Here is an article Purina posted today on facebook:
FEEDING BASICS FOR HORSES, MINIATURE HORSES AND PONIES (Article by Katie Young, PhD)
For horses, miniature horses and ponies to perform their best, we have to feed them correctly to provide all the nutritional building blocks that their bodies need. Just like people, horses, minis and ponies need protein, vitamins and minerals as well as adequate energy (fuel, or calories) to support maintenance, growth, reproduction and work.
In nature, horses spend most of their time eating – grazing grasses and other plants. So it is important when making feeding choices to start with the forage: the pasture and/or hay. All equines need forage to provide calories and other nutrients, plus forage provides fiber to keep the digestive tract healthy. Insufficient fiber can lead to digestive problems such as colic. The hay/pasture needs to be high quality, because the equine digestive tract does not handle poor quality forage well. The amount of hay/pasture is also a concern. Horses, minis and ponies need at least 1 – 1.5 pounds of hay/pasture per 100 lbs body weight each day – so a 1000 lb horse needs at least 10-15 lbs of hay per day.
Often, mature equines can maintain their body weight and condition on hay/pasture alone. However, there are some necessary nutrients that are commonly lacking in forages, including some vitamins and minerals. In addition, growing horses, broodmares and working horses usually need an additional source of calories. There are many feeds to choose from to meet those additional nutrient needs. Most commercial feeds are fortified with protein, vitamins and minerals so that when they are added in the diet along with the forage, the total ration will meet the nutritional requirements. Commercial horse feeds are usually a sweet or “textured” feed (a mixture of grains, some molasses, and pellets that contain the vitamins and minerals) or a pelleted feed (grains are ground and mixed with other nutrient sources and ingredients, then pressed into a pellet form). Corn, oats, wheat and wheat products, and barley are common grains found in horse feeds, as well as some forages such as alfalfa and other fiber sources including beet pulp. The choice of feeds depends on the needs of the horse, mini or pony – some feeds are designed for performance (such as Ultium, or Omolene 200 and 500) some for growth and breeding (Ultium Growth and Omolene 300), some for maintenance (Omolene 100 and Strategy Healthy Edge), and some for older “seniors” (Equine Senior). Some feeds, for instance Strategy GX and Purina Miniature Horse & Pony feed, are designed to support multiple lifestyles, including performance, growth, and reproduction.
If your horse, mini or pony is an easy keeper (gains weight easily), it may be difficult to feed enough of the commercial fortified feed to provide adequate protein, vitamins and minerals without him or her gaining too much weight. In these cases, a concentrated feed or supplement may be the best choice. These products (such as Purina Nature’s Essentials Enrich 12 or 32) contain more concentrated amounts of nutrients and are designed to be fed in smaller meals, so that the animal does not gain too much weight. There are also feeds available that are specially designed to help overweight equines lose weight, such as WellSolve W/C. For some animals, the only way to keep them from becoming obese is to use a grazing muzzle or keep them off pasture entirely.
Once you have chosen the feed and forage source for your own horse or pony, the next step is to decide how much to feed. The feed label will provide directions for the amount to feed, but you’ll need to know how much your horse., mini or pony weighs. If you have access to a livestock scale, then it is easy to weigh your animal. If not, you can use a body weight tape (check with your Purina feed dealer) to estimate how much he or she weighs.
Most people measure feed using some sort of scoop, but you will see in the feeding directions that feed should be measured in pounds. The same volume of different feeds will weigh different amounts, so it is important to weigh the amount of feed that your scoop holds. A simple way to do this is to use a digital fishing scale (you can find these in most sporting goods stores). Just put your scoop of feed in a bag or bucket, and hang it on the scale (be sure to subtract the weight of the empty bucket!). You can also weigh the hay, so that you know how much hay you are feeding.
If you are not sure if your horse or pony is the right weight, you can use the Body Condition Scoring system. This system (developed by researchers at Texas A&M University) is an objective method to determine if your animal is thin, fat, or just right. It ranges from a score of 1 (poor, or extremely thin) to 9 (extremely fat). In general, horses and ponies should be a body condition score 5 (moderate). Looking from the side, if you cannot see any ribs, but you can feel the ribs easily under the skin, that is a score of 5. For more information on the body conditions scoring system, you can visit our website at horse.purinamills.com.
Once you’ve chosen the feed and forage, and determined how much to feed every day, you are ready to go. With good care and nutrition along with proper management and veterinary care, your miniature horse, pony or horse should be ready for you to ride and have fun for years to come!
The tall and refined ones are always seems like they are harder keepers. Besides the not gaining weight part does he seem to have a poor hair coat and just lethargic. Those are just some signs of being anemic and thats when red cell comes into play but I've also heard you don't want to use it long term. If anything I would try using a weight supplement. I would give your horse plenty of hay.
