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OTTB outside in the cold

The green stuff? I used that forever ago on a horse with a nasty case of recurrent ulcers and DGE. It IS expensive! If you are just using it as a top dress and not for any medical reason I’d be tempted to swap to alfalfa pellets and a top dress of DAC in your shoes. That Well-Gel stuff is amazing but holy smokes is it expensive.

Really? I’ve seen so many horses. of all ages, go from BCS 3 to 5/6

Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t work for all horses (nothing does), but I’ve seen it do amazing things for a lot.

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I was about to reply to SMF11 about how my TB finally looked at a good weight after putting him on TCS. Then I realized he didn’t get FAT on it, he gained what he needed.

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For the Americans in the crowd, Trimax is Ultium (I think, unless formulations have changed).

Other than that, I don’t have a ton to add. I’m a big fan of outdoor living and have done it with a few TBs myself, but feeding groups with mixed body types is a challenge for sure.

It could very well have changed since I’ve asked, but a few years back(I’m thinking like maybe 6 years)I contacted Purina about Trimax and the NSC was 28%. Not exactly low NSC, but they considered it “controlled” starch/sugar.
I don’t think it’s a bad feed, I use to feed it to my race horses and even some picky retired ones. I would be curious to what they consider low glycemic to be, as I see that’s what they advertise it as now.

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Thanks everyone for the advice. I’ve added an extra pound of grain per feeding and just started with a couple soaked alfalfa cubes. I’ll increase the cubes over the next few weeks. I went with Trimax because it is relatively low NSC for a high fat, high fibre feed (compared to the others that I looked at).

My vet was not concerned about the TB’s weight. She said that the mare is probably at her racing weight but that a little extra going into winter would be ideal. I’m just not used to seeing no fat on the ribs.

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I wonder if the Trimax formula has been tweaked? I asked Purina earlier this year and was told the NSC was 22% :thinking:

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Just here to add, when I had my OTTB gelding, Trimax was the only thing that put - and kept - the weight on him. He wasn’t in heavy work, either. That was about 10 or 12 years ago now though, so perhaps the formula has changed since then.

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This is encouraging, thanks! It does seem like the right balance for her needs so hopefully it helps. The alfalfa cubes are to make up for the fact that she can’t be on a bale all the time. I’ll give it a few months and if I’m not seeing an improvement I’ll have to move her to a farm where she can be on hay all the time.

Hi all, thought I’d give an update. It’s been a month since I added the alfalfa cubes to her feed and she is gaining weight well. I’ve also got her on ulcer medication for a month. I recently noticed that she is quite stiff in the back end so we are going to start her on previcox to see if that helps. So I think these adjustments to relieve discomfort, combined with having adjusted her trim cycle, will help her gain weight. The vet was out recently to float teeth and commented that the mare is now “healthy skinny rather than scary skinny”. So we have a few more months of weight gain to work on but I am no longer worried about how she will fare through the winter. Thoroughbreds are definitely a different game than quarterhorses!

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So the senior OTTB has been getting 5lbs of Trimax and 3lbs of soaked alfalfa cubes twice a day since early fall. She is now at the point where you can barely see her ribs through her winter coat but you can very easily feel them. Her owner (who has been away for a few years) says the mare has never held weight but I’m not sure the mare has been cared for properly in the past. I’ve read that senior horses can do much better on a senior feed but every senior feed I find has a much lower fat content than what I’m feeding now. This mare won’t accept oil in her food. So do I stick with what I’m feeding or try something else?

I’ve also had her teeth done, dewormed her, and switched her to a 4 week trim (from 8 weeks). I am currently addressing her neck and hock pain and she is in the middle of 3 months of omezaperol for ulcers. I know all these problems could contribute to her slow weight gain. A reminder that this is not my horse and the owner is unwilling to pay for more vet care so I am trying to get her weight up without really knowing what is going on with her. I don’t have the budget to run the tests myself. My approach is that if I have tried everything and cannot get the horse to maintain weight, then I will advise the owner to either invest in finding the problem or euthanize because a chronically underweight horse must be sick. Is this true? I have no experience with a horse that is chronically underweight. If she hold her weight well next summer, that will help me figure this out.

My $.02 from my experience with a skinny minny who had a lot of difficulty with keeping weight when I first got her. “Blankets, moar blankets” is her mantra. Any need to fluff her own damned hair to keep warm will set her to losing weight. If I can keep her warm enough that she barely grows winter hair, she’s good.

Feed wise - alfalfa pellets or cubes, Purina Senior with appropriate Equilizer to balance it out, 24/7 hay (used to need a fairly high ratio of alfalfa to grass but does well now on Timothy), and oil. If I need to stop oil for any reason (ulcer flare which will put her off her soup) I add it back extremely gradually in her soup and top dress the soup with a handful of peppermints for a few days until she’s back to chowing down.

Ulcers - I stay on top of any tendencies by hitting her with a couple days (or more) of Sucralfate whenever she will be stressed (sedation, shipping, overnight away from home, etc.) or has had ANY anti-inflammatory. We can get away with up to 2 weeks of Previcox without Sucralfate. Bute and Banamine require treatment in conjunction with them.

Timing - Regardless of how great she looks, I start gradually increasing calories with additional oil in August as the grass turns to garbage. If I delay, I inevitably end up playing catch up. This also applies to blanketing. The sooner I can get a rain sheet on her to act as a windbreaker, the less likely she is to lose weight and/or grow winter hair. The hair thing is not important to you (except that it tells you she’s a bit cooler than ideal), but for me it’s a thing since I hate cooling out sweaty horses in winter and she hates being clipped :smiley:

In re oil - if she absolutely won’t eat oil no matter how careful you are to add it gradually and how you try to mask the flavour, ask you feed store if they can get you Purina Athlete. It’s a dry fat supplement.

You could try EquiJewel (rice bran pellets) as a top dress.

My senior has summer allergy induced heaves and I keep him borderline thin in the summer. This fall he dropped more weight and ended up too thin just as the temperature was getting colder overnight. I switched to a higher fat and energy feed, added EquiJewel and Flax Appeal (which is a top dress flax and soybean meal).

Years ago I fed oil on soaked beet pulp shreds and alfalfa pellets. I found the oil spread thinner and was more palatable if I put it in at the same time as the hot water.

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That seems sensible. Owner can either vet, euthanize or move their horse if your (above and beyond) care doesn’t do the trick.

My old TB gelding is approaching ideal weight finally. I’ve been “rehabbing” him since acquiring him in April. I think it’s slower to put weight on the old ones.

I also agree with the “moar blankets”. Mild temps where my homebred is naked n happy see the old guy in a sheet or very light blanket. I do not let him get wet in anything below 65.

I use ground flax as a fat supp, and oldie isn’t crazy about the texture. Half a cup per meal is his comfort limit. If I up it he’ll go on strike after a bit. I’m not crazy about rice bran pellets (prefer the O3s in flax) but a lot of horses like the taste/texture and it is extra calories without being super expensive or messy.

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I’m also in Ontario and 2 hrs from Ottawa.

I have all OTTbs except one Appy. My guys get hay 24/7, and for grain they get Masterfeed roughage chunks/pellets and Brooks Fit N Fibre.

Personally, over the years and having had many many TBS young and old, I have learned less is more. What they need is as much forage as you can get into them, and the roughage pellets/chunks do that. All my horses are fat, shiny and show competitively on this diet.

For an older one, I would maybe add beet pulp or the Brooks ration balancer.

Trimax is great for horses in work but not so much TBS or older horses.

I would suggest starting with 4lbs of roughage chunks and either beet pulp/something form Brooks like Phase 4 or Fit n Fibre twice daily. You will be able to reduce this a lot once the horse gains weight.

I have to ask also if the horse has time alone to eat, in a stall at night? Is is warm enough? Blanketing? Does the round bale have a net or a hard to get through feeder?

A lot of people sugget nets but I find some horses especially TBs would rather not eat then make too much effort if they aren’t big eaters.

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Oh yes there are, with certain bloodlines.

What is the hay situation now? Your 1st post says round bales - is that still the case?
It doesn’t sound like a terrible situation if she’s gaining weight as the temperatures drop; if she had been eating like this all along she might not have needed to regain weight to begin with, which takes quite a long time.

My senior TB mare eats 8-10 lbs of senior feed/day plus essentially as much hay as she wants, plus blankets, and I often add alfalfa pellets. She’s just at the weight I would like (barely), but if I reduce her feed (or blanket less) she will lose weight through the winter.

The old guys used boiled barley to put weight on a horse.

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I know that. As I already explained, which I thought was apparent in the context of when I originally asked the questions, I was asking if there were any QH’s in the picture who could be put with the TB and free choice hay.

Obviously every single breed has hard(er) and easy(ier) keepers.

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Obviously.