If you’ve been around horses long enough, you’ve probably known a “hard keeper” or two. The term “hard keeper” refers to horses who struggle to maintain enough fat cover and/or healthy muscle tone. These horses can benefit from extra care and support year-round, but winter can be an especially challenging season for them. Read on to uncover some common reasons horses struggle to maintain a healthy body condition, and to see how you can help support a healthier, happier hard keeper this winter.
Medical Reasons:
If you’re concerned about your horse’s weight, your first step should be to call your veterinarian. Ask your vet to perform a complete physical examination to ensure there isn’t an underlying medical cause for your horse’s weight troubles. Some of the health reasons that your veterinarian may check for include dental issues, gastric ulcers or other digestive problems, a chronic infection, or parasites.
Parasites:
Preventing parasite infestation is crucial to maintaining your horse’s health. If left untreated, a high parasite load can lead to weight loss in horses, so work with your veterinarian to determine if parasites are robbing your horse of nutrition. When your vet comes out to perform your horse’s physical exam, take the time to review your current parasite management program and develop a targeted deworming plan based on your horse’s unique needs.
Diet:
Horses are “trickle feeders,” meaning they’re designed to eat small amounts frequently throughout the day. (If it were up to him, your horse would spend most of his time grazing!) While this can be hard to achieve in many modern horsekeeping situations, the foundation of your horse’s diet should come from forage, no matter what. Whether it’s from fresh pasture, hay, or a combination of the two, your horse should be eating 1–2% of his body weight in roughage every day (for a 1,000 pound horse, that’s 10–20 pounds daily). Weigh a serving of your horse’s hay to ensure that you’re supplying enough to meet his daily forage requirements, based on his body weight.
When evaluating your horse’s daily serving of hay, keep in mind that horses burn more calories in the winter staying warm. Your horse’s body ferments roughage in the hindgut, which creates heat that helps keep him warm from the inside. Even if he’s getting 1–2% of his body weight in forage already, an increase in hay may be warranted to make up for what he’s using to maintain his core temperature. (You might also want to consider blanketing.)
Finally, take a look at your horse’s grain ration. Are you feeding the full serving recommended on the bag? (If you’re not sure how to check, learn how at SmartPak.com/ReadingFeedLabels). While many horses don’t need a full serving of grain to maintain their ideal weight, every horse is an individual. Hard keepers or horses in heavy work may need the full recommended serving of grain to get the calories they need. In addition to evaluating your horse’s serving of grain, take a look at the type of grain he’s eating. A grain with a higher fat content may be appropriate for a hard keeper.
Living environment:
Once you have your horse’s diet squared away, take a look at where he spends his time. His living environment can play an important role in how well and how much he eats. For example, if he spends most of his time in stall where he can’t see any other horses, he may be stressed about being alone. On the other hand, if he’s at the bottom of the herd pecking order, he may be using up valuable energy scrounging for food. If your horse sounds like one of these examples, think about whether you can help eliminate the stress in his life. If providing more turnout isn’t possible, see if you can use a stall guard so your horse can look out his door and check out his neighbors. If your horse can’t get his share of food in his herd, consider bringing him inside for meals or moving him to a different turnout group.
Supplement support:
If your horse still needs extra support after you’ve ruled out health issues, checked his hay and grain ration, and eliminated environmental stress, you may want to try a weight gain supplement. For a comprehensive approach to weight gain, consider SmartGain. This formula provides a “cool” source of calories from healthy fats, which provide energy without causing a spike in blood sugar, as sugars and starches can. It also provides amino acids for lean muscle development, and prebiotics, probiotics, and enzymes for digestive health, two areas where a hard keeper can benefit from extra support.
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NEW!
Solving the weight loss mystery:
By using these tips together with the expert advice of your veterinarian, barn manager, and equine nutritionist, we hope that you can get to the bottom of your horse’s weight issues and find the right solution for a happier, healthier horse this season.
My horse is 31 years old and the last couple of years she has gotten where she doesn’t like any feeds, especially senior feeds. I tried slowly integrating these feeds, mixing them with her favorite treats from molasses to ground up carrots, corn oil etc and she refuses to eat any of them. She will literally stop eating if she even smells something different from her regular grain which is a dry mix that a local feed store mixes. It’s mostly oats, which passes through her. She gets vaccinations, regular worming, vet checks, dental checks etc. and is healthy, but just very skinny. She has full time access to quality hay and at times a pasture. I don’t know why they can’t make feeds taste like the special treats they make! My horse would eat it all if it tasted like that. She is on supplements from SmartPak and they have helped with joint issues etc. but I can’t get any weight on her.
Terri,
Have you tried hay pellets? I have my old gal on them, I wet them into a mash and she loves them. Alfalfa and Timothy.
Have you tried something like Yea-Sacc or a digestive aid to help her process the feed better? My hard keeper is on Crypto Aero (hard to find, fairly new feed, look into it though) while it isn’t cheap, she looks better than she has in a couple of years. I also feed orchard/alfalfa hay, 6+ flakes a day, and she’s on pasture. I would look into the digestive support, beet pulp, rice bran, or even a smidge of wheat bran will get them to eat sometimes. One of my mares thinks wheat bran is crack–she’ll eat ANYTHING with a cup or so of wheat bran mixed in.
I have a very elderly horse, in his 30’s and he can no longer eat hay, he’s also picky and has lost some teeth. I give him a mix of beet pulp, forage extender & alfalfa-timothy cubes soaked (overnight for each subsequent feeding) plus his grain wetted each feeding. Just like elderly people old horses need hydration and may not be drinking enough, also make sure she has a salt block available and plenty of fresh H20. Oats aren’t very fattenening, try adding some rice bran oil. Feed each new item one at a time starting with very little, but then up to as much as she’ll eat. Good luck, if she’s 30 you’re already doing a good job!
Coco-Soya oil by Uckele. 1/4 -1/2 cup a day on the feed, I stir it up. The best stuff out there to help your horse. Smart Equine sells it and it is wonderful.
I have a 34 yr old mini who won’t eat any feed but ADM Senior Glo, he loves it and he hardly has any teeth left. It’s great feed and when it gets wet almost melts in his mouth. I have given alfalfa cubes too, wet down of course. Peer pulp too wet down but high in sugar. Sometimes I mix a lil of each. In winter.
Have your veterinarian check complete blood panel and selenium assay. Add rice bran to diet.
Ask your vet about vitamin-B complex injections to stimulate appetite