Hi Talia & welcome to the Uni. Just to cover all points, have you thoroughly wormed him - tape worms don't show up on a worm egg count so that's a possible. Horses have a tiny stomach so I assume all the feed you list is divided into several feeds per day. All that soaked beet may be making his feed so sloppy it simply shoots through him before he can process it. Add alfalfa chop which will add nutrients & aid digestion. However, his lack of enthusiasm for your hay implies several possibilities. I assume he grazes happily so perhaps he would prefer a different type of hay or haylege or even freshly cut long grass. Lawn clippings should NEVER be fed to horses as they cause colic - fermentation of the bruised grasses from mower or strimmer blades. However, long stemmed grass, cleanly cut with a knife or shears & immediately fed in amounts of 5 to 7lbs is usually quickly & enthusiastically consumed. I fed Apollo a haynet of long grass nightly for many years without a problem - he could smell rain coming & drop weight like you wouldn't believe, almost melting before my eyes! I also advocate feeding warm food. I love ice cream but not to eat outside in winter. If your yard has a kettle so you can have coffee/tea etc your horse can have warm NOT HOT food. If no kettle take a thermos from home - mix feed by hand to warm fingers in winter & avoid hot spots. Cheers, Jo.

Thank you for your response!
I realized after I posted that I forgot to add that he has been dewormed, we deworm every season change- we currently don’t have a grass pasture so I do try to let him out to graze in our yard but even that is not very much,I have tried giving him soaked alfalfa cubes but he seemed to put on more weight with the beet pulp,and I do use warm water during the winter, do you think he might do better if I were to put our mini donkey in with him to encourage him to keep eating? He is fine with the taste of the hay he just likes to stand and do nothing.
Thank you 

Hi Talia. I'm in Scotland so some of the terminology may be different - I will do my best to try & be clear! Have you had a worm count of his droppings done by your vet? You may find you don't need to give wormer. However, tapeworm aren't recognised by worm count test - you need a blood test. When I bought Apollo he was very thin. I gave him the accepted 'double dose' of wormer ( this is 1981 ) & then wormed for his height/weight every 2 months thereafter. Some 3 years later he developed a cough having been grazing a field where a donkey had been previously. My apologies if you already know that donkeys are notorious carriers of worms ( and their droppings are of little horticultural value as they are masters of extracting & retaining nutrients from their meagre diet ). I don't know what the current worming protocols in the USA are but in Britain back then anything higher than 3500 eggs per 100 grams of droppings was considered life threatening. Apollo was tested & had a count of 5000! He was given a double dose x 2.5 - normal dose was 2 packets & the vet gave him 10 packets. We had another 21 glorious years together. So, now you understand my worm concerns. But I have another concern - his feeds are very wet. Soaked cubes etc. Perhaps his food is washing through his gut too quickly for him to make use of it. Alfalfa chop ( dry, short lengths that mix with the grains & beet to make a stiffer bucket of food - like soaking up gravy with mashed potato) not molassed as too much molasses causes the runs which you don't want, will slow his food take & its passing through his gut allowing his system to process the nutrients. Yes, if he & the donkey are friends then yes, let them be together - they are herd animals. I look forward to hearing your progress. Cheers, Jo.

Thank you! 

I haven’t had a worm count done, we follow a deworming pattern that the rescue were we got some of our horse from told us to do, it is switching through the different dewormers alternating with ivermectin 
When I feed him the beet pulp I try to add just enough water so that they are completely soft but not drenched- all we can get here is hard pellets, and the beet pulp has no molasses in it so it took a while to get him to eat it
The only alfalfa that we can get here is dry cubes, and it says on the bag to soak to prevent choking, if I were to completely break it into little pieces could he eat them just dampened? 

He does fine with our donkeys but our ponies our mean to him-he is the lowest in the herd despite being the biggest- which is why we have him separated 
And he gets fed twice a day with hay available all the time 

Thank you helping me!

Hi Talia. Always soak as cubes swell up & fed dry would be very dangerous. Not only can horses choke but they can also suffer gut blockage colic. I don't know what your term for chop is but my feed merchant has a vast array of them from molassed straw shreds, dried grass shreds, alfalfa mixed with straw shredded & shredded alfalfa. Some have extra flavours added like mint or carrot. I can't believe that the feed producers of the US would fail to fill that part of the market - there must be feed bulking products available. However, if you really can't find anything else suitable then use bran. Apollo used to have boiled barley in his feed. Buying whole barley means the grain is unbroken until you use it so looses none of its nutrients. If you buy crushed or rolled grains you always loose some of the nutrients & you pay extra as they are processed. Boiled barley, contrary to popular belief, is easy, quick & very effective. You can use a pressure cooker or a pan with a tight fitting lid. Bring to the boil & immediately place the pan in a box stuffed with straw, news paper, wood chippings, old towels - anything to insulate it thoroughly. Surround & cover the pot, close the box & some 6 or so hours later your barley will be soft enough to easily crush between your thumb & finger so ready to use. One word of warning. Boiled barley can make your horse feel so much better he gets a bit more playful/naughty so feed a little & gradually increase until you find the appropriate amount for your horse. Cheers, Jo.

Thank you! 

I always soak the alfalfa and beet pulp to prevent choking especially because we have had a horse choke just on grain which is scary-she is fine- so I’m very careful about that,

We get our grain from a small local feed store so they don’t have a huge selection of products, I can look online to see if someone will ship it 

The only alfalfa we can get here is cubes,pellets(both need soaking) or a compressed bale that was moldy the last time we got one,

I have thought about using bran for him but no one sells it locally, should I try to find some online? 

Which would be the best for him? Bran, alfalfa or barley? 

I read that alfalfa can have to much calcium for geldings so I stopped using it.

Is there a certain type of barley I should use? 

How much barley would you give each day? 

I have like the most laid back horse ever and it might be nice if he got a little playful and willing to move faster then the slowest walk:) 
And I was wondering it might be more cost efficient! 
I don’t have a job yet-I’m still in school-and I pay for any extra food he gets and it was costing me about 2$ a day for just the beet pulp 

Should I feed him warm food in the summer? It is pretty hot here-in the 90s-I haven’t been just curious if it made a difference now?

Thank you for your help!! 

Hi Talia. There are often no 'one fits all' answers with horses. The exception is Join up! Feed is very subjective - Monty uses alfalfa hay. Alfalfa is a grass so a natural food for the horse. Apollo, a gelding I bought in 1981, always seemed to struggle to keep weight on. He was Arab x Connemara (I think) very fast, very beautiful & very human dependant. He demanded to be stabled every night - unless the temperature was very high - 70F+. He hated wet (not great in Scotland). He was about 14 when I bought him which would have made him 38 when I put him down in 2005 - melanomas blocked him peeing so I had no choice - but he had influenced Bella enough that I still see his influence in her youngsters, Kirk & Miss Moley. 

Of course you can come back to me/the Uni whenever you need but you also need to think for yourself - like Monty did. Feeding a horse grain & cubes & manufactured food is nothing like the fibre rich, moist food they'd eat in the wild - what their gut has evolved to process. Grass is the answer, whether in the field or dried & added to a bucket. A horses stomach is tiny - about half a gallon or the size of a rugby ball ( look up on line - a game like American football but with more passion & less padding ). Barley, so long as it hasn't been chemically treated, any kind is ok - bran is an emergency stopgap & feed bulkers are a necessary addition as well as barley. As to how much, how long is a piece of string? Trial & error. Every horse is different, every owner wants something different from their horse. Add to diet gradually until you get the weight gain/ energy output healthy for them & commensurate for your safe use/handling of them. Hey girl, the sky's the limit. Apollo - who needed stuffed with food & coddled throughout his life taught Bella to look after me. Her offspring, Kirk - who gets laminitis & Holy Moley who is bulletproof- it's a learning curve. Cheers, Jo.

Thank you Jo! 

I have been doing trial and error for a little while now with lots of research and wanted to get a second opinion! I really appreciate your advice and will probably try using some barley if I can find it and will put our mini donkey in with him!

I know that grass is going to be the best thing for him and our family is planning to move to a new property in the near future so we can have good pasture-it is too rocky where we live currently for much grass to grow 

Attraction(my horse) is definitely the horse that need extra to keep on weight, all of our others are doing great, 
But he is probably the sweetest horse I’ve ever met! He will leave his feed to come be loved on!! 

I look forward to continuing to learn more and being able to become a better horse person!!! 

I look forward to hearing how you get on with Attraction. Remember, you can always come to the forum to work through ideas & get help sorting problems. Cheers, Jo.