Question
I own an 18.1-hand Oldenburg/Thoroughbred gelding that is in advanced dressage work. He’s 12 years old, and he weighs approximately 1,600 lb (725 kg). When I bought him eight months ago, he was a condition score of 3 or 4, so fairly underweight. He spends most of his time in a stall, though he is allowed about four hours outside. Here is his work schedule: Sunday: Treadmill for 24 minutes Monday: Longe for 15-20 minutes Tuesday: Treadmill for 24 minutes, ride for 45 minutes Wednesday: Ride for an hour Thursday: Treadmill for 24 minutes, ride for 45 minutes Friday: Treadmill for 24 minutes, ride for 45 minutes Saturday: Walk for 30 minutes under saddle Daily feed: six flakes of timothy, 3 lb (1.4 kg) timothy pellets, one cup canola oil, MSM, and a multivitamin. He’s still not gaining weight as he should, and despite the workload, it seems he lacks muscle. What should I feed him next? Over the next few weeks, I am increasing oil to two cups daily. Any other feeds? He can be a hot, spooky horse.
Answer
Through careful review of your gelding’s diet, it appears as though you are avoiding all forms of grain, and I assume it is because of his temperament or perhaps there is an issue with PSSM or RER?
Your gelding is a hard-working horse, and you may not be meeting all of his requirements with this diet. His Thoroughbred ancestry may mean he will need more calories to maintain the same weight as a full Warmblood counterpart. If he is too thin, then he needs more calories, some of which the increase in oil will provide. When you tell me he is lacking in muscling, I suspect he may be consuming insufficient protein, particularly since timothy tends to be low in protein (4-8% protein), and there is no protein in oil. Commercial concentrate feeds are designed to meet the needs of horses that are not supplied in the forage portion of the diet and the simplest way for you to balance out your horse’s protein and energy needs would be to add a concentrate at the recommended feeding level. Even if you have concerns with the effect of adding more starch into the diet, there are specialized low starch feeds available on the market. Here are a few alternatives if you would like to stay with a high-forage, high-fat, low-NSC (nonstructural carbohydrate) diet:
1. Switch from a multivitamin to a ration balancer. Typical vitamin/mineral supplements are designed to balance the trace minerals and vitamins that may be low or missing in the forage, but they do not supply any significant quantities of protein or very much of the macrominerals calcium, phosphorus, or magnesium. Even if there is protein on the tag, it will not be sufficient quantity to supply enough protein to have an impact on the building of muscle tissue. For that, your gelding would benefit from a ration balancer which includes protein, vitamins, and minerals. Ration balancers tend to be low in NSC if you are concerned about starch intake. Read more about balancer pellets. If you decide to try the ration balancer, I would recommend you add it into the diet very gradually, so as not to have an effect on the temperament of your gelding. You will want to eventually feed a horse as large as yours 1.5-2 lb (0.68-0.9 kg) per day, so start with only a couple of ounces in each feeding of the hay pellets and over a couple of weeks gradually increase until you are feeding 1 lb (0.45 kg) per feeding.
2. Switching the timothy hay pellets to alfalfa pellets will increase the protein and caloric content of the diet as well. A horse this size could easily handle an increase in the amount from 6 to 8 lbs per day. Again, I would recommend a very gradual changeover because of the differences in the types of forages to allow time for the microbial population in the digestive tract to adjust.
3. Increase calories with beet pulp, a high-fiber energy source. For a more complete explanation of the advantages of beet pulp, go here.
4. Another high-energy feedstuff with low starch is rice bran. It will add protein as well as fat and digestible fiber the diet, but it contains a little bit of starch. For more information on rice bran, review this article.
5. Your gelding is large and working hard, so if he will eat more hay it would be an easy way to get more calories into him. If he were to get 2% of his body weight in hay (typical intake), that would be 32 lb (14.5 kg) of hay. If I calculate correctly, he is currently receiving 24-30 lb (11-14 kg), depending on flake weight of timothy (typically 3-4 lb or 1.40-1.8 kg), including the hay pellets. He could be getting more hay or hay pellets, if that is an option at the boarding facility.
6. If there is a reason for avoiding starch other than an effect on temperament or personal choice, such as the gelding is suffering from any of the metabolic disorders, like RER, PSSM or EPSM, then a specialized high calorie, very low starch concentrate like Re-Leve would be an excellent option. Click on the link to learn more about Re-Leve.
