Horse weight gain

[walnut the hamster]

I have Shetland ponies that were very fat so I put them in a barn. They were starting to lose weight. then they got very thin then poor. I started feeding them more. The horses were staying at poor even though I was feeding them 100% weight gain, alfalfa hay, performance mix, and sweet feed ALL at 100%. I put them back in the pasture. So, how do you keep a horse at moderate in the barn? Thanks.

[Silverine]

I have Shetland ponies that were very fat so I put them in a barn. They were starting to lose weight. then they got very thin then poor. I started feeding them more. The horses were staying at poor even though I was feeding them 100% weight gain, alfalfa hay, performance mix, and sweet feed ALL at 100%. I put them back in the pasture. So, how do you keep a horse at moderate in the barn? Thanks.

The horses would have been staying at poor because you went over the maximum weight of feed you could feed them in one day, so even though all of the feed values were at 100%, the horses weren't actually eating that much. Setting a feed value at 100% means that the horse should get 100% of its daily energy from that feed. That means feeds that are higher in energy (Performance Mix, Sweet Feed, etc) can be fed in smaller amounts while still maintaining the horse's weight. If a horse is fed more than 100% total energy, it should gain weight - however, this only works if the total weight of the food the horse is being fed is within its allowable range.

Your horse's maximum intake (labeled "Max Feed:") indicates how much feed it can eat within a day. The "Regular Feed:" label indicates how much food will be given to the horse to reach the energy levels you have chosen. If the regular feed is greater than the max feed, the horse will not be able to eat all of the food you give it.

Let me illustrate using this horse as an example. I keep this horse in the barn. She is fed 100% Performance Mix and stays consistently at a moderate weight. Why does that work for her? Because at 100% Performance Mix she is still only eating between 4.7 and 9.4 kilograms of food each day, which is below her maximum of 14.9 kilograms. Here's a snapshot of her feeding dialogue:



Now, if I were to switch her from 100% Performance Mix to 100% Hay she would start to lose weight. Why? Because in order to get 100% energy from eating hay she would need to consume between 16.1 and 32.2 kilograms of food. Even the low end of that range is above her maximum daily intake of 14.9 kilograms. Here's another snapshot. Notice how the numbers have turned red.



If I want to feed my mare an amount of hay that she can actually eat, I have to drop the percent value to 90. Even then, she is just barely able to eat the minimum portion of regular feed, and will most likely be below 90% energy each day. If I wanted to ensure that she could eat all of the hay I give her I would need to drop the hay percentage to 45. In both of these cases my mare would start to lose weight because her total daily energy is below 100%.



Now what happens to my mare if I put her on the same mix your girls are on? We get this:



You can see by the red numbers that this is way more than she (or most horses for that matter) could ever eat in one day.

So how would we get her on a mixture that would help her gain weight?

First off, get rid of any Hay, Alfalfa Hay, or Alfalfa Cubes. All three of these feeds are very low in energy for their weight and are basically useless for helping a horse gain weight. Here's how much my mare would have to eat in just Alfalfa Hay or just Alfalfa Cubes to stay at her current moderate weight:



That leaves us with Yellow Corn, Sweet Feed, Performance Mix, and Weight Gain Mix. All four of these feeds are useful for helping a horse gain weight, and you will need to use at least two of them to get a horse in the barn to gain weight. Here's how much my mare eats of each of them when they are at 100% (the Performance Mix snapshot is the first image in this post):



As you can see, each of these feeds by itself is perfectly fine at 100%. This means that my mare can be fed these and stay at whatever weight she was at when she began eating it. If I wanted her to gain weight I would need to have her eat more than 100%. The easiest way to do that is to set whatever horse you want to gain weight to 100% Weight Gain Mix, then add Performance Mix. The PM will start at 25%. Increase the amount of PM until your horse is eating just enough to not go over its maximum. Here's what that would look like for my mare:



As you can see, she maxes out at 85% PM. That still gives her 185% total energy, which is more than enough for her to gain weight.

I hope that helps!

[walnut the hamster]

Thanks

[walnut the hamster]

I followed what you said and i put him at 80% but it still says he is not getting enough energy but if i give him more its over red. what do i do? He is a Shetland pony

[Abbih]

I followed what you said and i put him at 80% but it still says he is not getting enough energy but if i give him more its over red. what do i do? He is a Shetland pony

If the horses aren't in a pasture, put them in one (ideally in one at 100%), grass doesn't add any weight, but you can only feed one "extra." Feed them the most weight gain you can in a pasture and they should gain plenty of weight. If your having trouble with Shetlands and weight, get them their own pasture and keep it mowed down enough to only maintain their weight