Bare field, fat horses, one can’t tolerate hay 🤦‍♀️

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poiuytrewq

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Still trying to make my slightly difficult little herd work after the loss of my old boy has meant I’m left with one horse who’s fat, he will hopefully be in more work once saddle is sorted.
One Welsh A who’s not fat, actually looking lovely but has cushings, gets laminitis if I’m not careful and has bad teeth (but eats more hay in a day than the horse)
Tiny pony. Fat, muzzled to turn out even though the field is bare. Can’t eat our hay without awful faecal water.
I’ve been completely on top of that and he’s been clean for ages.
Field is now scalped. Horses don’t appear to be loosing weight still but are hungry and desperate to come in every morning.
I’m worried about ulcers apart from anything.
So last night put hay out which was hoovered up and totally gone this morning, however little pony looked like he’d been sand blasted with black water all over his hind legs, back end and tail. 😫
I could move them to better grass, the poo issue would be resolved instantly, they would be happy and not so hungry but it’s not going to help with weight loss. I’d also have to muzzle the Welsh again, currently he’s fine out as he is which is nice as he’s old and as mentioned his teeth aren’t good.
Half of me is thinking if they aren’t dropping weight then they have enough but it’s seriously threadbare out there!
 
If it were just the ponies out there it would be absolutely perfect!
So I guess the main worry is the horse, the fact I’m worried he’s not getting enough fibre through him even though he’s fat.
He is in during the day with a net.
 
I read somewhere that horses can have a break from eating overnight without negative consequences. It’s day time food that needs to be regular
to prevent ulcers. I can try and find the article again? It was a real relief to me at the time as Dolly was such a greedy pony and efficient eater that her overnight hay didn’t last long. I kept adding more for fear of ulcers till I read that. Then stopped worrying so much.
 
I feel your pain. I have a similar situation. I have 1 x fatty, 1 x cushings pony that looks good and another that can’t have too much hay that could do with grass and 1 mini that is prone to laminitis. It’s a juggling act and at the moment I’m going for a compromise. They have a track and I’m moving the fence a small amount each day. It does mean that I’m watching the lami prone one like a hawk and the mare still has faecal water, but I don’t really know what else to do. I could bring the fatty ones in during the day, but they aren’t really friends with each other and would call to the other two.
 
I used to be stuck in the bare field fat horse nightmare. They are now strip grazed into long stalky grass & have never looked better. As a bonus they are also never hangry 🙂
 
I believe the research says that they are fine with no food from 3am to 6am because their digestive system shuts down a lot in those hours. I still prefer to see some hay in the bin in the morning if it's possible to feed the horse that way.
.
 
straw? my fat prone one is on a vey bare bit also but has ad lib straw (long and short) to pick at in nets and scattered around, and a big net of soaked hay.

stabled at night with steamed hay and he is leaving a little bit but losing weight so feel ive managed to get the balance right.

would soaking the hay stop the watery poops?
 
Hallo2012 said:
straw? my fat prone one is on a vey bare bit also but has ad lib straw (long and short) to pick at in nets and scattered around, and a big net of soaked hay.

stabled at night with steamed hay and he is leaving a little bit but losing weight so feel ive managed to get the balance right.

would soaking the hay stop the watery poops?
Click to expand...
Was gonna suggest straw I used to mix it in with the hay then just dunk it for Arabi when he got fat he actually loves straw and ate it happily.
 
How many poos are they doing? If the poo count is OK then they are eating enough. I think mine suck the grass out from the roots which is why I never see it on the field

The other thing to do is look at the verge / next door grass space that they can't get to - to see how much they have eaten

Straw is definitely an option - even tubs of top chop zero if they cough / can't get straw. My fatty totally ignores it like it's poisonous - so he's in for several hours with just that and he chooses not to eat - if he were really hungry or needed forage he could / would eat it (very occasionally he does) - it helps with my guilt without giving him calories he doesn't need.
 
I have a friends pony here atm it’s out on a bare area with Fatty they get a very little forage when they come in every day they are losing weight but slowly and they are doing droppings so they are eating enough they are eating what’s growing as it grows.
One thing that you could do and you might get away with with the pony is putting straw chop straight onto the ground in the paddock I used to do this with Fatty .
It will be quite expensive for that tribe though .
 
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Do you have anywhere that you could fix a slow feeder net, to? When one of mine doesn't need hay (she's 12hh, compared to her 15 hh companion), I hang one of these up, which restricts her, but not him (he shoves his big head in the top!). I just hang with two double ended trigger clips. Pic in mink is a small one, you can get much larger!

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ETA: I did used to use these loose in the field, too (fastened up), but all the horses were unshod, so probably not an option for you.
 
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As they have different needs and I would be worried about ulcers, I'd separate them with some electric tape then those that need more forage can have some soaked hay and the Shetland can have something that suits him better.
 
Can you do a bit of strip grazing each day with muzzles all round?

My fatties are grazing over 3 acres but because I have miles of electric fence they actually have access to not a huge amount of grass and have to walk to get it. I do a bit of a strip graze am with a muzzle on the PSSM one so the other two eat it down (usually before she manages to remove her muzzle). They then have the remaining nibbles of that at night. Anyone who needs a bit more gets to mow down my grass arena or one of the other shut off bits while I'm doing jobs.
 
Does soaked hay work for the little pony? If so, Id separate him at night (or during day) and give him the soaked haynet while the others can have regular hay.

I have to do this system with my two, one is my skinny veteran who really needs more hay so he goes in a taped off paddock during the day with a big round bale. The other horse needs soaked hay so she gets hers. At night, the veteran goes back in with the other horse so they get time together. Seems to work ok. With the fat one of yours, Id be lunging him until you get a saddle, at least then hes getting some exercise. Standing inside IMO is the worst thing for a fattie as theyre not burning any calories.

If soaked hay is no good for little pony, can you feed them all straw? No calories but feels them with something?
 
Normal Straw, thoroughly mixed with hay then in a small holed net, time consuming but works. They will eat the hay first, then sulk a but then eat the straw if really hungry
 
poiuytrewq said:
Still trying to make my slightly difficult little herd work after the loss of my old boy has meant I’m left with one horse who’s fat, he will hopefully be in more work once saddle is sorted.
One Welsh A who’s not fat, actually looking lovely but has cushings, gets laminitis if I’m not careful and has bad teeth (but eats more hay in a day than the horse)
Tiny pony. Fat, muzzled to turn out even though the field is bare. Can’t eat our hay without awful faecal water.
I’ve been completely on top of that and he’s been clean for ages.
Field is now scalped. Horses don’t appear to be loosing weight still but are hungry and desperate to come in every morning.
I’m worried about ulcers apart from anything.
So last night put hay out which was hoovered up and totally gone this morning, however little pony looked like he’d been sand blasted with black water all over his hind legs, back end and tail. 😫
I could move them to better grass, the poo issue would be resolved instantly, they would be happy and not so hungry but it’s not going to help with weight loss. I’d also have to muzzle the Welsh again, currently he’s fine out as he is which is nice as he’s old and as mentioned his teeth aren’t good.
Half of me is thinking if they aren’t dropping weight then they have enough but it’s seriously threadbare out there!
Click to expand...

Move the others to the better grass and strip graze it.
Leave the fatty on the bare field where, as the only one on it, he will have more to nibble on.
Reassess in a month.

That’s what I would do!
 
My vet always says.." look at what's not in the field"..Meaning look at the rested field and see how much it has grown. Your bare paddock will be growing as quickly but as they are constantly grazing it we think the horses don't have anything to eat! But the truth is they have loads of new full of sugary calories shoots. I feel your pain as we seem to go from mud and no grass to too much grass!
 
2 ponies 2 dogs said:
My vet always says.." look at what's not in the field"..Meaning look at the rested field and see how much it has grown. Your bare paddock will be growing as quickly but as they are constantly grazing it we think the horses don't have anything to eat! But the truth is they have loads of new full of sugary calories shoots. I feel your pain as we seem to go from mud and no grass to too much grass!
Click to expand...

That’s what I do. Mine are still grazing their winter field, it’s looks bare but when I look at the paddock next door and the grass on the surrounding tracks shooting up daily, I get an idea of what they are actually eating.
I’ve just swapped mine back to overnight stabling because Polly got puffy eye pockets. I can control things a bit easier when they are in overnight and then they are out in the day muzzled on the bare field.
To be honest, I know they finish their hay fairly early on but they seem to have survived happily all winter like this so I don’t worry too much.
They get 3kg overnight, put in just before I leave.
 
I would bring the fat horse in to oat straw chaff, or long straw if you think he can cope with it without colicking, if he is hungry, he will eat it. I got a lot of weight off an obese mare by doing that and as a bonus, she learned to self-regulate within 2 years.
 
I think that the track system could work, where you use the centre of the track to give those that need grass a few hours of top up, say at night, while those that don't get the extra exercise and remain on the track. You could try putting stalky grass cut from elsewhere into small holed haynets on the track itself.
 
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