I agree that she doesn't have much in the way of muscling through her topline or hindquarters at the moment, and I do think she is a touch underweight. Not freak out and cry neglect, but could definitely use a few more kilos.

I know you said she is being given hay twice a day, but how much is she actually getting, by weight? As a general rule of thumb a horse needs 2-2.5% of their ideal bodyweight in roughage every day. So, for example, a horse who should ideally be around 500kg will need roughly 10kg every single day of roughage.

Also, what sort of pellets is she on and again how much, by weight? There are an awful lot of poor quality pellets around that have no business being fed to horses. I'm not sure where you are located so I may not be of any help as far as figuring out whether you are feeding a good pellet or not, but the information will certainly help people in your area advise you.

 

She looks about as skinny as my 3yr old. who came to me 3 months ago underweight, not extremely, but underweight. The vet and the breeders I have talked to told me not to feed too much as that can cause a growth spur that we don't want at this stage, so he is still so called skinny, however, he does have somewhat of an athletic look for a horse that's not in work. I see them looking very much alike..

Atm he gets free pasture, now started ad lib hay, also a few apples a day, and once he gets about 2 lbs of grain/granule mix. keeps his weight growing slowly, also muscles will fill out with more work, when we can finally start it (he has been lame for a while)

I would suggest checking hay amount she gets for her weight as HowClever already suggested, feeding hay twice a day means she gets to stand for some time with no food whatsoever, which can cause ulcers and also stress, due to having nothing to do, as horses usually eat about 80% of the time in the day..
also depends how much and what grain she gets, how much you work, and how you work. she does need a bit more work building muscles, however I have not seen many very muscled and bulky looking TBs.. I have a feeling they can never have those huge muscled bums that Qhs and Warmbloods to..
Mine also will later have a lot of muscle, as his breed makes him grow big, heavy and muscled.. also usually easy to get obese I rather have a youngster on the skinny side, than obese..

Beet pulp could help, add in my a handful or two, but soak it for at least 15 minutes beforehand. mix it with her grain.. I want beet pulp too, but impossible to get here

 

I'd add another 10 lb flake of alfalfa since you're in So. Cal. Alfalfa is great for building topline and filling a horse out. If that's not possible then I'd try to work in another serving of alfalfa pellets. I, personally, would also toss in a couple pounds of Ultium Compete, that stuff really works well to add the weight.

 

I do think she has a good amount of muscle but not a great top line from those photos. I wouldn't consider her skinny but she is pretty ribby. Besides feeding her more hay, I would add beet pulp. My 15.2 hard keeper gets 4 qts of shredded beet pulp and I soak it. Contrary to popular belief, beet pulp un soaked will not swell up in their stomach but dry beet pulp can tend to cause horses to choak. Basically I add enough water that it covers the beet pulp and you can swirl it around in the water and 10 minutes later it is ready. Introduce it slowly into her diet. I also feed 1 qt of pelleted rice bran to my hard keeper. Make sure if you feed rice bran you get the stabilized kind.

Also, make sure he is up to date on his worming and get a fecal sample done if you can.

 

I would get her teeth checked and then increase protein - my preferred method for that is soaked alfalfa pellets.

I don't think your horse is horribly under weight (at the low end of what I like to see) or anything but could look a lot nicer with more muscling and top line. You get that by adding high quality protein/amino acids to the diet and exercise. Any hills you can do slow trotting up with her?

 

@Cat - no hills without driving. It's basically a sandy desert out here, flat flat. And I know sand is good to ride in but I would just go poking around outside of the facility here...a lot of old cow farms and trash. I'd be worried we would get cut.

 

She looks just fine weight wise she just needs muscling that would make her look better. Yeah you can see ribs but its not horrible.

 

Also double check she is getting all of her nutritional requirements.

 

IMPO she is underweight/skinny. I'm not seeing a muscled horse at all. You should be able to barely see the ribs, not see them well defined. She has no muscle tone along her spine. she has what a lot of people consider to be "poverty lines" along her rump that show when a horse is underweight. I'm guessing those are part of why you and your friend think she has good muscle tone?

How much hay, by weight, is she getting every day?
How much (by weight again) pellets, and what kind are they, is she getting per day?

 

So she's a little thin. I'd much rather see a horse a little thin than a little fat, especially if she has to stay idle in a stall a lot.

Simply adding "weight" might well mean, simply adding fat; and I believe fat does little except keep a horse warm, which she probably doesn't need.

It's kind of strange, how we love seeing thin people, but not thin horses.

 

^ You shouldn't be able to see a human's ribs or hips either. A human who's ribs or other bones are visible is an unhealthy one. I would know; I constantly battle being too thin and it makes me feel bad. With even 5 extra pounds I feel much better than 5 too few.

OP, if your mare was growing I might say she's at a perfect weight; but as it is I would like to see another 30-40 lbs on her. I don't think she's the noodliest horse I've ever seen (my filly is! LOL) but she isn't in any way in fantastic shape either. Her topline isn't poor but it isn't great. It takes a lot of work every day to really develop a good topline.

 

The horse cherrij posted a picture of is skinny in frst photo. Op horse isnt that skinny sorry i disagree on she needs weight.

We are to used to seeing fat horses fat doesnt mean healthy id rather see ribs then see a fat horse.

 

Hi all, thanks for the responses. So she is currently getting two flakes alfalfa per day, four scoops (not sure what it equates to weight wise, about a coffee can AMT) of complete 80/20 pellets, farrier formula double strength. My barn is now going to add in an afternoon flake lunch, and I bought beet pulp today, although I'm not going to start until I speak with my vet. I had previously updated my smart paks to include the muscle building one, but this hasn't arrived yet. Wasn't sure if I should introduce cool calories or if I should just wait to see how the muscle builder and beet pulp work. She has tons of energy and had three different "feeling good" bucking episodes today when I rode. She is UPD on shots and worming, and I previously scheduled her to get her teeth done this week actually.

I think part of the problem also may be that when we put hay in her feeder she ropes it out, and eats from the ground. Not a big deal except the horse right next to her chomps on my horse's hay, which would reduce intake. So, I bought a new feeder, one in which she won't be able to dislodge a flake of hay.

Does everyone agree with the "poverty lines" comment? It was the first I heard of that one. Im not disagreeing, but I thought she had muscle back there, so now I'm confused. There are many horses that I know that do not get worked and have no tone back there. I thought we had tone?

 

Yes, I agree that she has poverty lines in her rump. Its easy to mistake them as muscle, but when you've seen your horse TRULY muscled, its much easier to tell that those lines are not from fitness level. Let me try to demonstrate this to you with my own TB filly. Please note that she came to me extremely emanciated last December, so a most of these pictures are old and do not represent her condition now.

This is at a condition when she was a bit thinner than your mare; not exercised whatsoever, and kept stalled/in a small paneled pen due to a severe injury to her ear so she was obviously not physically fit.

see those well defined creases on her rump? This is due to the fact that she was still a good 50 lbs underweight at the time, maybe a bit more. Do note that she WAS a bit thinner than your mare though, as seen by the sunken in look of her hips.

As she gained weight and muscle from 24/7 turn out and lots of good food though, those lines began to fade.

She is now at just about optimal weight (I'm hoping for another 5-10 lbs as insurance for the winter) and while this isn't a good photo of her (sorry), you can see that no lines are on her butt any more, even though she is obviously in better condition and is even being ponied at a walk and trot in-hand a few times a week.

Hopefully that helps a little. I know the photo quality isn't good.

I think the extra flake of alfalfa hay and beet pulp will do your mare a world of good, as well as riding as often as possible with her working off of her hind end, not her forehand which it looks like she might be doing now, based off of her shoulder/chest muscles as opposed to the lack of hind end muscles. That just comes from use and training.

 

Two flakes of alfalfa per day doesn't seem like enough, even with the pellets. My gelding was getting more than that as a 2yo not in work and is definitely getting much more than that as a 4yo (2-3 flakes of grass hay in the morning and at lunch [totaling about 15-20lbs per feeding] and 2-3 flakes of alfalfa for dinner [totaling about 12-16lbs]). Even being fed that much, I was told I should be feeding him grain to put more weight on him when I asked for a critique back in May and he wasn't anywhere near as ribby and lacking weight/muscle as your girl.

I also see the poverty lines that SR mentioned.
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What is the weight on those flakes of hay or at least what size bales are they coming off of? Bales have a huge weight range and thus the flakes from them can as well.

 

^ O_O Ok, I'll stop complaining about having to feed Kenzie 20 lbs of grass hay and 6 lbs of alfalfa pellets now... WOW. Of course, I feed her grain too, but still!

 

Aires is also 16.1-2hh and 1400-1500lbs, Endiku. Lol. So, the amount he's fed is right about 2.4% of his body weight. I'm looking to add a RB or some kind of grain to his diet, but our selection in my area is limited to Purina products and the one RB CAL Ranch carries.
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I guess I'm not on the same page with the poverty lines... Here are two pictures of QHs that my friend and I trained one summer. If anything the palamino was 100lbs over weight. And, I see the same lines on her. I'm not auguring and am so happy that everyone took the time to respond, but the pictures here are two extreamly fit horses that we rode throughout the Rocky Mountains. I'm not really seeing the difference in the behind only.

 

Oops here is the other.

 

@Cat - not sure but they seem to be solid. Actually I'm going to take a scale down to see and track the pellet intake because I've always done it by scoops never lbs and I'm curious to see what the weight is.

 

Do you see how much higher the lines go on your mare and how much deeper the creases are? Also, she has barely any padding on the top of her butt (see how pointy it is at the top?). While yes, she is a TB, she should still have a nice rounded shape to her butt, like the horse you posted second. A pointy shape to her butt is a lack of weight and muscle.
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a little ribby, my TB is in similar condition i think its a TB thing lol she eats alot. I wouldnt worry too much, maybe increase her hay, and look into a protein powder (soybean powder) or a feed called Maxi-Soy

 

Being a TB is not an excuse to have an underweight horse. It's said quite a bit and it is NOT true. TBs on the track being ribby are a whole different ball game than the TB in most people's back yards.

 

Wow...after reading this thread, I'm wondering if my thoroughbred has "poverty lines"...a term I'm not familiar with as I'm new to horse ownership. How do I attach pictures to show up on here?
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Its most certainly not a 'TB thing' its a not getting the right 'feed thing'

 

Get a small mesh hay net which will slow down the horse's comsumption which means better digestion. Stuff it as hard as you can and hang it as high as you can. If you provide two nets spaced well apart she will move from one to the other. Walking aids digestion as well. You need to weigh your hay as she should be getting somewhere in the 20lbs range per day. With the pellets, put them in two or three pans well spaced, again to slow her down. With horses, the faster the feed goes in, the faster it makes expensive manure. Are you giving her loose salt? A good mix is table salt and pickling salt. Horses don't get enough salt from a lick as it makes the tongue sore.

 

Hi Saddlebag - I actually changed her feeder tonight as recommendation from the guy who actually is dishing out the feed every day. He notices my horse picking her hay out of the feeder and then moving it to an area where the horse next to her takes it. She is in an outdoor pipe stall. So I got one that specifically holds the hay in, like a net, instead of just a bucket. I put it as high as I could, too, even though a lot of people condem hay holders, so hopefully she won't jerk it out. So I'm very certain these small changes should do a world of good. I'm not giving loose salt, actually never heard of that. Just the standard lick...,which we have been licking through for two years now