when added to fibergy and all softened with a heap of kwick beet seems to keep her in very good condition for her age, she is a slow eater but still manages to clean up. I swear by spillers products although they are a little costly now. |
| Anne C |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 09:42:12 AM
Tanya, do you just feed the mash or with their other feed? How much is it?
Thanks
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| TanyaB |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 09:08:33 AM
Ditto Babs re Rowan Barbary feeds soft and soak range, it is a fabulous feed for both getting weight on and then maintaining it, as they do they do three types, green, blue and red bag; the red bag you could use initally for getting weight on and then either the blue or green bag for maintenance; I personally have used the blue bag all winter and my horses have never looked better, and they absolutely LOVE it. You soak it to make a mash and in the cold winter you can make it with warm water and it smells delicious! |
| jackiedo |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 08:00:17 AM
I consulted a nutritionist re my skinny elderly mare and was told Alfalfa, sugarbeet and oats or barley, with a mineral supplement if your pasture was deficient |
| tamila |
Posted - 13 Feb 2010 : 07:47:43 AM
May I suggest that you give Roger Hatch at Trinity Consultants a call on 01243551766 as he has a fantastic feed called golden meal of which you only need to feed a little. I have used this sucessfully over the last ten years when Rimmy came through the winter quite badly. |
| RiffRaff |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 10:42:14 PM
When it gets to winter i know which ones are likely to drop off so i buy a dried grass and give them a bucket of that either as a thirs feed in the middle of the day or for breakfast. My old boy used to graze on it but my greedy boys eat it in one go i also put half a scoop of hi fibre nuts in just to entice the pickier ones. Also i have been using linseed oil and have seen a great improvement in muscle condition.
Another way i go is to feed d&h build up cubes which really puts on weight around the middle some people find it fizzez their horse up but ive not seen it with mine. Its all trial and error there are so many feeds out there and different things work for different horses. Ive never had so many feed bins in my feed room as i have now as each of my horses seem to need something different! |
| Fran E |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 10:08:49 PM
Try adding oil(sunflower. lidl's is gd value) to her feed it has approx double the energy of oats, is easily digested and palatable, also helps with coat condition too |
| rosie |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 9:49:04 PM
I'd try her on rolled barley? |
| georgiauk |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 9:36:33 PM
Swap the hay for some good quality haylage, fibre based feeds are good for digestion and help to keep them warm hopefully eliminating the need for high protein feeds. |
| Meggie-Lu |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 9:06:28 PM
I have heard a theory that if you feed them parsnips it helps, dnt no how true this is though. |
| LesleyA |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 8:45:28 PM
I've used Barley Rings along with my usual feed in the past for weight gain on a skinny filly that I wanted to show with really good results but I soaked them in warm water as she preferred them like that as they are very hard and took her forever to eat. |
| s.jade |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 8:17:48 PM
See if you can get hold of some whole barley, and boil it - works wonders and gives them a fantastic coat. When my pony came back at the end of November from loan, she was condition scored by my vet as a 1 
On vets advice, I feed her Alfa A, sugar beet, and whole barley with a handful of barley rings, all mixed, and 2 scoops twice daily.
She had a very mild colic on Boxing day (nothing to do with food, she had grass sickness 4 years ago and is now prone to colicky episodes) and because we're paranoid about her gut function the vet came, she scored her at a 2.5 in just under 4 weeks! |
| Mrs Vlacq |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 7:26:33 PM
We've found oldies with poor teeth do well on fast fibre (rowan and barberry) - and 1 with a sugar beet intolerance did well on ready mash extra. Not cheap but digestible
Could you go back to basics and give her beet, oats and micronized mixed flakes, plus oils and balancer if you liked.
Then grass nuts or fast fibre overnight.
Sumo is good too - slapped the weight on a stressy TB I knew.
I'm sure you'll sort it |
| mouse |
Posted - 12 Feb 2010 : 6:23:06 PM
Hi there
I've been getting the weight back on my girl after she came back from loan 70kg underweight. She's been on Simple Systems grass nuts, unmollassed beet and their Total Eclipse. I've also added Baileys number 1 for extra pallatability and extra weight gain properties. She seems to be going in the right direction and has put on 35kg in 2 months
Good luck
Mouse |
