Questions about feed supplements

[ShowMama: aka Pack Mule!]

I'm wondering if anyone can recommend either a feed or food supplement that will help put weight on a mare (was just bred) but not make her hot.

Our Arabian mare is looking a bit thin, and I don't want to let her get too thin as she was just bred this week. For the last year and a half she was on open green grass pasture and was also grained daily. She only had to compete with two other horses for hay. In March we moved her back closer to home and she shares a dry pasture with about a dozen other mares where she has free acess to round bale hay. Our mare is toward the bottom of the pecking order in the herd, and she's usually standing alone away from the hay bale when we visit. She's supposed to be grained everyday, but I know there are many days when she isn't brought to be fed. I think the mare got a bit picky about her feed when she had access to all the fresh grass she wanted.

I want to make sure she has the proper nuitrition needed assuming this pregancy takes, but I also don't want her to get too hot as a young 4-H girl is riding her this summer. Any advice is appreciated.

[kitcat0601]

Its the fat that puts weight on a thin horse. My mare started to lose weight real quick after she had the foal, so I started giving her Max E Glo. You should start it slow. 1/2 cup twice a day and increase it to 1 cup twice a day. She is a TB and it didnt make her hot in any way. It put weight on her pretty nice.

[bndranch]

Beat Pulp is another great suppliment to add that will not make her hot. Just make sure you soak it and then give her, her daily grain and vitamins (I feed Dynamite suppliments).

[kitcat0601]

The Dynamite feed program is supposed to be very good and all natural. Have you had good sucess with it Brittany?

[bndranch]

I LOVE the Dynamite! My neighbor has fed it for many years and swears by it. She is also a dealer so I buy all my horse (and human) suppliments from her. I used to feed the mare and foal suppliment by Farnam but that takes 2oz per day (so twice a day) it adds up really fast. The Dynamite I feed one oz once a day! I have seen horses in pretty pitiful shape be put on it and they just look awesome! I recommend it 110%!

[bndranch]

Here are some pictures of my show mare
This picture was taken not even a month after I bought her.....So no Dynamite

Same mare being on the Dynamite for 5 months later

Again same show just a side view

[ShowMama: aka Pack Mule!]

Thanks for the info. It looks like Dynamite certainly improved the color of your palomino. Ours is a grey, almost white now with flea bitten. I'm not sure what color enhancers would do for a grey. But I will certainly look into it. The beat pulp may be hard to use if it requires soaking. We board our mare, and it's hard to get the owners of the farm to do anything that requires extra work. She's supposed to be brought in and given grain twice a day, but I know that doesn't always happen. I've been getting on their case lately telling them that's what I'm paying for, so I expect her to be brought in and fed. Even given her supplements may not always be given on a regular basis, but I would think it wouldn't be too hard to add it to her grain. Most of the horses at the farm we board at are stock type horses and do fine on hay only. Our horse being an Arabian, is the odd horse out and sometimes I'm not sure they understand she may be a bit harder to keep.

Is Dynamite mainly a supplement, or a feed? And is it good for (hopefully) pregnant mares?

[bndranch]

Dynamite is a vitamin suppliment an all around one. I give it to all my horses including my broodmare and then I put it in with my foal's feed when I am crepe feeding my foals. Yes it inproved her coat, but a healthy coat is signs of a healthy horse.
The gal who I buy it from also has fed it to her pregnant mares and her stallion for MANY years. It is safe for all classes of horses.
I believe they have a website if you go and google dynamite horse suppliments you should be able to find it.
As far as hay see if you can maybe put out another round bale of timothy or a grass/alfalfa mix. If you don't think she will get her suppliments and grain where she is at I would be worried as there aren't many fat builders out there that don't require you at least putting it on their feed. Another cheap way to help put fat on a horse is 1/4cup corn oil poured over their grain ration.

[kitcat0601]

what a pretty mare brittany.. I LOVE pali's

[wisteriafarms]

In regards to the color enhancers for a grey ShowMama...I was giving my boy Black-As-Knight by Cheval, and it worked very nicely for bringing out his black points. He was once a deep, steel grey, but has gotten pretty light now and is starting to get flea-bitten (he is an arabian also ). Problem was, that supplement was pretty pricey so I stopped using it. But it seemed to me that it was mostly paprika anyway, so I started checking out what other people had to say about the product and it seemed as though a lot of people felt as I did (about the price) and had tried using just paprika with very good results. So I went out and bought a bulk container of it from GFC. Of course now it is summer and he is on just pasture so I don't have a way to feed him the supplements lol, so I am looking for a good horse treat recipe that I can add my own supplements to .
Anyway, just wanted to pass along the bit about Black-As-Knight. It really is a good product, just beyond my budget (about $50 a month). They also make products for other colors. I also wanted to share about the paprika.

[ShowMama: aka Pack Mule!]

We actually tried Black-As-Night a couple of years ago, but only bought one bucket because it was so expensive. We really didn't see much difference at the end of the bucket and never bought anymore. My daughter wanted to try to keep the mare from turning flea bitten, but I figure since the mares's dam was very flea bitten, that its in the genes. (Besides, we're all red heads and the mare can just match our freckles!

For now I'm not really looking for a color enhancer, just something to put some weight back on the mare. I think I'm also going to have her teeth floated just to make sure it's not her teeth that's caused her to drop weight. I sent a bottle of canola oil out to the barn today to start putting in her grain until we can get a supplement. The mare's not skinny by anymeans, but I want to catch the weight loss before she looses too much.