HMH Reality Check said:

Trost District said:

I would switch up his grain. 4 pounds per day is nothing when you weigh over 1000. He should be eating closer to double that if he's doing work and needs to put on weight. Dry pellets with 14 to 16% protein would probably be a good choice. In my opinion, timothy hay is awesome. All my animals love it. At my house, my horses just have hay, grain if they need it, and free choice minerals. The hay can be bermuda, prairie, mixed, or crab grass, which they also seem to really like. One problem that I see with a lot of the performance horses of my area is people trying to feed too many different things. Supplements help, but when they're eating 5 different supplements plus their hay and grain, the gut sometimes decides enough is enough and gets burnt up. Even with my beef show calves, who need to be huge and burly, all they ever get other than their hay, grain, and minerals is an appetite stimulant and cold rinses with the hose. A lady that I know plays polo professionally, and all her horses get is a mix of ground alfalfa and whole corn plus pasture in summer and hay in winter. They look fantastic. Half of them are ottbs and there's never a rib in sight on them. Plus, they have plenty of energy and love the feed.

My arab is 875 lbs. 14.1hh. 2 pounds of grain is plenty. He doesn't not need to out on weight either. You can't see his ribs, he's in great shape. I just want him to be a bit chunkier for winter. It's not necessary though. My guy isn't a high proformace show horse. Yes, I ride everyday but 80 percent if the time it's bareback in the field. He gets so bored of the arena, as do I.