feeding thin thoroughbred

I have a 20 yr old thoroughbred that is a bit on the thin side atm. I was feeding him about 2 litres of soaked oats a day to try to get him fat and now I've started feeding about 1 litre soaked oats 1 litre barley. Do you think this is adequate to get him fat or he needs alot more? And with barley everything I read said you have to soak it or boil it til it splits does this matter so much? Thanks for any help

How much hay does he get?? He is lacking nutrition the way you are currently feeding him...

Can you get Blue Seal ?? OR HyGain??

He doesn't get hay. He is on about 40 acres plus of pasture.

My advice...lose the oats. At his age I would be sure he is getting good quality hay and a cool based feed. I personally would recommend beet pulp and a good senior pellet. He would probably also benefit from a complete supplement of some kind.

This is one of my horses. He is a 27 year old standardbred and he has come up beautifully on the beet pulp, lucerne hay and millrun. I did have him on senior pellets but I wasnt happy with the ones available to me anymore

Well at the moment we don't have any hay. I have access to plenty of straw oaten and barley. Its not easy for us to get our hands on horse feed since we live a fair way away and its pretty expensive

Can you get beet pulp? That can replace at least some of the hay and is great for adding weight.

I have a tb to! To keep wait on him I feed him Rice bran. You can also try beet pulp (out of experiance it works really well 4 weight)

Horses need hay. That will bring the weight back up and help him keep it. We had a skinny Appendix at the stables that was skin and bones when I started boarding there. He did not get any grain because he'd choke...even when it was mush. All he got was hay and he did almost a complete turn around by the time the owner left. He looked great besides for the fact that he needed muscles. Most horses can survive on hay...hay should be fed 24/7 especially if they are outside in the pasture. It will keep them warm on cold nights (with them digesting it). Yes it's expensive to offer free choice, but it's healthier for the horse (as long as it's good quality hay and not icky stuff).
Hay will get the weight on and keep it on...I have never seen grain keep the weeight on (yes it will bring it up, but it's lost easy).

So my suggestion is free choice hay all the time. If it gets really cold out, but a blanket on him. To keep warm horses have to burn energy, fat, and so on or else they get cold. WIth a blanket on it keeps the horse warm so all the work he has to do is eat.

I've been going through a simila thing with my old guy Rooster (see my thread about Rooster also in this section). When his weight dropped off, we started him on Empower, beet pulp and rice bran oil. The weight came back but surprisingly, he got a second childhood! He has been so revved up that he's been spooking at everything and whirling in mid-air!
So we've backed off on the Empower for now to see if I can get my old, serene, reliable fellow back.
Try the beet pulp, rice bran and Empower just the same. Just watch out that your horse doesn't get too excited or nervous or overweight with the diet change.
Good luck!

Rice bran is an easy way to get weight up quickly...but it spoils extremely easy. Vegetable oil (in moderation) also works good! Rooster totally just reminded me of those things lol