ARGH!!! damned pony. any ideas?

A

Aoibhin

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my very sweet sec A is currently a barrell on legs, begining of last year he was very ill & lost a lot of weight & its taken us untill christmas to get him back to a healthy weight & condition, now he is turned out 24/7 on limited grazing with 4 other natives & as they graze the paddock down to nothing we move the electric across by a foot a time (approx once a week or so), they get 1 bale of hay between them evenings out in the paddock & he comes in for 20 mins or so a day for his brekkie which is a 1/4 lb of chaff & 1/4lb of speedibeet (just to hide his medication & suppliment in).
he is lunged for 20 mins every other day & charges about with the dog whilst im poo picking (daily 15/20 mins).

how do i get & keep the weight down? the grazing muzzle he got off & dumped in the hedge almost daily for 3 weeks even when i had it so tight it was rubbing his coat away. we want to get him out showing this year again but at present whilst he looks stunning in his coat & step the only class we are going to win is native hippo!.
 
Ditto the hay soaking. Do you need the speedibeet? I have managed to successfully get meds into my section A just by adding water to chaff plus meds / supplement. Also do you have the option of bringing in overnight / during the day to limit grazing?
Apologies for the split infinitive
 
What are the other ponies? Are they similar hieght and also Fat? The only reason I ask is that my native mare has 2 sections of hay at night and one in the morning and a small feed monring and night - I have just reduced this as she came back from loan underweight.

The welsh pony (sec C) has one section of hay a.m. and about half a section at night. They both live out and are seperated at night so they can eat their own food.

If I had 5 the size of the mare, I wouldn't be giving them a bale between them at night (I'm assuming they live out?) Mine only has the two secitons becuase she was a bit poor, and I have been reducing this over the last month.

I do have to accept though that the welsh will be fat, I can;t feed him any less, I don't want to starve him.

I don't know how much 1/4lb is in chaff and beet, but I would be giving about half a scoop of happy hoof (round scoop).
 
Cut the feed down to a small handfull of chaff and enough beet to damp it.

Section off a small area of the field and at night when you put the hay out put the Section A in there with no hay.

I have one we have to manage really severely, currently she has a crest - she ALWAYS has a crest - but you can just see her ribs. I know that's not ideal for showing but at least it keeps her loaner's mind off the wonderful picture of the Section A grazing in lush knee high grass which is what she'd really like to see.
 
ideas
- reduce the speedibeet (to 0, just hide the rest in the chaff)
- soak the hay
- track system to encourage walking in field
- walks out in-hand (assuming you don't have a little jockey), ideally up hill

And a bit more out-there...
- pony agility
- driving (well, long-reining to start anyway... more interesting than lunging)
 
I have a Sec A and last year he was a barrel (aged 3 1/2) so i decided that this year aged 4 he was going to be streamlined!
Clipped him over the winter and then;

long reined him including up hills
walked/trotted out with me walking the dogs
took him running
lunging
and of course he was ridden by my small boy on 3 nights a week (walk and trot only for 20 mins).
He lives out 365 has a green guard muzzle on in the day now and free to eat at night in a large field with 5 other horses/ponies.
He has 1/4 scoop of Fibre Fast to put vits and charcoal in in the evening.

He looks fab and so glad I made the effort to do something as I am paranoid about him getting laminitis. It's also kept me fit too:)


x
 
thanks guys for the ideas ok,

we cant track or section him off as the 2 yearlings he is in with trash electric fencing & let him out & if he is in when they are out he simply comes over the door or cuts his face to shreds trying to get out as suffers with seperation issues.

the hay is soaked well before it goes out & is quite poor in quality but its needed as there is no grass out there now exept brown dry dieing patches in the dust, exept for the narrow strip they have & they need something to nibble & the 2 youngsters are both 13h & bum high (should make 14 & 15 hh)

he isnt rideable unless its a tint tot & is in the process of being put to harness at present but as i have mobility issues longer walking sessions are just not a possibliity & know of noone local that he trusts to take him out (has big trust issues too bless him)

the little sod wont touch his brekkie unless there is beet in it most other feed hi just refuses even the chaff (well redigrass but roughage all the same) some days & ive sent a fortune on other feeds to tempt him he is just a bloody minded bugger & the 1/2 lb is less than a quater of a small feed scoop of beet & just over half a scoop of chaff. i have a range of 8 or 9 different muzzles we have tried (inculding a large dogs one when we got desperate) some of which i have never found.

annoyingly he doesnt have a crest or a huge appley bum just this big fat gut! hi has bene nichnamed wormboy by my OH as he looks like a wormriddled bloated bugger but his worm count was really low 3 weeks ago & the yard was wormed a couple of weeks back.
i do like the idea of agility with him though & a wondering how much running i need to do for it? wish i could speed up the driving him stage as then we could go for miles & get the belly off him.

cheers all who have replied so far & sorry its so long a reply.
 
. Sounds like my chap. Maybe bring him during the day with soaked hay and feed the others hay (or soak all their hay) during the day. Grass has more sugar in it late morning through to early evening so even the minimal amount he gets will be more nutritious then.

Or cut the hay down and feed mix of straw/hay
 
My fatties eat straw not hay in the summer. We are well practiced in fatties here, so its straw, limited grazing, and aerobic work.
 
I believe alpha beet has less sugar in, so may be worth trying that?

Really lucky where we are, mine is out 24/7 on very restricted grazing, no hard food, no hay, and still a podge! lol

Ditto the hay and straw mix too [=

bexcy-bee x
 
Think the idea of a track system is a good one, and it would work well for all of the "kids"

either way you are managing him better than when I had him, he was cresty bugger on a 25 acre field when I had him.

It will be better when you have got him driving.
 
Hi I have a shetland cross that has to be watched like a hawk. She is only fed straw when Iam worried about her weight and lack of work (recently started driving her as the kids have outgrown her). If I need to give her anything have always put in a slice of bread so that I dont have to feed her.
 
My sec D porked out a bit last summer and we stripped the weight over the winter. His current regime is small handful of chaff and nuts morning and evening (when everything else is fed to make him *think* he's had dinner), out on poor grazing from 7.30-4.30 and then a 10 pound haynet at night - he's 15hh.

Can you cut the chaff to a handful and just add a cupful of 'juice' from the speedibeet rather than the beet pulp itself? Or just a cupful of speedibeet in a handful of chaff? Do you have a school where you could loose school him as a way of giving him more exercise without causing you problems?

You have my sympathy though - as my vet pointed out last summer (I had recognised he was too fat and was asking advice as to the best way to slim him down again) - he's welsh and they are designed to extract the maximum from very poor grazing, bring them to the leafy green fields of sussex/surrey and they put on 10 kilo's from one blade of grass!!

Good luck :-)
 
Perhaps if hes not got a fat bum and crest its just a hay tummy? With my 'A' if you lifted his tail you could see if he was fat as his thighs got fatter, as well as the usual things.
I would think just more work should help - daily lungeing?
 
Gypsy Cob, track system, basically it's a track set up round the perimeter of your field or paddock for your horse to live in, using post and rail or electric tape and posts. The idea is that your horse will constantly be on the move to graze as opposed to malingering in the field. Google 'Jamie Jackson paddock paradise', you'll see what I mean.
 
Track system as I understand put very basically is to run the elec fence around the outside of your field forming a track so horses spend more time moving around in search of grass , water etc. Am planning on giving it a go but have a field of knee hight grass at mo so not sure how to go about it.

PS Newfies seem to look at grass and balloon too ;0) bless them .
 
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