Advice on feeding my box-rested horse

RubysGold

RubysGold

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Roo has been on box-rest since the start of December
She's gradually getting out a bit more, we're riding in walk, and she has about an hour and a half-2 hours turnout a day, sometimes half a day out on the weekends.

Roo has got fat, as I've been giving her 3, sometimes 4 nets over 24 hours. I've given her a big round bale of hay in 2 weeks :eek: :o
I dont want her standing with nothing to eat, hence feeding her so much. Ive cut her down since yesterday, to just over half a net in the day and one and a half in the night.

But Im worried she'll be stood with nothing to do/not enough to eat :confused:

Is there something I can do/give her to distract her after the hay is gone?

I can double net but I cant soak hay at this yard as theres nowhere to tip all the excess water.

Any ideas :S
 
can you get some oat straw and mix it with the hay? this gives her something to pick at but reduces the calorie content of her diet, hang some swedes up too, they are a low calorie treat. Look at elim-a-nets as well, these seem like a great idea!
 
Why don't you weigh the hay you give her? They are supposed to eat something like 2.5% of their bodyweight per 24 hour period to maintain their weight.

If you weighed the hay, at least you could "see" what 2.5% of her bodyweight in hay looked like... It is surprisingly little actually (and don't forget there is also all the grass she can eat in 2 hours whilst turned out).

I had to harden my heart and put mine on a diet... When it was gone, it was gone... Small holed haynets or not. Mine are good doing native ponies and get 1% of their bodyweight in hay per night. plus what they can eat in grass during the day and a tiny tiny token feed. They are still putting on weight :(
 
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