Anybody else's horse/pony skinny at the mo?

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Suzie G

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I've always been used to having good doers and never having to worry about too little weight.

I bought an obese connie last September and have managed to lose him 100kg with lots of exercise and feed management but now he's looking skinny with his ribs just showing. People at the yard are divided into saying he's either skinny or just looking great.

I really don't want to up his feed and I'm hoping with coming into spring that as soon as the grass starts growing he'll be ok. He gets 10kg haylage in the morning and 15kg haylage and 2kg of happy hoof with joint supplement and balancer mixed in on a night. Oh and at the moment he's stabled 24/7 as the fields are so wet but hopefully won't be too long before he can go out during the day again.

Anybody else in this predicament?
 
Have you got a recent picture of him?

2 of mine are carrying more weight then I'd like, and even my TB is more covered then normal, he could be classed as fat if he puts any more on which is unheard of for him!
 
It's funny you should mention this. I was just thinking that my chap had dropped a bit of weight in the last couple of weeks, despite box rest and an increase in feed. He's not skinny, but looks thinner than he did.

Puzzling! So I have no ideas and will watch this thread with interest! Mine's an Arab, 6yo, currently just coming back to work with gentle lunging.
 
Horses (unless in mega work or going to be kept off grazing anyway) are meant to be very lean in spring ready for the grass coming through. My two both have just visible ribs, not skinny but certainly lean. And by September, they will both be on the rounder side, although not fat.
 
My pony has lost 100kg this winter too. Ill add this was deliberate!

He is naked so has a very think coat. I can easily feel his ribs and worry when he moults he will look a little scrawny!

This is him when I went to view him. Weight taped at 485kg when I got him home and had needed a 50 inch girth.

Benji-1.jpg


Last week at 380kg with a 40 inch girth
179708_4961487349455_24925119_n_zps51cebf8f.jpg
 
Yes he does get this much feed. I Try to keep him ad lib when he is so thin but he always eats all that i give him.

He hasn't got worms as he had an Equest Pramox in nov and egg counted at the start of march with a zero result.

Hes full up 13 2 and he does poo for England!:eek:

Vet thinks he looks fine for the time of year.

Gets exercised every day either lunged or ridden. Very muscley (sp?), good definition and top line.

I'll try getting a pic tomorrow.

My last pony got 4 kg per day and a handful of chaff and he was permanently on the fat side!
 
I've been dabbling with ulcers for pretty much a year now, and it has clearly taken a toll on my horses weight. She is on 2 different conditioning feeds, both high on energy, quality protein and fiber (30%). Switching to a lower starch feed as soon as it arrives. Hay isn't very good so she only has about 4kg daily (although it is ad lib so she can choose to eat it, but she doesn't). She does fill her stomach on those high calorie feeds, oil, and alfalfa cubes, gorges it all down, bankrupts me and still isn't on her ideal weight... oh horses! If they don't kill themselves today its just because they are waiting to find a more expensive way to die.

This is her right now:

IMG_0716_zps31985b08.jpg
 
Last edited:
HaffiesRock said:
My pony has lost 100kg this winter too. Ill add this was deliberate!

He is naked so has a very think coat. I can easily feel his ribs and worry when he moults he will look a little scrawny!

This is him when I went to view him. Weight taped at 485kg when I got him home and had needed a 50 inch girth.

Benji-1.jpg


Last week at 380kg with a 40 inch girth
179708_4961487349455_24925119_n_zps51cebf8f.jpg
Click to expand...

He is gorgeous! And really clean for being out naked at the mo.
 
Mine - despite having really good hay, have been wormed and having concentrates look terrible. We turned them out one day last week, or it may have been the previous week (the one day the sun was out) and my older son described them as holocuast victims.....well that was a bit extreme, they do not look that bad, but we can count ribs. I blame the relentlessly wet winter. We clipped in November, try our best to turn out everyday - but had we known what the winter would bring - would have not clipped. The animal looking the best is elderly cushings / laminitic pony, who has been out 24/7 in the 5 acre field he shares with the stabled animals. This morning he got loose in the yard, and was emulating a Polar Bear on speed! Looking the best he has for years.
 
Nope my good doer is a very good doer and all she is getting is one feed a day and two elim-a-nets one in the am and one at night and ridden four times a week.

My oldie has dropped but he had a virus and ive changed his feed to compensate for this, hes also lost muscle which is making him look skinnier. Once hes back in the pessoa and working again he will look fine.

TB is just the TB who was windsucking due to breaking his collar :rolleyes:. Got him a miracle collar which is stopping him so hoping he starts to gain again.
 
Hard to tell from those piccys but from what I can see he looks well to me. I would much rather see a pony looking slightly on the lean side going into Spring!
 
My 16yr old tbx has dropped a bit of weight lately. He was fine in jan, no topline as not working but no ribs either on big scoop hifi unmollassed and alfabeet twice a day living out with two big trickle nets of hay. The last 6wks or so his weight has dropped so he's on three feeds of the same with a big glug of sunflower oil added and an extra haynet. They were living out til a fortnight ago but now in more than out as trash paddock is a bog. My other two are good doers looking a tad porky on token feeds and two trickle nets.
 
My 3yr old tb has lost weight since january, shes has two feeds and ad lib hay. Doesnt help the feild shes in is trashed. But she ll pick when the grass comes (where I am it comes back vengeance! ) my highland came of a mud patch not a blade of grass coukd be seen he just had ad lib hay and hes a bit to "well" this winter has been very hard hopfully *whispers* the end is near!
 
I'm another one with a tb! He seemed to be fine until the last couple of weeks, he's lost it off his bum so I think its mainly topline (not in work either) rather than fat. He's hardly going out and well which doesn't help because he's not even walking round, he soon puts it back on once it starts to warm up.
 
My ex racer has actually just started to really pick up after having a few stressy tucked up weeks. shes been turned all winter 24/7 with light work and she's got a belly on her but her top line is coming on really nicely, she's just turned 6 and it seems after about 3 inches of long over due growth spurts this winter it looks like she's really going to start maturing and bulking up over spring.., well one can hope! :)
 
My TB X Welsh D who always comes out of the winter looking like others horses do in August has for the first time this winter lost condition and is looking positively thin. She is rising 20 and has lived out unrugged all winter but that is normal,she has lived out for the last 10 years! She has been wormed and is fed hi fi lite and Safe and sound and good quality ad lib hay but she has still lost a lot of weight. I can't wait for some grass to come through just for her to pick up a little. The Welshie has also lost a little weight this winter but he always does.
 
Funnily enough my good doing 13.3 has dropped weight despite having a pile of hay at night, small hard feed for supplements and grass to nibble on in the field. Admittedly she looks very good to me though as i like mine on the leaner side. My 14.3 however lives off air definitely and is staying bigger than I would like but I need to weightape her again
 
My sister saw mine recently and told me he'd lost weight and did I think he was too skinny which made me second guess myself (love her but she's a bunny hugger ;)) for a while but then I realised that he's actually looking very fine for this time of year :)
Most recent pic he's full of fuzz so obviously looks bigger than he actually is:
SAM_0214_zpsf59f65ab.jpg
 
Yes my haflinger has visible and easily felt ribs now, I am giving her more hay and immense feeds which are all low cal fibre but have started adding a drop of oil I had left over from a previous skinnier horse! I wish I knew how much longer this rubbish weather would go on for as she was on the gain very briefly about 3 weeks ago! I have pictures and she doesn't even look that*skinny, its just because we're used to having to keep weight off not on!
 
I really wouldn't worry with a good doer you want them to be skinny at this time of year!

My two small ones are not thin but my 13.1 and 14.1 are. Both are in work and out 24/7. I am feeding the 14.1 as well but the rest get hay only.
 
My Sports horse has struggled a bit this year, he is 2 1/2 so I would say most of the feed and haylage going into him is going into his growth spurts he's had this winter - which obviously havent helped!!! My other horse has done superbly looks really nice, and the other two are already on restricted grazing but with haylage daily. Its been what seems like a long wet winter this one, just hoping next ones will be better.
 
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