New horse won't gain weight, any suggestions?

Jo d pretty much covered what i was going to tell you. It really does help a lot with weight gain. My friend had a horse who was fresh off the track but she was so mistreated that she got to the point were she would eat at all until we gave her apples, carrots etc.

Thoroughbred will often not respond to feeds that are effective at putting condition on most horses. They are use to getting high grain high energy diets. Feeds based on wheat eg. Bran, Pollard will not put condition on alone. Neither will products like Copra Meal. You will need to keep the horse on cool grains. Best of these is something like Steam Flaked Barley, also you must make sure to feed the horse roughage. Hay is a must for health, don't rely solely on chaff. Horses have a small stomach and are natural grazers. They should be fed two smaller meals 10-14 hours apart rather then one large meal. And have hay to eat at all times. Also feed the horse in a bin on the ground, don't use hanging bins and dampen feeds. The reason for feeding in bins on the ground is to help keep the respiratory system clean. Also horse tend to have a lower occurrence of ulcers when fed in bins on the ground and have hay to chew on during the day. Most horses will eat 1.5% - 2.5% of their body mass in dry feed each day. Horses in heavy work can consume up to 3%. Insure the horse has plenty of clean water. They will not eat well if the water is of poor quality eg. Dirty, stale, salty

Hi, We rescue ottb's and this is a common issue. If you just recently got him from the track he will go through a period of weight loss and then will start regaining weight slowly. We do not use supplements or corn oil, we feed a good quality hay...timothy hay and feed a complete pellet and sweet feed mix: 4 quarts in the morning and 4 quarts in the evening with freed fed hay all day. They also get apples, carrots and oat and apple wafers for lunch with their hay. I would also have his teeth checked/floated and just wait and watch. You will see a point where you will be "ah...there he goes..." meaning...he is starting to weight back on. OTTB's usually lose weight once off the track and it can take several months to get them from "Track Fit" to "Sport Horse Fit"...track fit is very, very lean and everything on them is muscle...sport fit allows for less muscle and a more filled out appearance. Best of luck to you! Jo

My family had the same problem with our OTTB. I would do what everyone else said and also try beet pulp. Remember to leave it in water overnight. Once we started using that, plus weight builder, and corn oil, he started gaining weight really fast.

put food in its stall!