First rescue!

Alright so, browsing craigslist for my area. I found a year and 6 month old yearling stud colt. He's rose grey, not sure how tall and I'm thinking he's QH or a QH/Arab mix.

The only photo I seen on the ad you could tell his hip bones and his back bone were protruding a little, as well you could see his ribs through his winter. I'm assuming he's got worm belly and that's part of it. I would say he's probably a good 75 pounds under weight?? Its not horribly bad but he's not fat enough.

He's getting wormed first day he gets here. Shots, teeth floating, feet done, gelding ect. But what feed do you recommend I feed him? I have sweet grain. I also have hay and what not. The lady who has him, I guess her parents moved and when they moved, they left him there and she has no idea how to take care of him. She's selling him for 100, our trailer car puller broke down and we can't pull the trailer so she's renting one for 40 and I'm paying her 25 in gas. So its 175 all together.

I don't plan on keeping him. I plan on getting him fat and putting a little foal training on him. Waiting a while and then giving him to a good home.

I'd avoid sweet feed and cereal grains as much as possible and look for something designed specifically for young, growing horses, especially since he's already a little on the skinny side and likely not been getting the nutrients he should.

I've had very good success with Triple Crown feed for my (adult) horse, so I'd probably start by looking into Triple Crown Growth or 30% Supplement for a foal.

I was thinking about that. I know it doesn't have the protein he'll need. Uhm, just a thought. But would mare and foal feed work? Its got growth supplements as well as protein and other things I'm sure. My local tack store carries it.

Agree with Verona that I'd avoid feeding grain & definitely not feed(any horse) sweets. Low starch/sugar, high fibre diets are best for horses & little & often feeding.

I'd start with free choice hay/grass & see how he goes from there. With teeth, worms, etc attended to, if he's otherwise healthy he should do perfectly well on that, then all he needs is an appropriate nutritional supplement to balance his diet.

If he needs more than just hay for bulk, a 'mare & foal' feed can indeed be good. But I'd avoid anything that has specific supplements for growth, or feeding to 'beef him up' too much. Rapid growth & weightgain is not the best.

Good grass hay for now and plenty of it. Sweet feed isn't that wonderful. There are better alternatives this day and age. Wait until he's been eating good for a week or two depending on his condition and slowly add a feed. Up the amount fed by the handful every few days until he's getting what he needs for his size and age.

Worried about vitamins? Get a bag of ration balancer and give him half the amount for a guy his size. Probably talking a half a measuring cup full. He will eat in a swallow or two. Increase slowly.

What ever you decide the changes need to be done slowly or you risk founder or messing up his growing joints.