FAQ
On Equine Rescue Feeding
Q: What Not to Feed or do?
A: Do not START out feeding a starving horse like you would a healthy horse - EVER. Do Not FEED sweet feeds or corn if possible. They are not good feed choices for any horse, especially a neglected one. They seem fine for many healthy horses, but forage based diets ARE best for all horses
Q: How to introduce feed to the underweight horse?
A: I recommend Only hay the first week or two, and I personally hold off on rich pasture/grass for a few weeks, at least, depending on body condition/score.
Start soaked forage based pelleted feed or hay pellets are the choice to start out with, and adding supplement type pellets like rice bran, alfalfa pellete or/and beet pulp at about 1 cup twice a day the first day with free choice hay, and add another 1lb twice a day and so on until you work up to the recommended amount for the weight the horse SHOULD be at can start once you have a body condition of 2-3.
Typically you need at 2% of a horses desired body weight in feed a day if they are lightly worked, and I like to feed at least 60% of this or more in quality hay. You really can't go wrong with FREE CHOICE quality hay after the first week on a horse with a body condition score of 2 and up.
Q: IF I should give
No sweet feed, What do I feed?
A: Start with a soaked pellet like Nutrena Safe Choice or Purina Strategy Healthy Edge once you have a body condition of 2 and up or after the first week to 10 days if your horse came in at a BC score of 2 or 3.
We have fed a mix of 50% Alfalfa Pellets, 30% Beet Pulp (soaked or dry, I recommend soaked to prevet choke), Oats, 10% Rice Bran pellets (VERY HIGH FAT) and a supplement of Flax See. You can also add a senior feed and do something like 30% Alfalfa, 30% Senior, 20% Beet Pulp, 10% Oats (or leave these off) and 10% rice bran. Another option is Purnia Stategy Healthy Edge, which we feed now, Purnia Senior or Triple Crown Complete, Rice Bran, Flax Seed and ACV and Oil. You can forgo Flaxseed and do about 1/2 a scoop daily of Rice Bran if you choose Triple Crown.
Hay / forage is mainstay of any healthy horse's diet!
We hold off on worming horses that are a Body score of 2 and under unless the worm load is clearly one reason for their inability to gain weight.