Weight gain tips, anyone?

Question

I noticed a couple weeks ago that my 5-year-old mare is looking a little thin. I tried adding some vegetable oil to her grain, and it has improved her weight, but not by much. Anyone have any other tips? I can't change her grain, because I board her and the stable owner doesn't like having horses on different grains. So again, does anyone have any little secrets to help her get some weight?

Answer 1

yeah i add vegetable oil to my horses food too. you could try a supplement like fat cat. it works very well. also, grass is really fattening. you should have her teeth checked too. and if she still shows no improvement, talk to the stable owner and ask if you can switch the grain around because your horse is losing weight. (my horse gets a lot of beet pulp, senior food, corn oil, smart pack supplements, hay cubes, and hay) if they still say no.. move your horse

Answer 2

i added a body builder to my horses feed and he put on alot of weight, he was really skinny. Also, i give him sugabeet which helps. Also treats, treats and more treats :D

Answer 3

When my first horse started to have trouble with her weight in her 30s, we gave her Weight Builder (easy to find at any tack or feed store, or try a catalog such as State Line Tack or Dover) mixed with corn syrup (because corn syrup's sugary and sweet, to get her to eat the Weight Builder and not knock it out of the tub) with her senior grain.  I don't normally believe in feeding grains to horses but when my first mare hit a certain age, it was necessary to keep the weight on.  

Has your mare been wormed regularly or does she have any known health issues that may be affecting her weight?  Have you been riding her more, and is her food intake enough to support her activity level?  I'm not being a jerk, just questions you should ask yourself.  You might want to have your vet out just to be sure there's nothing more going on.

Answer 4

Try putting up to corn oil and weight gainer in her grain. My horse used to be quite a bit under weight and i slowly put up to 2 cups of corn oil a day in 3lbs of grain along with miracle weight gainer and he is at a perfect weight now. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

Treats can fatten her up. Cause at my barn all the little ponies always get treats and now they are fat.

Answer 6

have a vet check her teeth. if the weight loss came on this suddenly, it may be caused by a molar that she was late to lose, or other dental problem that is making it hard for her to chew. after you have a vet out and they say that her teeth are fine, i would switch from veggie oil to corn oil. corn has more calories and fats, which will help both her weight and coat. veggie oil is good for weight, but not as good as the corn oil. it doesnt really much matter, but every little bit helps. if this is still not helping, could you possibly divide her feed into smaller, more frequent meals through the day? a horse's stomach is set up where more frequent meals have a better effect on weight. i hope you get it figured out! =]

Answer 7

try..

corn oil.

rice bran.

oat bran .

beer.(yes beer)

beet pulp.

Answer 8

At my barn we use rice bran to fatten horses up.  It always seems to do the trick!

Answer 9

First of all, like some of the others have said, get her teeth checked and do a sand test on her- she may just have some grit in her system. If you don't know how to do this, get a latex glove, pick up an apple or two of her p**p and add some water. Tie off and leave it hanging for a while (go for a ride, about 1/2 an hour) and then test the fingers. If you can feel a significant amount of sand (more than a few grains) put her on Sand clearr or something like it for a while.

If she doesn't have a positive sand test, try beet pulp if you can find it. It's dried beets shredded with molasses, and I haven't met a horse who won't eat it. You have to soak it in water for about a 1/2 hour  (1/4 of a bucket worth of the stuff and fill the bucket up) before the horse can eat it or it could hurt them because it will suck up water in their stomachs. As long as it's wet and expanded, it edible. It also doesn't keep well, so its best to make it fresh when you feed it to her. I fed this as lunch with my thin TB mare, plus keeping her inside at night (she's a slow eater and very submissive- she wasn't getting hay outside) and she fattened up pretty quickly. Also there aresupplementss (smartpak isconvenientt and has great customer service you can call) that will help her gain weight like fat-cat and weight builder.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

Rory