# Opinions on Virgil's Weight Tracking?



## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Virgil has been getting 12 (heavy) flakes of a hay a day now for the last 2 weeks, now that he has a new paddock buddy who eats just as slowly as he does. New paddock buddy is a little lean, certainly not fat, so the two slow poke eaters get the most hay at the stable. 

Virgil has also been getting grain for 3 weeks now. He's up to 1.5 scoops of 12% complete feed (will be 16% when I need to get some more), 1 scoop of Equine Power 2000 - a high fat, weight building supplement - and 1/4 cup of canola oil. I'm about to start giving him more canola oil and hopefully build up to about a cup.

Let me know what you guys think, keeping in mind I need to get him to a good (maybe slightly plump) weight before October.

So, this is Virgil Week 1:
Skinny as a Scarecrow and made Momma Cry



















Week 2:


















Week 3:
And the introduction of his new paddock buddy


















Today:




































What does everyone think? Getting there? I think the biggest difference I notice his coat. What I thought was shiny wasn't anywhere near as shiny as it used to be...as he's shown me. He used to be so shiny that people thought he was wet and I didn't notice the condition of his coat failing. Poor Virgil. 

Here's some of his feed leftover...he's not even getting a ton of feed. This is about 1/3 of his feed. He's not exactly a hard keeper.









For kicks, here's Virgil at the other end of the spectrum. 6 months after being retired...FAT and shiny, even without being brushed!









I don't want to get him that fat again but somewhere in between would be great! I would like his coat to look like that again, though.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

Oh, he's looking so much better!


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## goldensrbest (Dec 20, 2007)

Why did he lose so much weight?


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## Bentley's Mom (May 19, 2011)

goldensrbest said:


> Why did he lose so much weight?


His old paddock buddy ate all his own food and then ate Virgil's :no:

He looks so much better and much shinier too.


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## coppers-mom (Jan 9, 2009)

I copied the two pictures so I could compare more easily.
Much better.::dblthumb2


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Bentley's Mom said:


> His old paddock buddy ate all his own food and then ate Virgil's :no:
> 
> He looks so much better and much shinier too.


That's exactly what happened...poor Virgil! 

Thanks everyone! I'm finally starting to lessen the panic a little. If he continues gaining the weight the way he has, then he'll be ready before it gets cold. (4 weeks or less!) It's already down to 8 degrees tonight and rainy, so Virgil has his fleece lined watersheet to keep him toasty. It's supposed to be back up to 18 degrees by Thursday, though.

Here are his recent before and after pics:

The bum view
Taken Aug 25









Taken yesterday:









and side view:
Taken Aug 25









Taken yesterday









I was away for a few days and didn't want Virgil to not get his grain nor did I want to pay the BO to feed him, so my dad volunteered to go feed him (he looooves Virgil and Virgil loves him). But dad couldn't feed him on friday so I had a male friend go out to feed Virgil...he'd only met Virgil once before, never at this barn, and I left super explicit instructions on what Virgil looked like and the feed room (all the feed was pre-bagged). I guess when male friend arrived, he was wandering for about 10 seconds before some women at the barn offered to show him where Virgil was and help him out. : Did I mention said male friend is 6'2 and very well built? No wonder he had help! And here I was all worried that he'd be feeding Virgil's feed to the wrong horse! Too funny.


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## HovawartMom (Aug 10, 2006)

He's looking way better!.I like seeing the contour of ribs,on a horse but he was way too thin.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

He looks a LOT better. Good job<:


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## Blondie (Oct 10, 2009)

He looks a lot better. He's on his way for sure. Be sure to keep us updated with more pictures!


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## msdogs1976 (Dec 21, 2007)

Ranger said:


> That's exactly what happened...poor Virgil!
> 
> Thanks everyone! I'm finally starting to lessen the panic a little. If he continues gaining the weight the way he has, then he'll be ready before it gets cold. (4 weeks or less!) It's already down to 8 degrees tonight and rainy, so Virgil has his fleece lined watersheet to keep him toasty. It's supposed to be back up to 18 degrees by Thursday, though.


Before it gets cold? If it got down to 8 degrees here, people would be in panic mode.:


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

msdogs1976 said:


> Before it gets cold? If it got down to 8 degrees here, people would be in panic mode.:


Haha, 8 degrees Celcius! Actually, it's even colder tonight, around 5 degrees and still pouring rain. So happy Virgil has his fleece rain sheet on or else he'd probably have shivered off all the weight he'd gained. He's a bit of a princess...:uhoh:

But I think another 2-3 weeks and he'll be good to go, weight-wise. Hopefully then I can drop him down to grain 3-4 times a week and he'll just maintain his weight since I'll be at school and won't have time to go out every day once it gets busy. 

And maybe, just maybe, we'll have a milder winter than last winter. I don't want -40 temps for weeks straight!


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Update:

So Virgil seems stuck at the weight of the last pic in this thread. He's no longer gaining weight and in fact, regressed a little in the last few days due to the cold, windy nights. I just found out the BO has dropped his hay down a little too, now that he's no longer looking so skinny. In my opinion, he still doesn't have enough weight to be going into winter. Also just found out that "last feed" is now happening at 4:30pm. The last 4 times I've gone out at 8pm, there's been no hay left. Not even scraps. I can't blanket yet since the days are in the 20s but the nights are under 10 degrees and he doesn't have enough fat to stay warm at night...so he shivers and loses more weight. Argh!

So, I'm considering an overhaul to his feeding program. I'm thinking I'm going to go buy a bag of hay cubes (either alfalfa or timothy/alfalfa) and then he can eat those when I go out at night. An extra meal of forage for both weight gain and so the digestion of forage keeps him a little warmer at night. Then after his hay cubes, his regular meal of grain. 

Actually, I'm thinking of stopping his complete feed altogether and getting a rice bran pelleted feed instead. I don't feed enough complete feed to make it worthwhile, since most say 10-12 lbs a day and Virgil gets 3-4 lbs. I think something with higher calories and more concentrated would be more beneficial.

Any ideas?


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## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Another update: in case anyone's still following this thread!

I bought alfalfa/timothy cubes and some rice bran pellets. Virgil's getting 2-3 lbs (unsoaked) of cubes each night at 8pm, so he's got a full belly for at least a few hours of the night. His feeding is this:
- 4 flakes AM
- 2 flakes afternoon
- 3 flakes at 4:30 (last feed)

Then I come out at 8pm and give him his bucketful of alfalfa/timothy cubes and his grain. Grain is 2 cups of BOSS, 2 cups of canola oil, 2 lb of rice bran pellets (building up), and his supplements. Here he is as of today:




























He's been on the alfalfa/timothy cubes for 5 days now and I think they're making a huge difference. Actually, I think the biggest difference is that with his 4th meal, he's not standing around with an empty stomach and getting cold at night (since he doesn't have any food in his digestive tract to digest.) So not only is he getting extra calories, but he's staying a little warmer.

Finally getting there!


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## missmarstar (Jul 22, 2007)

He looks SO much better these days... keep up the good work with him and he'll be ready for winter in no time!


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## bbuzz (Aug 8, 2010)

What a great improvement!


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