Is your horse skinny? If yes, you are in the right place. A thin horse is called ‘hard keepers’ and are always challenging to feed. Whether the weather is good or not, you might feel it difficult to find the accurate horse feed brands. Today, you will get to know everything about the horse feeds that you should have known before. Let’s get started!
Factors affecting your Horse’s Weight
When it comes to your horse’s weight, various emotion, as well as physical factors, plays an important role and this stands true for a thin horse. Some of the horse owners might know about the below factors.
Calorie Requirements
Ensure that the feed is meeting your horse’s basic requirements. When purchasing the feed, double-check that there are enough calories for your horse in each diet. Of course, a horse that lives outdoors in a run or pasture and a heavy training needs more calories than a horse that lives is not in work, lives in a stall, and wears a blanket in winter. Also, your horses need more calories in winter.
Teeth
It’s important to keep your horse’s teeth healthy. However, it may be an expensive affair but avoids later health risks.
Stress Level
Stress affects your horse’s health at a bigger level. There can be physical stress – hard training, an injury, or extreme weather condition or emotional stress. Your horse can feel emotionally stressed if their living condition doesn’t match their nature. To say, a horse is a bond to feel stressed if it’s being terrorised by the herd mate or low in the pecking order. There could be numerous factors that can make your horse stressed-out. All you have to do is provide the best care and living style to your horse.
Parasites
It’s important to figure out whether or not your horse has any parasites. There are a few parasites such as tapeworm, which can’t be detected on fecal analysis.
Feed for high-energy thin Horse
If you have a thin horse with high-energy, it might be losing weight through utter nervous tension and frequent movement. So, for such horses, you have to keep it relaxed and calm. A thin horse with high-energy gains weight quickly with an increased amount of alfalfa and grass hay. To make your horse gain weight, you can add a high a dose of Probiotics such as Bifidus and acidophilus. An increased population of probiotics in your horse’s gut helps to produce B-vitamins that lead in a more relaxed horse.
Feed for low-energy thin Horse
Have a thin horse with low-energy? Add a few calories and boost their digestive system. Increase the grain content up to 1 pound per 100 pounds of the horse’s body weight per day. For better digestion, add top-quality acidophilus and Bifudus in the meal.
Wrapping Up
Of course, you need to pay special attention to your horse, especially when it’s no longer gaining weight. Choose a horse food that meets the body requirements of your horse. Take a look at the ingredients and let your friend grow fuller and healthier.
