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Veteran
Posts: 160
 
Location: Texas | I've got a really nice 5 year old who I am feeding a gallon of purina strategy in the morning and at night. He also gets a nice chunk of coastal hay in the morning and at night. He is exercised daily for barrels. I feel like he needs a little more weight on him. Does anyone have any suggestions for doing that? I would like to change out the coastal for alfalfa but I am afraid that would be too much protein daily for him. Thanks
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Gettin Jiggy Wit It
Posts: 2734
 
| I have a two horses completely on alfalfa because they have to be off of hay. They are fed alfalfa cubes and Chaffhaye. They get about 18 lbs a day plus a couple pounds of a pelleted feed. Your best bet would be to weigh your feed. Weigh the container you are feeding. A lot of feeds have a minimum feed rate of 4 to 6 lbs or. .5% to 1% of body weight. There should be a chart on the bag. Lastly I really like rice barn for adding weight. I've had good results with it and alfalfa. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1520
Location: Illinois | I started using the Nutrena Empower Boost rice bran nuggets and they put weight on really well and you don't have to use much. Fills in topline on old horses really well too. We have a 30+ year old arab with no molars that boards with us and no amount of grain or soaked hay would fill her in, but she maintained comfortable weight. Added some of the Boost to her feed and everything started filling in. Her topline is rounded instead of sunken in and her rear has filled out. She just gets 1 cup am and pm. A bag is like $32 and lasts a month. It worked well for my 24 year old too, filled his topline in really well with just 2 cups too. I liked it vs other rice brans just because it comes in a nugget that they seem to eat up instead of the more powdered stuff that often was left behind. I even tasted a nugget myself and its really tasty, I'm weird like that I taste everything I feed them lol |
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Go Get Em!
Posts: 13503
Location: OH. IO | redmanth - 2017-11-28 4:05 PM
I've got a really nice 5 year old who I am feeding a gallon of purina strategy in the morning and at night. He also gets a nice chunk of coastal hay in the morning and at night. He is exercised daily for barrels. I feel like he needs a little more weight on him. Does anyone have any suggestions for doing that? I would like to change out the coastal for alfalfa but I am afraid that would be too much protein daily for him. Thanks
Is he on pasture or any other forage? |
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | I have only been around coastal when we buy something from TX and they ship them with a bale. It has never impressed me, but I understand that is all that is available in some areas. Just stemmy bla and I have heard it can cause impaction. With the grain, what do you consider a gallon? Grain should be measured in lbs and if I were to take a gallon milk jug for instance and fill it with grain, to me that is WAY too much. I have gotten to a point where I just hate bagged grain. If using grain to gain weight you just have to add so dang much and I believe it is terrible for their hind gut.
I have had to put weight on several horses-oldies, sick etc. My go to is free choice hay-the best quality you can afford. Maybe add 4 flakes of alfalfa a day. Then if you still feel he needs something extra I have the best luck with soaked alfalfa pellets, beet pellets/shreds (non molassass type) and if you still need more, just a cup of Amplify. The latter is a pure fat supplement and a little goes a long way. |
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | Definately needs more forage HAY..not pellets cubes or anything.. good ole free choice hay
also some horses do not do well on strategy |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 534
Location: Ohio girl moved to PA | More hay, less grain. When i found my guy he was 300 pounds underweight and the only thing that worked was unlimited hay, Tribute Kalm Ultra, which he got 3 pounds AM and PM, along with DAC bloom and oil. and let me tell you the DAC did WONDERS for him. It added the weight excatly where he needed it, top line filled in beautifully, butt plumped up and he looked like a tank. If your guy doesnt need that much more weight i would just suggest the bloom. It's very reasonably priced and my guy loved the taste of it. Good luck! i know how frustrating it can be. |
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 Reaching for the stars....
Posts: 12708
| More high quality hay. I have found over the years that the better the hay the better the horse does on it. They eat it all and assimilate it better. Working horses require 1-2% of their body weight to maintain, so closer to the 2% would be needed to gain.
I removed all grain products from all but my older hard keeping broodmare this year. I replaced their grain poundage with alfalfa. My guys are all phat fat and full of energy without being stupid.
And remember that even the crazy expensive alfalfa is cheaper per pound than bagged feeds. |
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Veteran
Posts: 160
Location: Texas | He isn't on any pasture. He just gets coastal. The protein is the concern is what I have on strategy and alfalfa. Strategy is 14% and the alfalfa I am looking at is 18%. Is that to much protein? Will that add fat? |
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Expert
Posts: 1520
Location: Illinois | If he's getting used he can handle a higher protein content. I'd add some alfalfa to his diet and see how he does on that. Probably shouldn't feed a gallon of strategy either really. I'd decrease the grain and add a fat supplement like the rice bran or amplify like suggested above. My 24 year old pasture pet eats straight alfalfa hay, a few cups of timothy pellets soaked, and his feed is 30% protein, so no you're not going to over protein him. My barrel horses are on straight alfalfa and a feed that is 14%. Maybe just try a different grain as well, something higher in fat on its own. I use ProElite High Fat and only have to feed 1/2 of a 3qt scoop twice a day, its 12% fat. I'd be finding a solution to feed less grain though for sure, or he'll be higher risk for digestive issues like ulcers. Finding something higher fat that you can feed less of is going to help your wallet too, feeding less grain covers the cost of he alfalfa you want to add. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | When was the last time he was wormed? |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | oija - 2017-11-29 11:24 AM When was the last time he was wormed?
and teeth done? I bought a mare out of AR a few yrs ago. She looked horrible and 1 deworming didn't help her so the vet recommended a power pack. That really helped. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 690
Location: Georgia | Hands down more forage. And get a slow feeding hay net so you horse eats it slower and gets more nutrients from it. They also cut down on any hay waste. I dont know what I would do without my nets. I like Hay Chix the best. There is a 20% off coupon code in my signature  |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 670
Location: Running my kids somewhere. | Increase forage, Rice Bran, Beat Pulp,... |
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Veteran
Posts: 160
Location: Texas | I wormed him a month ago. He is due his teeth. Thank everyone for your information. |
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Veteran
Posts: 160
Location: Texas | I bought Manna Pro Max E Glo Meal Rice Bran. It is 18% fat. So do I slowly take him off of Strategy completely? |
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Expert
Posts: 1520
Location: Illinois | I wouldn't take him off completely, but a gallon is still way too much. Find a way to weigh the amount of strategy you're giving if you can. I usually just use my food scale in the kitchen. I would try to stay around 7lbs per day, or under of the strategy. Add the Max E Glo slowly, say 3/4 cup twice a day. I fed that before I found the Boost and was giving around 3 cups per day of that. Don't make any super drastic changes to start, just slowly reduce the amount of strategy over a 2 week period, maybe so he's only getting around a gallon total per day and keep bumping the rice bran up every 4-5 days until you're giving probably 2 cups each feeding, and then just hold it and watch his weight for a little bit. Don't expect immediate drastic results, I prefer not to add more than 5lbs to my horse's weight in week, I like to add slow. It took me 5 months to get mine all at the weight I want them to be. |
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Veteran
Posts: 160
Location: Texas | Thanks for your reply.
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Expert
Posts: 2122
Location: The Great Northwest | Definately gratually all Alfalfa. |
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 Expert
Posts: 1631
Location: Somewhere around here | A shot in the dark but he could be anemic. I had a horse in college that was young and he always stayed trimmed up. I stayed friends with the lady who eventually bought him and after she did some digging and blood tests she found out that he had that blood problem. |
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Expert
Posts: 3514
| Get him on a Sr Feed. If you can get Bluebonnet Sr Intensify it is the best Sr feed. Then put him on good quality Alfalfa. |
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 Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4557
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | Forco ...get the gut "right" the rest will follow. |
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Put on a little more weight