QH mare is looking bony and a bit skinny... any ideas for helping put on some weight?

[Latestarter]

Greetings @Kusanar and welcome to BYH! Glad you joined us! Hope you'll browse around a bit and find some other threads to jump into. Do you have some pics of your horses that you could share? We're all pic addicts here

 

[EmilyClick28]

First off, I want to say that I have 6 horses, and have had horses for 15 years (since I was 12) so I have experience.

I would start off by giving her as much hay as she will eat, start off giving her about half a bale a day and see what happens, if she leaves some, then give her slightly less the next day, if she cleans it all up, give her a little more the next day. Also, if/when she leaves hay, look at what she left, look to see if it is mostly weeds or mostly hay, if it is mostly weeds, she may be removing the weeds that aren't good for her to eat (some are poisonous and horses will generally sift those out of the hay and leave them on the ground).

Also, look for a pelleted horse feed to give her. Look for something with a higher protein and fat content. Sweet feed tastes good, but the extra sugar isn't really good for horses.

Make sure you read the feed bag and see how much you should be feeding per day based on the horses weight and work load, but, do not feed more than 5 pounds of grain in any one feeding.

Make hay the main part of her diet, especially in winter, then add grain for extra calories as needed, but if she starts gaining weight too fast, do not cut the hay back until you are no longer feeding any grain at all. Horses need food in their gut at all times to be healthy, so the more bulky feed (hay) she gets, the better.

thank you so much, this was very helpful. actually just yesterday we contacted a lady we know and moved her over to her house, and now she is on 2 acres of tall green good quality pasture and we are planning to pasture her there for the summer. we got some "safechoice" grain, as it is called, and also some alfalfa cubes and pellets and we measured out the correct amounts. we just moved her to the pasture yesterday but we're already seeing improvement!

 

[Kusanar]

thank you so much, this was very helpful. actually just yesterday we contacted a lady we know and moved her over to her house, and now she is on 2 acres of tall green good quality pasture and we are planning to pasture her there for the summer. we got some "safechoice" grain, as it is called, and also some alfalfa cubes and pellets and we measured out the correct amounts. we just moved her to the pasture yesterday but we're already seeing improvement!

That's great! Now, one thing, you just took her from hay to lush grass, watch her carefully for any lameness, any tendency to rock her weight back onto her heels, check the temperature of her hooves, just feel them with your hand, if they feel hot or she shows any of the other signs i just mentioned, pull her off that grass immediately. Those are all signs of laminitis, otherwise known as founder which is very serious if not treated soon and can be caused by horses getting a sugar over load such as getting into a grain bin or being put onto lush pasture too quickly. She may be fine, actually probably will be fine, but just keep your eyes open, i would hate for her to get sick when it is preventable.

 

[Kusanar]

Greetings @Kusanar and welcome to BYH! Glad you joined us! Hope you'll browse around a bit and find some other threads to jump into. Do you have some pics of your horses that you could share? We're all pic addicts here

Lol, yes, I do have pics, and will probably post them at some point, just browsing currently. Been on BYC for a while now

 

[EmilyClick28]

That's great! Now, one thing, you just took her from hay to lush grass, watch her carefully for any lameness, any tendency to rock her weight back onto her heels, check the temperature of her hooves, just feel them with your hand, if they feel hot or she shows any of the other signs i just mentioned, pull her off that grass immediately. Those are all signs of laminitis, otherwise known as founder which is very serious if not treated soon and can be caused by horses getting a sugar over load such as getting into a grain bin or being put onto lush pasture too quickly. She may be fine, actually probably will be fine, but just keep your eyes open, i would hate for her to get sick when it is preventable.

oh okay thank you very much. its been 5 days and she's doing very good so far. her hips, ribs and withers are already filling out. we found out she's actually part arab so that explains some of how she always seems to look skinny, but she definitely did need to fill out some more. but yeah we're watching for any signs of colic or anything and she's been good so far.