Diet suppliments for Thoroughbed ex race horse

Question
Hi Corlena,

I have a gelding thoroughbred ex race horse. He is almost 6 yrs old and stands at 5 1/2 hands. He has been off the track for almost a year and is an absolute pleasure to ride. The problem is I am having alot of trouble keeping has weight up and as it is coming up to winter in South Africa I am afraid the problem will get worse. He is on 3 cups of pellets 3 times a day with hay available all day and he is put out to pasture if the weather is good. Do you have any suggestions for suppliments I can add to his feed that will not make him hot but help him to pick up weight. I have had his teeth checked and floated and there are no problems there. I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Joy

Answer
Hi Joy,  

Thank you for your question.  In order to help your horse put on some weight without creating too much of an attitude I would suggest that you feed some beet pulp, and for complete feeds stick with high fat/high fiber feeds that have no added starch sources.  The beet pulp provides a highly fermentable source of fiber that the horse will convert to energy without creating a sugar rush that can create hot attitudes.  A high fat/high fiber complete feed also provides very fermentable fiber with the added benefit of energy dense fat.

Your horse would also benefit from eating a well formulated prebiotic, which will optimize the health of the hindgut and improve the horse's efficiency at converting forages to energy.  I would recommend trying either the 'Lifeforce Formula' from Alltech or the 'SmartDigest' or 'SmartDigest Ultra' from Smartpak Equine.  

If you need more specific help on which complete feed to choose, let me know which feed company you would like to work with or which feed companies are available to you and I can make some suggestions.

Thanks,
Corlena