Feeding the Underweight Horse

horse health3 Comments
Finn shortly after I got him.

When Finn arrived in Massachusetts he was underweight and undermuscled. Although technically eight, he seemed more like a four-year-old — all legs, pretty angular, and wide-eyed. I didn’t feel like he could comfortably carry a rider, as his spine was too prominent and I didn’t want to make the experience uncomfortable for him, so my trainer and I decided to treat him like a baby and start from scratch.

Freedom 2005
Here’s Freedom in January of 2005. I’d had him for a couple of weeks and he was still looking pretty scrawny.

My first goal was to put some weight on him. I’ve had underweight horses before. Freedom was quite skinny and pencil-necked when he first came to me as a foster for CANTER.

With that experience in mind, I started Finn on multiple small meals a day. His previous owners fed Purina Strategy GX, which is a solid choice, and I supplemented it with Purina Amplify, a fat supplement, and as much hay as I could get him to eat. The biggest problem was getting him to eat enough. He was only moderately interested in the Strategy, sometimes only nibbling at it over the course of a couple of hours. He refused to eat anything soaked — like alfalfa cubes or beet pulp — and he wouldn’t eat any kind of powdered supplement.

So, he got a quart (1.25 lbs) of Strategy every time I came to the barn, hay nets stuffed with hay and grass, lots of grass. Luckily, he loves his hay, so I knew he was getting enough forage. I also brought in some really lovely alfalfa hay to tempt him to eat even more, and to soothe his stomach (he also got gastroguard when he first arrived, although luckily he showed no signs of ulcers).

I figured he needed 200+ pounds (boy, do I wish someone would tell me I needed to gain weight), but with horses, it takes time for the weight to come back. You don’t want to overwhelm their digestive system and they need time for the gut bacteria to adapt.

Here’s a look at how Finn’s weight changed from the end of June through the beginning of November. As a point of reference, Finn is about 17.1 hands, so a big horse. In comparison, Freedom was about 16.1.

Finn in North Carolina.
When I went to see Finn in North Carolina he was turned out on about 10 acres of coastal grass but only got grain occasionally. While the other horses in his herd (not thoroughbreds) were a good weight, Finn needed more calories.
Finn end of June
When he arrived on June 23, Finn was clearly underweight. This was the angle where he looked the skinniest, but there was no way he could comfortably wear a saddle. Keep in mind that he probably lost weight on the ride up to Massachusetts.
Grass in Massachusetts is a lot richer and Finn was happy to have so much turnout. Here he is on June 27th.

Finn July 1
It’s not a coincidence that almost every photo I have of Finn at the beginning shows him eating — mostly it was forage. Here he is on July 1.
Finn July 7
By July 7th, Finn is starting to show noticeable weight gain. Because he was reluctant to eat Strategy, I switched him over to Triple Crown Senior, which Curly eats, and he got a lot more interested in food
Finn July 21
Here he is on July 21st. Finn isn’t much of a breakfast eater because he can’t wait to go out into the “big field”. Note: he’s in his small paddock in this photo which is bigger than most turnout I’ve seen at commercial barns. He gets a quart of TC Senior in the mornings, a quart mid day and two quarts at night (about 4 lbs total).
By August 2nd, he’s filled out a lot. I stopped feeding Amplify and he was able to hold his weight nicely on TC and lots of hay and grass. Around this time, he also decided that he could eat food that had been soaked (probably because Curly’s grain is soaked and he watched her eat), so I was able to start adding chia seeds to his dinner. I like them as they give a good dose of Omega 3s.
Finn on November 8
Here’s a recent photo of Finn from November 8th. He’s grown a fuzzy winter coat but you can see that he’s no longer angular. He’s still eating his hay! I’m actually quite pleased that he’s holding his weight on this diet. Freedom was a much harder keeper — he would get 6 quarts of TC Senior/day plus Amplify, plus soaked alfalfa timothy cubes, plus hay and grass.

Of course, getting a horse back into riding shape is more than just adding weight. Hand in hand with the feeding program was a lot of ground work aimed at getting him to use his body more correctly and building the muscle he needed to comfortably carry a rider. Stay tuned for that info!

3 thoughts on “Feeding the Underweight Horse”

  1. He looks good with a couple hundred pounds on him! Mind you, I don’t mind seeing a little bit of rib, as in the 21 Jul photo, but that’s just me. Slmost all of my massage work was on dressage and endurance horses. As a teen, working at a neighbor’s QH breeding/ facility where all they bred was halter horses, the horses were kept fat. Weight hides a lot of conformational faults. Too much weight is probably worse than not enough.
    IT appears you’re on the right track to getting him in shape. My goodness, he’s a lovely horse.
    And notice his eye. In the June photo, he looks a bit, well, unsure. What is this place, what has happened, where am I. His November attitude is, I’m home and I’m happy.
    Congratulations, Liz!

    Reply

    1. Thanks! I think he’s looking a lot more like he belongs. Right now I think his weight is good (although I’m always happy to have them with a bit of a buffer as the cold weather arrives) and I’m working on muscle. He had so little muscle when he got here that it even when he gained enough weight to put a saddle on him, he really wasn’t strong enough to carry a rider AND stay balanced. It’s coming, but it sure takes time.

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