Skinny

[Painting Horses]

OKie i have 3 horses a TB, Paint, and Belgin they are all skinny, not deathly but you can see about 5 or 6 riibs :(. I've started to feed then Alfalfa 3 times a day along with a grain bucket with fatty acids. They've been wormed and have all there shots. I wanted to ask, should i keep riding them tokepp them fit? or will that burn too much fo the fat they need? Please help :( my poor babies.

[alliecatalex]

I know you can add oil to their grain to help bring on extra calories, and senior feed is higher in calories then many other grains. Have you tried giving them weight builder? You might want to try that and see how that works also. I dont know about the riding though, you could probably still ride them, but keep it at a minimum until they gain some weight. Can you post pictures so we can see exactly how skinny they are? With my mare you can see some of her ribs, but I wouldnt conisder her skinny at all.

[Jessey]

I would agree, a cup of veggie oil a day really helps pile on weight and is a good cheap option too. I would carry on riding but just don't do too much, keep it to a minimum. Like Alliecatalex said, senior or conditioning feeds would help, but do remember that too much grain can cause other problems so hay, hayledge and things like short chopped forage will need to be available too.

best of luck

J x

[Painting Horses]

I have a link with pics of my babys that might help?
http://www.vampirefreaks.com/profile.php?user=Umgazi_Ranch
I know my mare is skinny, yes i do give them weight builder and i'll add that veggie oil might even go do that right now. i'll do the link again just incase the first one doesn't work.


http://www.vampirefreaks.com/profile.php?user=Umgazi_Ranch

[Painting Horses]

Sorry frgot to add that on each of them (hard to tell in pics) you can see at lease 4inch up and down of about 4 or 5 ribs. :(

[CrazyDaisy]

They could be alot worse I have seen horse much much worse off. Even though they are a bit bony it should be fine if you watch the amount each gets. Do you seperate when they are fed? Have you tried beet pulp? It is nothing but pure fat and that would help. The thing you must remember with it is not to give it dry let it soak in alot of water over night or they will colic. Don't over feed either or that could make matter worse as well. Riding should help build muscles so I would still take it easy but get them out a little.

[Jessey]

I noticed in your pictures there is not alot of grass around (do you have any elsewhere?) I bet in the sunshine state good/lush grass is pretty hard to come by ;)

When you say you are feeding alfalfa 3 x a day I am guessing thats alfa hay? thats so nice, wish we could get it here but its Sooo expensive and rare. Do they have some kind of forage available to them all the time? Horses really are trickle feeders and will benifit from that if at all possible, or if you can even splitting thier current rations into 5 or 6 a day will help, even with out increasing the ammounts.

They really don't look all that bad from the pictures, I haven't seen my horses ribs in about 6 months now and they are all on a diet!! its always one way or the other, its so hard to judge and manage. It might also be worth checking their teeth are all OK.

Best of luck

J x