My horse needs to gain weight!! What should I do?

Question

I have a 23 year old senior mare, who is an morab (arab-morab corss). She needs to gain to make me happy about 50 lbs. She gets the best hay, senior feed that costs like 17 dollars a bag, complete horse sweet feed, and oats. Once in a while she gets cracked corn. It doesn't help that she is 7ft long, and has the longest legs in the world. She is all legs!! And she has the longest abdomne I have ever seen!! So I know that contributes to it, but it is not all of it. She has good teeth and is in good health. She is stall fed since the horse that we board is a huge pig and will chase her out of her feed. And she is wormed. So I don't know what to do with her. Or is there something I should be feeding her?

Horse experts, please help.

Answer 1

Up her amount of grain, or create a pack of senior supplements for her. Can be found in pack of smart pack equine and in other horse magazines!

Hope this Helps!

Answer 2

You can put the weight back on him but your going to have to feed him extra. It's a lot harder to put weight back on an older horse. Make sure he doesn't get cold because then all his fat will be keeping him warm and not putting weight on him. It sounds like you have him on a pretty good diet but you may have to add some supplements or increase the amount of food he's getting. If he's isn't being worked much then he might be lacking muscle which can also make a horse skinny. Take him for walks (lead him if he can't be ridden). 30 minutes a day should be enough. Take him up slight slopes and maybe add a little trotting or cantering if he is comfortable with that. Some older horses can still be galloping around cross country courses when they are 28 years old, so I'm not sure what sort of work load he has. hope this helps.

Answer 3

First, I would cut out the sweet feed and oats. Cracked corn and oats will be impossible for her to digest properly; so buying them is a waste of money. Senior feed is a complete feed so you do not have to top dress with another food. I would up her senior food and feed her 3-4 times a day. Purina and Nutrena make the best balanced and palatable senior feeds on the market. Do not increase the amount of hay just senior feed; you cannot founder a horse on senior food. You can add 1/4 of a cup a day of corn oil to her diet and in 2 weeks increase to 1/2 cup a day (if you see her stool getting too soft decrease the amount of oil being fed). Do not increase corn oil over 1/2 cup a day as this can founder her.
I do agree with Funchy that Power Packing her is a good idea. A Power Pack (5 day Panacur double dose) will run you between $50-$80; but it is well worth the money.

Answer 4

There are several different types of weight building supplements available. Also, another thing you can try is to slowly start adding corn oil to her diet. This will not only help her to gain weight, but it will help her coat (though, considering the time of year, it might be hard to notice unless you blanket her so she doesn't get winter hair).

I guess that's another thing, along with considering how much energy you're giving her you should do a check on how much energy she's expending. If she's out in the cold she will build a winter coat but will still have to expend more energy than if she were blanketed or stalled in cold weather. Also, if she's been ridden a lot for long periods of time, you could try cutting back a bit on her exercise for a while.

Also, when you say she has "good teeth" is that to say that she has been floated recently, or that you have felt them? Horse should be floated once a year, especially at her age. Does she drop a lot of grain when she eats?

Answer 5

If you're giving her Senior food, I wouldn't go mixing in oats and corn. Bagged feed is already balanced nutrition.

What you can do is add forage to her diet. Make sure she ALWAYS has hay 24-7. Sometimes it isn't the cost of the hay that matters but the quantity. You can also soak some beet pulp for her to have with one of her meals.

My vet agrees with me on the use of oil for extra calories. Add 1/2 -1 cup of oil to her feed twice a day. Veg oil is fine.

If she's still not gaining weight, she might have some worms your last dewormer missed. Do you rotate drugs? And if that still doesn't work, I like to do the Panacur 5-day Powerpack for really thin horses.

And if all else fails, consult your vet. Horses may get underlying problems (cushings, IR, etc) that make it hard for them to gain weight.

Answer 6

I'm not an expert, but, from experience, try weight builder and maybe a cup or two extra of feed around noon, kinda like a snack. I had a YOUNGER horse lose weight, didn't matter what I did until I started feeding a noontime meal, with hay, and within 4 weeks there was a significant change.

Answer 7

Morabs are really great horses. I love them.
First off be careful and to get weight gain you do not just up the amount of grain as you risk cloic or lamanitis by doing that.
If you want to increase calories with out getting a hot hyper horse add fat to her diet.
You can use stabalized rice bran it is a powder you top dress the grain with. Works great and keeps well.
Or you can add oil to her diet just top dress it over the feed work up to one cup per feeding. Any vegetable oil will do.
By adding fat you add calories with out risking lamanitis or other problems.
Beet plup works well also. It is a shredded pulp and you soak it in water and then you can add to the feed or let them eat it. It is very safe and they can eat a tone of the stuff and not have any problems.
Free choice hay and pelleted feed with a top dress of rice bran is what I use on my ex-race horses to get them to gain weight.
I also use beet plup. It does not make them gain really fast but steady and they are rideable durring the process as none of these things will make the hot or hyper.
Good luck with your mare.

Answer 8

Senior feed, Lixotonic, wheat bran, and alfalfa cubes. Be sure to wet it down, just before giving it. The cubes will soften when they get wet. Also keep giving grass hay. Be careful with too much grain, can cause colic. The senior feed is good, Lixotinic in case liver not doing well, blood test will tell you. The cup or two of wheat bran with the feed will help to keep the digestion regular and horses like it. The alflafa cubes boost the protein of the grass hay and when you wet them down, they are easier to chew. Be sure to do all changes slowly, not to fast or will cause colic. Be sure to keep plenty of water available.

Answer 9

I had a horse who never put on weight but then I found feeding a cup a day of soya oil put on condition without the starch of grains, it's also good for digestion so you don't get the increased colic risk that increasing grains would result in. Molasis is good but as it's a sugar it's easy in, easy out. Worm her with ivermectin too to knock out any potential parasites.

Answer 10

Sometimes older horses do have a hard time gaining weight. She might just be built that way. We have a horse that isnt old but that is just the way he is built. Beet pulp has worked best for us. Soak it in warm water before you feed it. If she is not being ridden a whole lot this will probably keep weight on her.
Good luck!