This will be an ongoing thing, and something that I probably never stop talking about. Nutrition became a very important thing for me as an owner to learn. I had a very easy keeper pony mare, and when she drastically dropped weight very quickly (it almost seemed one day she was fine, the next, RIBS!) I knew I needed to arm myself with the proper education to get her back to a good weight; and further more, be able to identify why exactly she dropped the weight in the first place.
The first step is to always make sure there are no health or physical issues that may be allowing the weight loss to take place. After a trip to the vet and finding out the mare was just in a calorie deficit for the work she was doing, I educated myself. I'm still learning, still asking questions, and still craving knowledge as it's made available to me.
Maxwell came to me with a couple of dietary needs. He is still coming down from the race horse high. He went through the typical race horse crash. He has a thick bone structure (woohoo) and even when he was race fit he looked fairly well put together and had good weight. He crashed and the muscle dropped off, and the ribs poked through.
Obviously the first rule is to WEIGH ALL YOUR HORSE'S FOOD. I have NOT yet done so, but It didn't really matter because what he was eating was what he was eating. I plan on dragging out the scale this week to get actual weight amounts.
Max came to me eating the following:
Cavalor Fiber Force (3 quarts twice a day)
Tizz Whizz Senior (3 quarts twice a day)
U guard Powder (1 scoop a day)
Unlimited access to grass hay
Grass from 6pm to 6am
1 flake (heavy) of alfalfa 2 times a day
You mean you can't just pump them full of sweet feed?! ;) Great post and nice to see someone as into equine nutrition as I am!
ReplyDeleteOh and I've always had great luck with Finishing Touch to add on some weight. Its better if its added to soaked feed so it sticks, but it certainly doesn't need to be.
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