Quote:
Originally Posted by GutsNGrits Is it average for a 14.3 hand QH to weigh 950?
I would like to put about 50 pounds on my horse within the next two weeks. She gets 1 1/2 scoops of 10/10/10 grain 2 x's a day . Has 12 acres of pasture she is on 24/7 and has water and salt blocks and she doesn't get hay.
Any suggestions on what to feed or what to do to have her put on weight and see quick results? |
Firstly, IMO even if the horse is skinny, you DO NOT want to put on anything like 50lb on a horse in 2 weeks! Gradual increase of feed/introduction of feed & weight gain is very important.
Perhaps you can add a pic or 2 & describe your horses build, to give us more of a clue whether/how much your horse may be underweight. 'Body condition scoring' is helpful to determine what to look for, if it's not obvious.
Don't know what your grain is, but cereal grain wouldn't be my first choice. I'd opt for a low starch high fibre diet. If you are going to feed it, little & often is important and your horse will also get more goodness out of the amount you do feed & the risks of feeding grain may be reduced. Eg if that 3 scoops of grain a day was divided into a few more meals.
It's also important that horses get enough roughage, especially to 'water down' grain or such. While it sounds like she doesn't need hay with that much pasture, I'd be mixing the 'grain' with a fair bit of chaff. Alfalfa/lucerne can be good, being higher energy but low sugar. It's also high protein, calcium & other nutrients so it's important to consider nutritional balance when working out how much to feed.
FeedXL Horse Nutrition: The D.I.Y. Equine diet planner is a great resource for that sort of thing.