Snack?

I had posted another thread about switching my parrot mouthed hard keeper to a new feed. I settled on a feed which we just started, so nothing to report there. Now my question is about a snack. I tend to ride in the middle of the day and wanted to know if anyone had any suggestions about something I could feed him after our ride that would assist with allowing him to put on weight and maybe keep his TB metabolism from kicking in while he's waitng for dinner? Obviously it would have to be something non-grain since he would have been ridden in the past hour. He usually has some hey left from the morning, but I'm just trying to find anything additional that might help.

Just give him a third meal when you are done riding :)

Isn't it very dangerous for horses to eat grain when they are hot from exercise? I'm usually out of there only about 15 minutes after I'm done riding.

So you are not cooling him out completely before you leave??

Can you give him some extra hay or beet pulp :)

And actually TC Senior is grain free ... so as long as he isn't really hot you should be fine ... just give him half serving or less

I would go with hay pellets or cubes. Wet them down before your ride, so there's just enough water to coat everything thoroughly. After your ride, fluff it up and let him enjoy! If you feed grass hay or timothy, I'd recommend alfalfa pellets. If you feed alfalfa or alfalfa mixed hay, then I'd go with alfalfa/timothy pellets.

You can add a fat supplement to help with weight gain too, if he's not getting one already. Something like milled flax or stabilized rice bran. Plain corn or soybean oil will work too, if you're on a budget. 1/2 - 1 cup of the flax or bran, 1/4-1/2 cup of the oil.