Why are thoroughbreds such a har..

Brief：
...and what can you feed them to keep them fat??..I have a 4 yo tb and I school him everyday and he eats a high quality protien feed and the best hay .. 

...and what can you feed them to keep them fat??..I have a 4 yo tb and I school him everyday and he eats a high quality protien feed and the best hay around but I just cant get him to keep meat on his bones...would mixing alphalpha cubes in his feed help? thanks!

I had a 4 year old thoroughbred also, he's now 6 and huge. But until he was about 5 1/2 he still looked like a baby and very skinny. He would get fat and then grow an inch in height. Yours is probably still growing in height so his food and energy is not going towards adding weight yet until he stops growing. I wouldn't worry too much about it now. I gave mine a constant supply of hay and he ate 2 large meals a day and was out in the pasture eating grass a few hours a day. If you wanted to you could put him on a weight builder supplement or a calorie supplement to help him gain weight. I'll warn you now my answer isn't going to help much, but my limited experience with thoroughbreds is that they are strung so high naturally, their metabolism is just that high. They burn through feed!

A friend of mine puts some corn oil (2-3oz) in the grain when she's trying to get some flesh on his bones. I've tried using a grain/pellet feed with high fat. I ask for the high fat feed at my horse supply store.

It must be a fairly common problem with quite a few horses, depending on the breed or the age.

It's worked great for my 3 year old draft cross, who also has TB in her. Is there any reason you want him to be fat? It sounds to me like you're feeding him well, so if he isn't putting on weight then he probably doesn't need to. Thoroughbreds do have a very high metabolism and were bred for a sleek appearance obviously suitable for racing, so they aren't meant to look as bulky as most other breeds. However if he does look too thin to you its possible that he may have something wrong with him. Is his appetite ok? Some simple diseases such as worms can make it difficult for a horse to put on weight. If he is thin enough that you are worried perhaps you should try a vet, but if he looks about the same weight as any other thoroughbred im sure he's fine. Hi,I would ask your Vet maybe do a blood panel on him to see if there is any thing going on with him. Then you'll have it in your records for future reference. Good luck. Try beet pulp and corn oil. I make a mash out of the moistened pulp and oil, and mix his grain with it. (Besides, there's a hilarious beet pulp story at http://shady-acres.com, look it up and giggle.)