Feeding Advice Please

[AMANDAWAS]

I have a 15-17 yr old shire on loan with a view to buy he is underweight and needs condition. I was thinking of feeding him baileys No 4 conditioning cubes with Dengie Alpha oil, please let me know what you think. Once upto weight and condition I would feed him a veteran feed. He has lost quite a lot of condition over the winter and really needs some tlc. I am first time horse owner and all the different feeds that are available are confusing me a bit.

[Afellpony]

The first thing you should do is worm him to be on the safe side (unless you've done that already). Feed plenty of hay. You may find that Baileys Conditioning Cubes give him too much energy. If that's the case, then you'll have to find a feed which puts weight on and keeps him relatively calm. Why dont you start off feeding something which is suitable for veteran horses as what's in those feeds would be suitable for him I should think. Speak to the feed manufacturer and they'll be able to advise you if this particular feed is suitable for your horse's needs. I would also have his teeth looked at while your at it to be on the safe side. If any of his teeth are bad, this will prevent him from eating properly.

[Pink's lady]

17yrs old is really quite elderly for a shire and he may turn out to be a very poor doer and very expensive to feed:eek: I don't know how long you have him on trial for but I would definintly want to find out if his skinnyness is just because it's the end of winter, or if he truely is a poor doer. My friend had an old shire (19yrs) who was just impossible to keep the weight on near the end.:(

Like Afellpony said, firstly you really want to rule out any other problems that mean you're just wasting money by throwing food at him, so get his teeth done by a good Equine Dentist or Vet (cost about £30) and make sure he's properly wormed (he should have been done recently with a moxidectin or fenbendazole (5day course) for encysted red-worm and praziqunatel for tape worm).

Then you need to think about getting some fibre in to him. They are designed to eat fibre and plenty of it, so try and make it as high energy fibre as possible.

Alfa-A Oil is the highest energy fibre you can get and very good for weight without fizz. (occasionally some horses react badly and are hyper on alfalfa)

Sugarbeet is high fibre and keep them warm and great for slow condition without fizz (although again some horses go sky high on sugarbeet or the mollasses in it (in which case Speedibeet is non-molassed)). It's also cheap and tasty and you can feed loads.

If the fibre isn't going to be enough then you start to add in concentrates. Barely is good for condition (although some horses go mad on it), as is wheat. Oats tends to fizz them more than condition. The form they come in (how it's been cooked) affects the way they react - giving either slow release conditioning engery or fast release whizz-bang energy. Most of the conditioning mixes are specially cooked mix of wheat and barely to give condition without fizz. Look for cubes rather than mixes - they've got less molasses added. There are a couple of different brand makes but they're all similar - Bailies No 4 condition cubes, dodson and horrel Build Up Cubes etc. It doesn't really matter - look for ones that say 'cindition without the fizz' or similar.

Oil is also good for slow-release energy -it can be feed as pure oil (i.e vegatable oil) or something like Alfa-Oil which has added oil.

Another thing to consider is a pro-biotic to optimise digestion. Kalli was quite under-wiegth as I got her Pink Powder (by NAF) and it's done her the world of good. It's about £22 for a box which will last 2months and is really more a short term supplement.

Lastly, hay is essential. Until the grass is through and growing properly you will need to supplement it with good quality hay or haylage (haylage is tastier so they eat more and put more weight on).

I also bought a bag of Reedigrass recently and was very impressed. It's just good quality chopped dried grass. Smells lovely and the horses really like it, plus isn't high-energy. You would maybe bring him in during the day for a couple of hours and give him a big bucket to munch through.

Lastly, keep him warm. A middle-weight rug on colder or wet days will keep him warm but hopefully not sweaty.

[Jessey]

Ditto Pinks Lady there, start out with fibre then add hard feed and additional oil later if need be :D Shire eat loads so I would definatly ensure he has free access to as much hay or haylage as he wants all day and night unless you are blessed with lots of grass still ;) :D

For fibre bucket feeds I really like the Alfa range, and dried grass (redi grass, just grass etc) and also grass nuts and alfa or speedy beet :D

To gain weight horses need about 3% of their body weight per day in food (2% to maintain weight, 1.5% to loose it) 100% fibre (this includes grass) is fine but if you do need to add hard feed a max should be 25% of his diet, with the other 75% still being forage.

J x