Feeding For Weight Gain Spotlight: Johnson's Every Horse Weight Gain
Weight gain is always a hot topic when it comes to equine health. It’s an aspect of feeding that owners often struggle with. There are those horses that are poor doers and are difficult to get weight on, horses who are recovering from illness or injury, horses who have been purchased by new owners in poor condition, or those horses that are older and struggle to keep weight on.
There are many reasons why a horse needs condition and extra weight added to their body score, so for the next four weeks we’re going to spotlight four feeds that are great for doing just that.
Start with the horse’s health
Before embarking on a weight gain feeding regime, we must first address the horse’s health to ensure there is no underlying reason why the horse is not gaining and maintaining weight.
Health Checklist:
- Teeth and dental up to date?
- Worming and parasite control up to date?
- Virus and infection free?
- Gastric ulcer free?
- Is the horse getting at least two per cent of its body weight per day in roughage?
- Have you changed/ removed external factors that may be causing stress and anxiety?
Feed for the job – Johnson’s Every Horse Weight Gain
This feed has quickly become a feed of choice amongst our customers due to it being a grain free, non-heating, reasonably priced feed made from quality ingredients.
Johnson’s Every Horse Weight Gain is a high fibre, balanced, pelleted feed designed to help increase body condition and muscle development, while delivering sustained, safe energy. Providing cool energy, Every Horse Weight Gain is suitable for all horses across multiple disciplines. Horses and ponies in light to medium work, retired or spelling horses, and competition horses will all benefit from this feed.
Johnson’s Every Horse Weight Gain contains premium grade export quality Oaten Hay and Lucerne Hay, Lupins, Faba Beans, Full Fat Soybean (GMO free), Soybean Oil (GMO free) and Johnson’s Premium Vitamin and Mineral premix (including chelated minerals, prebiotics, probiotics, and mycotoxin binder).
Every Horse Weight Gain is a low GI, balanced, slow-release energy feed for sustained performance. Designed to be gentle on the digestive system and ulcer friendly, containing no grains and is very low in starch. Made using top quality protein that contains essential amino acids helps build topline and repair muscles. Weight Gain also contains organic zinc, copper and essential fatty acids for strong, health skin and glowing coat.
Keep it balanced – it’s about the big picture
Feeding a complete pelleted feed such as Johnson’s Every Horse Weight Gain is a great base for your horse’s weight gain regime, however, don’t forget these important feeding rules to ensure that all the horse's requirements are being met:
- Free access to fresh, clean drinking water
- Feed at least 2% of the horse’s body weight in roughage per day (fresh pasture, hay and chaff)
- Feed smaller feeds more often, this is how a horse’s digestive system is designed
- Feed by weight not volume and always feed the recommended amount for you horse’s weight/ workload
- Don’t feed more than 2kg of grain at once as this can cause stomach issue, such as ulcers
- A complete feed does not always meet the required intake of vitamins and mineral if there’s a deficiency in the horse or the pasture is depleting them of something (for example horses on high oxalate grasses may need extra calcium added to their diet), therefore it is important to keep it all balanced. There are apps such as FeedXL that can help you calculate and balance your horse’s feed.
- Oil is a great way to add extra calories without adding extra hard feed
- Be careful to not overfeed your horse, this can cause issues and will for the most part be a waste of your money as it will pass straight through the horse.
- Weight gain, conditioning and topline building takes time, this will not happen overnight but rather over months!
Stay tuned for our next weight gain blog!