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I have a 20 yr old Arabian gelding. Our winters are super harsh where I live and I am moving to a place with an even colder one. My gelding is in good shape. I ride him everyday, he is an awesome condition with a bit of a hay belly. He is super sassy and not at all and old man. I am a bit worried about winter though. I can't ride as much obviously and I don't want him to loose weight. I've looked into getting him a weight gain supplement. I've used Cool Calories before on another horse and that worked well. I fear that Cool Calories will just build on his hay belly and not add any fat to his top line. I've also looked into like a muscle builder. I thought maybe that would help. I don't really know where to start looking. If anyone has any thing they know works or has good things about, please share! |
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Trivia Team
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So, a bag of cool calories costs 20-70 dollars, depending on the size, and you can go through a large bag quite easily in a month. I would rather just add beet pulp to your horse's feed, or alfalfa cubes, for the same price and with more calories. I had my horse on cool calories for awhile, then figured I could spend the same money and just feed him more, and it worked out better. I don't really like weight-gain supplements for this reason. |
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Equine Omega Complete and Forco are great options for this. We use both of them for this exact same reason. EOC is on the more expensive side and Forco is a bit cheaper.
I would look into both:D |
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FirstLightFarms said:
So, a bag of cool calories costs 20-70 dollars, depending on the size, and you can go through a large bag quite easily in a month. I would rather just add beet pulp to your horse's feed, or alfalfa cubes, for the same price and with more calories. I had my horse on cool calories for awhile, then figured I could spend the same money and just feed him more, and it worked out better. I don't really like weight-gain supplements for this reason.
He already gets a lot of grain and hay pellets due to his age and workload, I'd prefer to not add more food as it already takes a really long time for him to eat. |
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Montova Acres said:
Equine Omega Complete and Forco are great options for this. We use both of them for this exact same reason. EOC is on the more expensive side and Forco is a bit cheaper.
I would look into both:D
Thank you, I will definitely look into these. |
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I've had good luck with Ultimate Finish, which comes in a couple "levels" of fat I believe. You only have to add 1 or 2 cups a day, so it won't add more bulk but can add a lot of palatable calories. It shouldn't contribute to the hay belly, as that is typically the result of too many carbs and not enough protein. I've heard good things about TriAmino, if you're looking to make sure he gets the right building blocks for muscle. |
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EmeraldHillsFarm said:
I've had good luck with Ultimate Finish, which comes in a couple "levels" of fat I believe. You only have to add 1 or 2 cups a day, so it won't add more bulk but can add a lot of palatable calories. It shouldn't contribute to the hay belly, as that is typically the result of too many carbs and not enough protein. I've heard good things about TriAmino, if you're looking to make sure he gets the right building blocks for muscle.
Awesome, thank you! |
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I would definitely avoid beet pulp if you want to avoid a hay belly. I show some dairy cattle, and one thing that dairy people do with heifers is feed them a lot of beet pulp leading up to show day. They do this heifers that are too shallow and narrow in the belly and it puffs them up without putting extra fat on them since dairy cattle need to be sharp. Beet pulp helps them retain water, but doesnt have a ton of calories, so it would do the opposite of what you want. I would just go with alfalfa. Also, soaking his pellets may help him to eat easier. I've never owned an arabian so I really dont know what would work best for a horse with that kind of metabolism, but I know what the purpose of beet pulp is and that most of my animals hate it. |
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Edited at October 17, 2020 06:34 PM by Rosewater Eventing
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Edited at March 27, 2022 08:09 AM by BlueMist Farms
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