Major weight loss in my mare

Question
Hi, I have a 5 year old Clyde/thoroughbred mare. Since I started her a year ago she ha done amazing things like jumping, some reining and Trails. This is about the majority of what she does. I moved her in late July where she went from being ridden once a week to close to 5 days a week. Of course we did light riding and worked up her endurance and gave her grain. By September My friend and I were going on 6 hour trail rides and she was doing a fair bit of jumping, which was showing because she was not only the most worked horse at the farm, but the most healthy and muscular! Late in September I was goin to enter her in a local fair but she got a bad cold and I gave her a few weeks off with very light riding once or twice a week. After she recovered she started to lose weight... Dramatically. We've been pumping her full of weight gain powder, beet pulp and lots of other goodies but she still loses weight. By now it was starting to get cooler out and we got her a blanket. Only a few weeks ago she started to look better but during a ride she fainted, when she wasn't even tired, so I am givinher a month  Off to try and get better. Would you happen to know what is going on with her to make her be like this and how I could possibly make her a little better? Thanks.      Brian

Answer
Hi Brian,

Thank you for your question.  First and foremost I have to recommend that you have your mare looked at by a vet.  Sudden weight loss can come from a change in diet alone, but what you are describing sounds more like your mare has a serious medical condition that needs to be addressed, and that is not something I can not do in this forum.  Horses don't "faint" without there being a serious problem!  Chances are once your vet identifies your mare's condition and treats her underlying issues then her weight will come back.  You need to have the vet in right away.

If this were simply a diet issue, which I'm not convinced it is, my suggestion would be to choose a quality prebiotic like Alltech's LifeForce Formula, continue to feed beet pulp, choose a performance formulated high fat/high fiber feed (like Purina's Evolution Elite) and feed high quality hay free choice.  This would be my recommendation once your mare has been medically evaluated and treated.  

I hesitate to make any more in depth recommendations until you have your mare looked at by the vet, as I don't think diet alone will fix the problem.  Once those problems are addressed, let me know the results and I can make more appropriate recommendations.

Thanks, Corlena