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  Discussion on Performance horse needs to put on weight
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 24, 2001 - 5:10 pm:

Hi Dr O:
I have a 4 year old gelding. He needs to put on weight. What is the best way to increase his calories without making him hot.
He is a quarter horse and is being worked about an hour, 5 or 6 days a week. Right now he gets 4 to 5 flakes of grass/timothy hay and 2 1/2 lbs. of Phase 3 grain per day. I don't feed any alfalfa.
Thanks for your help.
Pam.

Posted on Saturday, Feb 24, 2001 - 7:28 pm:

By your reference to phase 3 grain I am guessing you may be feeding Pennfield grain? Their Enduro-event worked well to put weight on my TB. It is 10% fat and has beet pulp and soy in it. My horse didn't change his attitude when I changed him from the phase 3 to the Enduro. It is supposed to be fairly low in sugar (although I thought beet pulp was basically sugar)and seems to be quite tasty. My horses tend to prefer the higher fat grain than adding oil to their feed and it is less messy. My preference (and I'm sure others will differ) is to put more fat into the grain before increasing the grain. I like to feed basically free-choice hay (when they start wasting it back up a flake until they clean it all up) and then enough grain to keep them in good condition. You don't mention your horses size, but an hour 5-6 days a week, depending on the intensity, is a fairly hard workout for a 4 y.o. who is probably still growing, so decreasing his workload a little and increasing his grain until he gets to the weight that you want, then slowly backing off until you find out how much he needs to maintain the weight would probably help. He is going to get quite fit with those workouts, so may get more energetic as he gets more fit. My 16.1H TB (not the skinny one) is eating approx. 25 lbs of hay a day (7-8 flakes of the hay that I have) and approx 2.5 lbs of Phase 3 and he's an easy keeper and just starting back into work after the winter. His weight is good now, but I know once the grass comes in, his grain and hay will have to decrease, since he won't get hay outside. This time of year is hard, since the horses are really looking for grass (and we keep getting snow) and I assume they do use some calories to grow their new coats.

Posted on Saturday, Feb 24, 2001 - 8:40 pm:

We aquired an Arabian last March that was nearly starved to death. The vet started her on a product called stratagy, along with unlimited grass hay. she was on that for about 2 months and it did wonders. Plus never got her hot a bit. She hit a platau at the 2 month mark and so the vet switched her to rice bran and that finished her off real well. She is still a hard keeper and so we keep the statagy on hand. The vet had us pounding the statagy into her, as much as 6 lbs a day towards the end. my daughter shows her in the ring and she is as calm as can be.
Good luck to you

Posted on Sunday, Feb 25, 2001 - 11:48 am:

Pam, what is the weight of the hay you are feeding and what is the quality of the hay? What is the protein content of the concentrate. Is there any grazing, if so for how long, and what are the conditions of the pasture?

As you can see there are lots of questions that have to be answered to be able to answer your question. Fats and oils are the least "behavorially heating" calories but before you feed them you MUST be sure the horse is receiving adequate amounts of all other nutrients: review the nutrient articles that apply to your case. From them you should be able to figure your next step.
DrO

Posted on Monday, Feb 26, 2001 - 5:14 pm:

Thanks for the information.
Currently, my gelding is getting l8 lbs of timothy/grass hay. There is lots of timothy in it. I would say the quality is very good. He does not finish all of the hay offered to him. I feed 4 times a day.
He also gets 2 1/2 lbs of Kentucky Equine Research, Phase 3 mixed grain per day. It has l3% protein in it. He gets a supplement which I know as l8/l8 (selenium, minerals, etc.)
I have a close relationship with my vet, and I don't like to mess with the feed program unless it comes recommended by her. So I am confident that the feed program is good.
I have 7 horses. Most of them are Hoovers, but this gelding is not. I haven't needed the vet for awhile now (yeah!!), but I would like to get a bit of weight on my gelding.
I really just want an idea of what feeds add calories, but not heat. Yesterday I talked with a trainer who suggested adding some alfalfa cubes rather than increasing the grain because the grain adds heat. I thought alfalfa made horses hot, too.
Thanks, Pam.

Posted on Tuesday, Feb 27, 2001 - 8:20 am:

This is a misconception about calories, in general, when foods are compared on an equal-caloric basis the idea than some concentrates add more behavioral problems just does not seem to be true. Fat may be an exception but the evidence is slim at this time.
DrO
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