does this sound good to feed my skinny horse?

Question

i have a 20 yr old arab gelding who is difficult to keep weight on. he isn't deathly skinny, but i can feel is ribs pretty well through his winter coat. does this sound like a good way to start to get weight on him? he is worked very little. tell me if this sounds like too much or not enough.

one pound of oats
1/4 cup of rice bran oil
5 alfalfa hay cubes
approximately 3/4 of a bale of grass hay/day

he is fed this amount of hay throughout the whole day and he is on a regular worming schedule.

Answer 1

The oil will help-I have used a supplement called Weight Builder that's really helped my horse. His coat is shinier,too.

Answer 2

Sounds good. Unless the horse is doing something very strenuous, try bringing down the oats to 1/2 pound. Also, a great weight builder would be black sunflower seeds and raw pumpkin seeds. The sunflower seeds you can get at most feed stores. The pumpkin seeds are a little harder to find. You can get containers of them at Whole Foods. About a handful a day of the seed mix will help your horse. Both of the seeds are loaded with natural oils and fat to help your horse keep weight. Also, the sunflower seeds make their coat super shiny, so that's a plus :-).

The alfalfa you could drop. It's just sugar and protein and is definately not necessary for a horse that's not working much. Alfalfa is hard on their liver and kidneys if they don't have enough excercise.

Definately keep up with the hay. If you can, let him have it free-choice. Eating is how horses stay warm. If their guts are busy, unlike people, it warms the horse from the inside out. In the winter, especially for elderly horses, giving them as much grass hay as they'll eat is helpful. My horse is on free-choice Timothy/Orchard mix. Trust me, unless the grass is extremely green and leafy, he won't founder or get too fat.

Also, don't let anyone sway you on this: DO NOT use corn oil!!!! It is so bad for horses. It actually closes down the horse's cells so that the horse can't build healthy weight anyways. It's the equivalent of throwing a bunch of gum into an engine. It also causes dehydration.

Keep in mind too that Arabs are thin. My gelding is on weight and you can still see his ribs a little. Any more than that and he's fat. however, if you can easily feel and count his ribs then he's probably too skinny. You should not be able to see their ribs too much, but you should be able to feel them. If you can't find them, they're most likely too fat. There are exceptions though, but that's just a general guideline.

Oh! Keep your horsey warm at night too. When horse's get old they don't generate their own body heat as well. A medium weight blanket on the really cold nights would be helpful, if he doesn't already have one.

~ The others are definately right. He may have a worm problem or need his teeth done. Have an equine dentist do his teeth, not a vet. Vets do their teeth fine, but the horse won't get the full benefit of what he eats, which your horse needs. Go easy on the wormer though, too much will make him lose weight.

Good luck!

Answer 3

No- don't feed your horse that at all. Oats will cause your horse to loose weight because they are high protien- not high fat. Protien is wasted energy for a skinny horse. You need to switch to a complete feed such as- Safechoice, Strategy, or a Senior Feed. Don't feed rice bran oil- instead feed veggie, corn, or corn syrup. These have higher quantities of fat that your horse needs. And only feed 2 ounces a day. Also try a weight supplement such as Focus WT(a product by source) or Amplify(a nutrena weight builder.) These will also help improve coat condition. Also don't feed alfalfa cubes- for an older horse these are very hard to chew and can cause a senior to colic. Go with an alfalfa bale- feeding your horse one flake in the morning with two flakes of grass hay and the same amount at night.

Also call an equine dentist to come out and check your horses teeth and make sure they are floated. If your horses teeth are to long this will cause him to drop most of his grain and not chew properly causing him to colic.

Start with new feed regimine very slow- start with small quantities and build up to the exact amount your vet recommends. On average a horse should get .05 lbs of feed per 100 lbs of body weight.

Good Luck and happy trails.

Answer 4

Senior feed is a wonderful supplement to any aging horse's diet, and there is zero risk for founder. Try a 3 lb coffee canfull twice a day instead of the oats. I would also switch to a good-quality alfalfa hay (second or third cutting) for one meal a day. Give him two flakes if they are small, one if large.
I doubt he is getting enough protein from the grass hay. He should only be eating 2 flakes of the grass hay. Keep up with some kind of oil (corn oil is best, I think).
Be sure to blanket him, even if he is in a stall, and be sure he has a bed of deep shavings to keep him warm and dry.

Answer 5

First a major word of caution on the alfalfa cubes. I strongly recomend that you soak them in warm water and create a mash. I have seen a horse choke on alfalfa cubes before. Just put them in a bucket add some warm water and let them sit for about 5 minutes then break them apart. This is a good method for adding weight, I used them on my TB mare who had the same problem. You can also contact purina to get advice from a nutritionalist, here is the link to the web page.
http://horse.purinamills.com/ask/

Answer 6

Try switching him to a senior feed, gradually of course. He may not be getting everything he needs....older horses have different nutritional requirements in order to maintain weight. Hay still needs to make up the majority of his diet, so don't replace the hay with feed, just supplement it. Talk with your vet about the best diet for him, but senior feeds usually work very well.

Answer 7

That sounds good. Also, "winter coat" tells me that it's cold out. Something that will help is if you put a blanket on him. I have a 11 year old gelding that is difficult to keep weight on, and we've recently started feeding him double what the other horses get and he has a blanket on any time it's under 62 degrees F out. He's started to put weight back on nicely. He's also separated from the others during feeding time since he eats slow and they tend to like to steal his food. Good luck! Also, beet pulp and anything else with protein should help.

Answer 8

First I would have his teeth checked by the vet. You've got him on a worming rotation, so that's good. One type of feed that I would recommend for an older horse is Purina's Equine Senior. It's formulated for older horses and has all the vitamins/minerals necessary to maintain the older population. Feed according to the instructions on the bag.

Answer 9

u should buy equine senior... we have alot of old polo and race horses that have trouble gaining weight.... it has worked wonders and helps them gain back the trouble places old horses lose weight on(like withers, back,neck, hips). they look young now.... oats are just a filler, they have no nutritional value-goes right threw them, unless they are crimped oats. the equine senior also helps replace hay for some older horses that have bad teeth(older horses are at great risk of infection and dying if they have their teeth done-weak heart and anesthetic slows down the heart too much). i would highly recommend this feed if u want Ur horse to grain weight, i have had alot of experience with older horses and spent years trying to find a feed that would help them keep weight on...... rice bran oil or corn oil should help with weight too, as well as the alfalfa cubes.... good luck

Answer 10

I used Nutrena Progressive Senior feed along with oats and Progressive fat supplement on my 29 year old horse. You can also use a supplement called Weight builder if you want to get even better results.