How to Safely Help Your Horse Gain Weight

Weight loss in horses can happen for many reasons, and because it often occurs gradually, it can be surprisingly easy to miss. A thick winter coat can make changes in condition even harder to notice.

If your horse is losing weight unexpectedly, the first step shouldn't simply be to add more feed. Before increasing calories, it is important to considerwhy the horse has lost weight in the first place.

Dental problems, parasites, gastric ulcers, chronic pain, illness, stress, competition for feed, poor-quality forage and age-related changes can all contribute to weight loss. Older horses may also have difficulty chewing or digesting traditional forage effectively.

If the weight loss is unexplained, significant or continuing, speak with your veterinarian before making major dietary changes. The University of Minnesota's guide to caring for an underweight horse also provides useful information on identifying and managing weight loss.Caring for the Underweight Horse – University of Minnesota Extension

Once underlying health problems have been investigated, the aim is to increase the horse's energy intakegradually and safely, while maintaining a forage-based, balanced diet.

Here are our key tips.

1. Start with forage

Forage should form the foundation of almost every horse's diet, and it is usually the best place to start when trying to increase weight.

Horses are designed to consume fibre throughout the day. Where appropriate, an underweight horse can benefit from generous access to good-quality pasture or hay, ideally providing forage for much of the day and night.

As a general guide, horses commonly consume around1.5–2.5% of their bodyweight in forage per day, depending on the individual horse, its workload and the energy content of the forage. For a horse that needs to gain weight, simply supplying more forage may be enough if previous intake has been insufficient.

Quality matters too. A large quantity of very mature, stemmy hay may provide fewer digestible calories than a smaller amount of higher-quality hay.

If your horse lives in a group, also check that it is actually getting access to the feed offered. A horse lower in the paddock pecking order may spend considerably less time at the hay feeder than you realise.

For horses that struggle to chew long-stem forage, particularly seniors or horses with dental problems, soaked fibre feeds or suitable forage replacers may be useful.

2. Consider adding lucerne

Lucerne can be a useful addition to a weight-gain diet because it generally provides more energy, protein and calcium than many mature grass hays.

It can be particularly useful when you want to improve the overall quality of the forage portion of the diet rather than simply feeding increasingly large concentrate meals.

Lucerne does not necessarily need to make up the horse's entire forage ration. It can be fed alongside grass hay or pasture as part of a balanced diet.

There is also no need to assume that lucerne will automatically make a horse "hot". Behaviour is influenced by many factors, and the total energy and composition of the diet are more important than blaming a single forage ingredient.

The amount of lucerne appropriate for an individual horse will depend on its total diet, workload, health and nutritional requirements.

3. Add highly digestible fibre

If increasing ordinary hay or pasture isn't producing enough improvement, highly digestible fibre sources can provide additional calories without relying heavily on cereal grains.

These are sometimes calledsuper fibres because, although they are fibre sources, they can provide considerably more digestible energy than poorer-quality forage.

Useful options include:

• beet pulp

• lupin hulls

• soybean hulls

• other formulated high-fibre feeds.

For example, Oakford Stockfeeds stocksT&R Lupin Fibre Cubes, which provide a high-fibre, low-sugar option that can be incorporated into a horse's ration.

Another useful fibre source isSpeedi-Beet, a quick-soaking beet pulp feed.

Hygain Fibre Essential is another fibre-based option that can be useful when additional digestible fibre and condition are required.

Always follow the manufacturer's preparation and feeding instructions, particularly for products that require soaking.

4. Choose the right conditioning feed

Sometimes forage alone simply can't provide enough energy, particularly for horses in work, poor doers or horses that need to regain a significant amount of condition.

Rather than immediately adding large quantities of grain, consider apurpose-formulated conditioning feed.

Look for feeds that provide energy through a combination of digestible fibre and fat, while keeping individual meals manageable.

One option available through Oakford Stockfeeds isPryde's EasiConditioner, which is specifically designed for horses requiring additional condition.

Whatever concentrate you choose, follow the manufacturer's feeding rate. If the horse needs a relatively large daily quantity, divide it between multiple meals rather than providing one or two very large feeds.

This is particularly important with feeds containing significant amounts of starch. Large starch-rich meals can overwhelm digestion in the small intestine, allowing more starch to reach the hindgut, where it may disrupt the microbial population and increase the risk of digestive problems.

5. Increase calories with fat

Fat is an extremely energy-dense nutrient and can be a useful way of increasing the calories in a horse's diet without greatly increasing meal volume.

This can be particularly helpful for:

• poor doers

• horses in significant work

• horses with small appetites

• horses that become difficult to manage on larger quantities of cereal grain

• horses that simply cannot consume enough forage and concentrate to meet their energy requirements.

Fat sources may include vegetable oils, stabilised rice bran and commercial high-fat feeds.

For example,KER Equi-Jewel is a high-fat, low-starch stabilised rice bran conditioning supplement.

Oil can also be added to the diet, but it should be introduced gradually. Horses need time to adapt to diets containing higher levels of fat, and adding too much oil too quickly may result in loose manure or reduced palatability.

One correction to the commonly repeated advice around weight-gain feeds is thatsoybean meal should not really be considered a high-fat feed. It is primarily used as a concentrated source of good-quality protein. Full-fat soybean products are different and can contribute considerably more fat.

6. Don't forget protein and muscle

Putting weight on a horse isn't simply about making it fatter.

If a horse has lost significant condition, it may also have lost muscle. Restoring topline and muscle requires adequate dietary protein and, importantly, the right amino acids.

Protein alone will not build muscle without appropriate exercise, but a diet deficient in quality protein can make it difficult for a horse to rebuild muscle even when calorie intake is adequate.

This is another reason why randomly adding calories isn't always the best approach. A properly formulated conditioning feed can provide energy, protein, vitamins and minerals together.

For older horses or horses showing substantial topline loss despite adequate feeding, it is also worth discussing the problem with your veterinarian because age, dental disease, PPID and other health conditions may be contributing factors.

7. Make sure the whole diet is balanced

When trying to increase weight, it can be tempting to keep adding ingredients until the bucket becomes increasingly complicated.

More isn't always better.

The horse still needs the correct balance of protein, vitamins and minerals. If you're feeding a commercial feed below the manufacturer's recommended daily rate, the horse may not be receiving the amount of vitamins and minerals that feed was designed to provide.

In that situation, a suitable balancer or vitamin and mineral supplement may be required.

Also make sure the horse has continuous access toclean, fresh water and adequate salt.

The best weight-gain diet is one that provides enough calories while still meeting the horse's complete nutritional requirements.

8. Introduce changes gradually

Avoid making several dramatic changes to your horse's diet at once.

A good general rule is to introduce new feeds gradually over approximately7–14 days, unless your veterinarian or the feed manufacturer recommends otherwise.

Gradual transitions give the microbial population of the hindgut time to adapt and reduce the likelihood of digestive upset.

This is particularly important when introducing concentrates, high-fat feeds or a substantially different forage.

If a horse isseverely underweight or emaciated, however, don't simply start feeding it large amounts of high-energy feed. Severely compromised horses require carefully managed refeeding because inappropriate feeding can cause serious metabolic complications. These horses should be managed with veterinary guidance.

9. Measure whether the diet is actually working

Weight gain should be monitored rather than guessed.

Take regular photographs from the same angles, use a weight tape and record your horse'sbody condition score every few weeks.

Body condition scoring assesses fat coverage over areas including the ribs, neck, withers, back, shoulders and tailhead.

For most mature horses, a body condition score around4–6 on the 1–9 Henneke scale is generally considered a healthy range, although the ideal condition varies with the individual horse and its job.

If you aren't familiar with body condition scoring, our guideHow to Body Condition Score a Horse explains the process in more detail.

Remember that a weight tape isn't perfectly accurate, but using the same method consistently makes it very useful for tracking trends.

Take-home message

Helping a horse gain weight is usually aboutimproving the quality and energy density of the diet gradually, rather than simply feeding a bigger bucket.

Start with good-quality forage. If that isn't enough, consider highly digestible fibre, an appropriate conditioning feed or additional fat. At the same time, make sure the ration still provides adequate protein, vitamins and minerals.

Most importantly, unexplained weight loss should never be treated as purely a feeding problem until potential health causes have been considered.

Weight-gain feeds available from Oakford Stockfeeds

Some options to consider include:

• T&R Lupin Fibre Cubes – high-fibre lupin hull-based cubes

• Speedi-Beet – highly digestible beet pulp fibre

• Hygain Fibre Essential – concentrated digestible fibre

• KER Equi-Jewel – high-fat stabilised rice bran conditioner

• Pryde's EasiConditioner – complete conditioning feed

You can also browse the fullOakford Stockfeeds horse feed range.

Every horse is different. If you're unsure where to start, drop into Oakford Stockfeeds or have a chat with our team and we can help you choose feeds suited to your horse, current diet and goals.

This article provides general feeding information only. Horses experiencing unexplained, rapid or substantial weight loss should be assessed by a veterinarian.