Question

For a few months I have cared for a 21-year-old Hanoverian gelding, 16.3 hands and about 300 pounds underweight. He is ridden just a little bit right now because he is so thin, but he has had his teeth floated and he has been dewormed. He is eating KER Re-Leve, coastal hay, and some alfalfa cubes. He is stalled 12 hours and pastured 12 hours but not much grass is available. He has a history of laminitis. Is Re-Leve the right feed for this horse, and how much can he safely eat in one day? Are there any other ways to put weight on him without risking laminitis?

Answer

Adding weight is oftentimes a long-term goal. It seems you’ve done all of the health maintenance necessary to ensure he’s physically capable of gaining weight such as attending to his teeth and administering an antiparasitic agent.

The feeding program you’ve devised is a great place to start. Re-Leve Original is an appropriate feed for this laminitis-prone gelding. You should be able to safely feed him up to 12 pounds per day. Because you don’t want any single meal to be over five pounds, it would be best to divide this amount into three or four feedings. Many horses seem to do better with smaller, more frequent concentrate meals, especially when an increase in body condition is the goal.

The forage component of the diet might need to be tweaked. When he is stalled, he should have access to as much high-quality hay as possible. The alfalfa cubes will add calories to the diet as well. Even though turnout is important for all horses, it does little good for an underweight horse if there is not sufficient forage to eat. Is there a way to increase forage consumption when he is pastured? Can he be fed hay during his 12 hours of turnout?

Competition for the hay would the principle concern; if he is not at the top of the pecking order, you might end up feeding a horse you didn’t intend to. Can he be placed with another underweight horse so that both might benefit from additional high-quality forage?

If it is not possible to increase forage intake during his turnout time, you might want to consider leaving him stalled for more hours of the day, with just a few hours outside. Once he has gained weight, he might be able to go back to the 12-hours-on/12-hours-off arrangement.