I have an Arabian/quarter horse cross, gelding, about 13 years old and lately he has been losing weight. He isn't a real big horse to begin with but his ribs started to show more and more and I started to be concerned about it. He has a small pasture where he is kept except at night when he is in the barn. I thought that maybe he just wasn't getting enough nutrients so we bought some better quality hay and started feeding that to him and it seems to be helping him but it isn't putting all the weight back on him. I was thinking about starting him on that weight builder stuff but wasn't sure if i should do this. If anyone has any suggestions I am open to any.
Thanks

If you were really wanting to you can start giving him pellets. Give him the senior step pellets because it won't give him all the high energy but will fatten him up too. If you ride him a lot still and want the energy there's phase three pellets that give him energy and will help fatten him up. Also you can try sweet feed with a high percentage of grain in it.

At 13 years of age showing a sudden loss of weight could be a few things, first if you haven’t checked the horse’s teeth, it might be time for a float job. Horses on pasture only don’t have the natural roughage to cause the teeth their natural wear, and as a horses teeth always grow upwards he might have some sharp points that need to be removed, as you inspect the teeth make sure he has true set back teeth (top lined up directly over the bottoms), if not he may not be getting the nutrients from the feeds has consuming because of inadequate chewing. If teeth are find make sure you have a complete worming program in order suitable for your horse on his particular pasture. A good way to check for digestion is to inspect his manure; you can check for sand and digestion all the same time, take a small plastic baggie and place a fresh chuck in it. Fill half way with water and mix. Let it sit for the day and inspect, you should not find any sand in the bottom, if you do, you'll need to start and continue a program that will eliminate the excess sand from his diet. If you have a lot of large roughage undigested, I'd suspect teeth problems. If both are fine checking that you are feeding the correct amount of quality feed, (depending on his exercise) 1 lb per each 100 lbs of body weights. Most of all check your pasture % of weeds to grass, correct irrigation, and understand it takes 5 acres pasture to sustain one horse, thats established pasture. I hope I've given you some places to start, weight loss is a wide area, but its usually something simple, and I hope yours is, Good luck

My 16 year old Appendix started losing weight when he turned 14 so we talked to the vet put him on better hay and as much as he wants, and the senior pellets but that only lowed the weight loss. So the vet told us to use the weight builders but they all made him colic, so he said its an old thing but its very high in nutrients, is to use genius beer (sp) we gave him a can in the morning and a can in the evening right in his feed, of course gradually put it in his food we did this for about 2 weeks giving him more and more until we had 2 cans day. He gained weight so fast and he didn't get drunk and it didn't hurt his system at all, I was amazed that giving a horse beer could improve there health. His coat got shinier and everything. He's down to 1 can a day to maintain his weight but he looks great. Not many people are into this but hey it works and it doesn’t hurt him one bit.

Great advice by Alexander! If the teeth and worming are all A-OK, then I would move on to addition feed. Also, is your horse turned out with others?? If so, are they letting him eat or chasing him away? When I took my 2 OTTBs home, they needed weight gain. I started feeding them beet pulp! That is by far the best source of weight gain from feed I have found yet! It doesn't make them high and it also keeps them hydrated!

well if everything is ok with your horse try calf creek feed(sp), it has 20% fat and i used it to feed a 34 year old horse. he ate it and looked ten and try senior feed, corn oil,black oil sunflower seeds, and corn.

Wonderful way to feed a horse...
Calf feed contains 20% fats in it so it would reduce fat and cholesterol level in the body of old horses..

well if everything is ok with your horse try calf creek feed(sp), it has 20% fat and i used it to feed a 34 year old horse. he ate it and looked ten and try senior feed, corn oil,black oil sunflower seeds, and corn.