If your horse seems to have a natural tendency to look ribby and stay a bit too thin, you may already be familiar with the term “hard keeper.” The good news is there are some ways to make maintaining and gaining weight easier for your hard keeper horse by following the right feeding routine.
Hard Keeper Defined
A hard keeper is a horse that has trouble maintaining weight on a diet that the average horse would do well on.
“These horses may appear skinny and lethargic, even though you are feeding them by the recommendations,” says Dannie Bradford, M.S., PAS, extension agent and director of University of Tennessee/Tennessee State University extension for Marion County in Jasper, Tenn.
Dannie says that there are many factors at play.
“Just like people, some horses have a higher metabolism than others, causing them to burn calories at a higher rate,” she says.
When thinking about weight gain, you should also consider your horse’s lifestyle, as stress could play a role in physical condition, according to Dannie. Horses being quietly trail-ridden for a few hours a week will have a different stress level than those actively competing and trailering to different facilities every weekend.
Regardless of the potential cause, she advises first having your horse’s vet out to examine him and make sure there are no underlying health problems contributing to him being underweight.
Understanding Healthy Weight
It can be hard to understand exactly what is meant by “healthy weight.” But knowing whether your horse is losing or gaining weight plays an important role in caring for and feeding your hard keeper.
“For horses, we use the Henneke Body Condition Scoring (BCS) system,” Dannie says. “This assigns a score to a horse’s fat cover, ranging from 1 to 9, with 1 being extremely emaciated and 9 being extremely fat.”
With this system, Dannie says we typically want horses around a 5.
“This means you can’t see the rib bones, but you can easily feel them by running your hand down your horse’s side,” she explains. “You won’t be able to see the bones of the spine, as they will be rounded with fat covering them.”
While some owners like their horses to be a little fleshier, around a 6, others with more athletic horses prefer animals a little lighter, around a 4.
“It all depends on your horse’s lifestyle,” says Dannie.
What Makes a Horse Underweight?
Underweight horses are those with a BCS of 3 or less on Henneke’s scale.
“The easiest way to determine if your horse is underweight is to look at his ribs,” Dannie says. “If the ribs are easily seen from all angles, the horse is underweight.”
She explains that sometimes people confuse a horse with a “pot belly” with one that is fat. However, these horses typically have other health issues, such as a parasite load, that is causing their belly to appear fat, while the rest of their body is thin.
This is where Henneke’s BCS scale can be extra helpful, because it provides other areas of the body to look at so you can determine whether the horse is underweight.
Other Factors
There are several common factors that can contribute to a horse’s inability to maintain a good weight.
◆ “One of the most common reasons is dental health,” Dannie says. She says that horse’s teeth can wear unevenly, causing sharp points that rub his cheeks and cause the horse to either not want to eat or to be unable to effectively chew.
◆ Parasites are another area of concern. For horses carrying an internal parasite load, part of the nutrients the horse is consuming are going to feed the parasites.
“This is what causes horses to have a dull hair coat, large pot belly, and trouble maintaining weight,” Dannie says. “Talk with your vet about a deworming plan.”
◆ A poor-quality diet is also a common issue with horses who are hard keepers.
“This could be from consuming [hay or pasture that is] overly mature and lacking in nutrients, or feeding the wrong type of grain for the horse’s needs,” Dannie says.
Because some horses need more calories than pasture and hay provide, she suggests asking your horse’s vet for help making an individualized diet plan.
◆ Finally, Dannie says that if you feed your horses in a group setting, it is important to make sure all horses are getting to finish their feed.
“Since horses have a pecking order, those at the top will often bully lower-ranking members and steal their feed,” she says. “This can be fixed by stalling horses at feeding time or having a system where all horses are tied until they’re all finished eating.”
Weight Gain Strategies
Dannie says that while sometimes helping your horse to gain and maintain weight can be as simple as adjusting his environment and adding extra calories in the form of grain and free-choice, good-quality forage, it may not always be that simple.
For example, she says that your veterinarian may decide to check your horse’s stomach for ulcers. Your vet may also recommend working with an equine nutritionist, who will review your horse’s diet and make some possible tweaks, such as adding supplements, increasing pasture turnout, using a slow feeder for forages, breaking up grain meals into more frequent/smaller meals during the day, or even soaking the grain of older horses to make it easier to eat.
“Providing clean, fresh water is also important,” Dannie says.
The Role of Exercise
Vigorous exercise during the weight gain process can also delay progress. While exercise is good, for underweight horses, Dannie recommends keeping it light until your horse is at a healthier weight.
“We want the horse’s body to focus on using those calories to put on fat,” she says.
A Lengthy Process
Even without exercise, weight gain can be a slow process that requires a bit of patience.
“Expect it to take around two months for a horse to gain approximately 100 to 150 pounds, or 1 point on the Henneke BCS scale,” Dannie says.
In the end, making changes slowly and working with your veterinarian and other professionals can help you do what is best for your horse.
This article about feeding a horse that’s a hard keeper appeared in the September/October 2024 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!
