Many of you may remember that Henry’s condition (or lack thereof) was the major factor in leaving our previous barn. He lost a lot of weight in the fall, to the point where you could easily see all his ribs and his hip bones. I treated him for ulcers and moved him to a new barn where he gets significantly more hay. About a month ago I switched his feed from Safe Choice to Triple Crown Complete.
This is what he looked like in January. When the vet took his coggins he said he’d put him around a 3.5 on the Henneke scale. Embarrassing.
This is mid February, shortly after the barn move.
He filled out a little bit in those first couple months, but at a certain point he just seemed to plateau, so I switched to TC Complete. This is about a week into the TC. His body had filled out a little and the ribs were covered slightly more but still easily visible.
And now here he is after about a month on the TC Complete. Most of his ribs are well covered although the last couple are still slightly visible in the light. His hips have filled out a lot and his neck is looking more normal.
You can still see a hint of a rib, more so when he’s in motion than standing in the barn, but not much. I think he’s finally pretty close to ideal weight again, I’d put him at a solid 5 on the Henneke scale now. His neck and butt are coming back too, and he has the look of healthy weight, not a pot belly.
I’ve been really happy with the TC Complete. It’s a little bit pricey (about $25/bag after tax) but the quality is great and it’s supposed to be very good for ulcer prone horses due to the fact that it’s beet pulp (forage) based. Henry has shown no change in his general demeanor, even on the 8lbs/day amount. Soon we should be able to start backing down to more like 5-6lbs a day for maintenance. I’ve been pretty impressed with how quickly it’s helped bring the condition back, plus his coat looks great! Between good feed and plenty of hay he’s bounced back pretty well.
breedrideevent.com 
Love the difference in him. He is so healthy looking now. I use TC Lite (for obvious reasons for my fat boy) and love it and I was JUST talking about you at the barn this a.m. for my friend with an OTTB who needs something to keep her mare a big heavier but not crazy. So I am sending this blog to her cause i couldnt remember what you fed (I knew it was TC). Perfect timing. thanks
Love henry’s flapping tongue. 🙂
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Senior could be a good choice for her if she tends to get hot from feed
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TC Complete is awesome. I currently have my guys on the Senior – also BP based, but only 11.7% NSC.
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The Senior is very good too! I only tipped toward complete because a) higher fat b) the Senior’s #1 ingredient is alfalfa meal and my horse already gets alfalfa. I don’t really need a super low NSC either, although my warmblood mare definitely did really well on low NC feeds. I really like all of TC’s products, I’ve fed 3 different ones now to 3 different horses and been happy with them all.
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Awesome! I’ve been rather lucky with Chloe that she is a chow hound and is not a terribly hard keeper. Her neck is still kind of thin and pencil-y, but I think that’s more from needing to build muscle than anything else. Back when I boarded with a friend of mine, we were feeding something that had rice bran in it and it was amazing. I can’t remember the brand for the life of me though. Our barn uses a senior pellet that is milled here locally with an afalfa base. Chloe seems to really like it and she hasn’t lost any weight going from 9 pounds of feed at the previous farm to 4-5 pounds here. Glad Henry is gaining weight, he looks great!
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He looks great! Cosmo is finally looking in good weight now too. It was a long and slow journey, with the help of beet pulp.
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He is looking a lot better!
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Wow, a 3.5 on that top picture is a bit extreme to me! However, I do agree that he’s looking wonderful now. I actually like it when you can see a horse’s muscles clearly (and don’t even mind a little rib) when they are working. Especially for us eventers, we don’t need to be carrying around the extra fat, I’m into lean lean lean!
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He looked pretty bad in person… you can kinda see how sunken his hips were.
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That is quite the change. Glad he’s back to looking fit and round now. 🙂
Another day I’m thankful for having the world’s easiest keeping thoroughbred.
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Henry can have some of Spot’s extra fluff anytime. The damn girl too easy of a keeper! Air Fern 4 Evar.
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you must be so relieved to see him bouncing back so well! quite a few horses at my farm get TC senior – tho isabel only gets 1/4-1/2 lb/day in addition to a ration balancer bc… well she’s not hard to maintain haha
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He looks great! That’s exactly where I want my horse to be, and he’s close but not quite there yet. I have him on TC Senior because it’s so low in sugar/starch (best for ulcers), but considering TC Complete if I can’t get weight on him with the Senior.
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Complete has more calories per pound. But they’re both good feeds and good for ulcer prone horses due to the fact that the contents make them digest like forage, I like them both.
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Love the TC feeds – been using them forever and honestly wouldn’t switch, despite being more pricey. Glad to hear H is doing well on them too!
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Another vote for Triple Crown 😀
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He looks great!! Much much better 🙂
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Ah, so much better! He looks awesome now – glad the move paid off in this way!
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My guys are also on TC Senior. I don’t know if you can get it there but Seminole’s Dynasport is also really good for putting on weight with low NSC.
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