I have just gotten a mare (rescue) who is about two hundred pounds underweight. Per my vet we have her on about 18-20 lbs hay a day, two pounds beet pulp, one pound morning and one pound at night. Plus she is getting one pound tribute calm n easy. She is four years old, quarter horse but sometimes looks kinda Arab to me. I taped her at 14.1hh. My question, is beet pulp the best for putting on weight? What are my other options? I have never had a thin horse or hard keeper. My worry was always getting fat on air, so I am new to the idea of putting weight on. I have heard of people adding oil in with grain. Would that help her?
I like a good senior feed. My preference is Triple Crown Sr. Free choice hay, good quality, maybe an alfalfa mix if you have access.
If she’s young and other wise healthy, I would throw more hay at her- add some alfalfa before I’d add beet pulp. Make sure her teeth are checked, she’s wormed appropriately and I would imagine in about 4 months you will have a totally different looking horse.
I don’t have access to alfalfa unfortunately. But in regards to the senior feed if I switched to the senior would I still feed the beet pulp? Is beet pulp going to put weight on her?
Sounds like she needs more dense calories than the beet. I would feed rice bran pellets and oil to a horse like this. The oil can be very helpful as it is fat and 1 cup can replace a pound of typical “grain”. (Not nutrition wise but calorie wise). If you go with this route, build the oil in slowly as horses need to adapt to a high fat diet.
Kasjordan, why no to beet pulp? I am new to this so I’m just wondering why you wouldn’t feed it? I did worm her with ivermectin, my vet advised to get a fecal on her in three months and then to worm accordingly. She is also on grass. We are currently working on making the pasture bigger as she has completely grazed the current pasture down to nothing.
Do you have access to alfalfa cubes or pellets?
What kind of oil would you recommend? With all the reading I have done I was considering adding oil in. As I have said she is a rescue, so I am need to this. She is other wise healthy and sound.
Yes. Beet pulp will put weight on her. It has more calories than hay without the complications of too much grain.
I would have to check, but I think my feed store carries both. Never thought about doing cubes or pellets. I guess I have been looking at everything else. I never knew there were do many options for putting on weight. Lol all my past and present horses get fat on air.
I would take your vets advice. They have (I presume) seen the horse and likely know what nutrients may be missing in local hay/pasture. If the horse is a rescue, then just proper feeding is likely all that is needed to get the weight up, and I don’t think you want her to gain the weight too quickly, so I would start slowly, and only look to deviate from what the vet advised if it isn’t working.
Yes my vet has seen her. He did say my hay looked really good. I guess I am only questioning what he said because he said to feed beet pulp, and maybe add oats in. I have always thought oats were a no no to feed. So I just wanted to see what other people in the horse world recommended.
Beet pulp is not my go to for gaining weight BUT in a very under weight horse that is probably just that way from not getting enough it is a good way to add safe calories for now. You really don’t want to throw too much at the horse right away. Although alfalfa pellets are a good idea for some more calories that are safe too. You just don’t want to add too much rich stuff right away get her adjusted first to being fed if in a few weeks she isn’t picking up then I would think about switching.
Thanks everyone. I will post some pictures so you guys can see how she looks. And keep updating. I am sure I will have more questions in regards to her. She is a really sweet mare.
Since it seems you have access to the Tribute feeds, could you switch to the Tribute Kalm Ultra? At 12% fat, that would be my choice from that line of products for a horse that needs to gain weight. You could start with slowly switching over the 1lb of the calm n easy to the ultra and then after that increase the amount of the Ultra until you are feeding the recommended amount listed on the bag for her desired weight.
I’ve personally seen this feed very well for helping OTTBs and other horses in need of some serious calories gain weight.
ETA: Here is a link that will allow you to download the product reference sheet with a more specific nutritional breakdown for the Kalm Ultra: http://www.tributehorsefeeds.com/catalog/performance/kalm-ultra-t91212-1/
I suggest a high fat feed such as Nutrena Pro Force Fuel/Fiber or Purina Ultium following the label directions. If the horse needs calories, the horse needs calories. The benefit of complete feed is that there are other vitamins and nutrients in there, the diet is nutritionally balanced and in this case, there are probiotics. Oats are just a straight grain with no vitamin/mineral fortification, I would not feed straight oats to an underweight horse. I would not feed straight oats to any horse. I would also look into area feed stores that have compressed Alfalfa bales. Good ones are often leafier and less stemmy than the stuff they make cubes and pellets from. Compressed, leafy alfalfa is very palatable and is high in calcium, protein and nutrients. Beet pulp can also add calories and I recommend adding beet pulp.
My current horse arrived at least 100 lbs underweight and was a very hard keeper. My vet, the Purina and Nutrena nutritionists and I (I’m a physiologist) worked up a feeding plan similar to what I described above and this horse is now “on a diet”. It took a good 1.5 years to get to the point where we cut back on his feed- the first to go was the beet pulp. Also, his metabolism lowered considerably as his stress level declined and as his pasturemate changed from a young horse to an old horse.
Many people think that feeding a quality complete feed is “bad” because “it’s grain”. I totally disagree with this. READ THE LABEL, choose a feed with with the nutrient, fat, sugar level most appropriate for your horse. Your vet should be able to help you.
[QUOTE=Utsie’smom;8174179]
I have just gotten a mare (rescue) who is about two hundred pounds underweight. Per my vet we have her on about 18-20 lbs hay a day, two pounds beet pulp, one pound morning and one pound at night. Plus she is getting one pound tribute calm n easy. She is four years old, quarter horse but sometimes looks kinda Arab to me. I taped her at 14.1hh. My question, is beet pulp the best for putting on weight? What are my other options? I have never had a thin horse or hard keeper. My worry was always getting fat on air, so I am new to the idea of putting weight on. I have heard of people adding oil in with grain. Would that help her?[/QUOTE]
I would be really careful about putting weight on this horse too quickly - she sounds like she will be an easy keeper when you get her right. I read all your posts, but did not see what kind of hay she is getting. The amount sounds good - probably about 2% of her body weight. With this horse, I would keep it very simple and add no more than 5 lbs of a premium senior feed a day. I also like the Triple Crown feeds. If you look at the list of ingredients, this feed is low in NSC which may turn out to be important to your horse. It’s very easy to digest, and I use it to put weight on hard keeping tbs. It already has all the good stuff in it. I used it to put weight on a 20 yr old skinny crappy footed appy, and she did fabulous on 4 quarts (about 4 pounds) a day, was a different horse in 60 days. Here is a link: https://www.triplecrownfeed.com/products/feeds/senior-horse-feed-formula-seniorhorsefeed/
[QUOTE=Utsie’smom;8174257]
Kasjordan, why no to beet pulp? I am new to this so I’m just wondering why you wouldn’t feed it? I did worm her with ivermectin, my vet advised to get a fecal on her in three months and then to worm accordingly. She is also on grass. We are currently working on making the pasture bigger as she has completely grazed the current pasture down to nothing.[/QUOTE]
I wouldn’t say no to beet pulp, I would just give alfalfa over beet pulp. I love alfalfa for horses. Puts a big bloom on them, they usually love it and it’s good calories. From what you’ve described I don’t think she’s going to be hard to get weight on so I wouldn’t throw all kinds of stuff at her, feed her for the weight she should be. Your pasture doesn’t really count as forage right now, try to make sure she has hay in front of her as much as possible. You can feed alfalfa cubes/pellets just like you probably do the beet pulp- soak them in water and you can use it as a carrier for any oil/flax/supplement you want to add. (You can throw your feed in there too, all mixed up)
[QUOTE=Flash44;8174482]
IThe amount sounds good - probably about 2% of her body weight. [/QUOTE]
Just to clarify, she should be getting 2% of her goal body weight.
200lb on a 14.1 pony is a LOT of weight to put on. Are you sure it’s really that much? How is she built - more like an Arab or more like a Foundation QH? If her goal weight is in the 800lb range, then not having 25% of her body weight would make her really, really thin. How fast did she get to that 20lb of hay?
You want calorie-dense food, not high volume food like beet pulp.
Assuming she’s healthy enough to get concentrates, I would work her up to the appropriate amount (for her goal weight) of the Tribute, and leave out the beet pulp for now. She needs nutrition as much as she needs calories, and that is a far better choice for now.
As long as she’s eating all the hay she will eat - never without it, eating a lot of it - she’s getting enough. I’m assuming teeth are taken care of so she is able to eat all she wants.
