Being Fat v's Being too young to work!

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shadowboy

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Ok I have a 3yr 4month NF. He's super chilled and really easy in all ways. He is however fat- in his gut only- it's like a gassy grass gut.

This is the best pic to demonstrate http://www.equinationalimagestore.c...mps/040811-thursday/ring-1/pages/EMA 576.html

anyway the comments from the judges were basically he is really well put together and moves very well but fat and was dropped down a few placing because of this. Now he has no crest/fat pads and ribs can be felt. However is IS heavy for his size at 408kg!

I have had a worm count done be equilab (fab- had results within 24 hours) and that was low.

I have been keeping him in for 8 hours a day on soaked hay, and then out during the night on a bare paddock with 3 others.

I could not shift anything.....untill I started walking him out more frequently 3/4 times a week for 30min to an hour- however I am concerned about the impact this will have on his legs- and roadwork for babies surely isnt good. So my question is do I just cope with a hanging gut and not work him or keep walking him out and shift these pounds. He was 426kg and in 2 weeks we are now down to 408kg. My Ideal weight would be 375kg.
 
Walking is not "work" which could have an adverse effect, and you are right to try to slim him, overweight will strain the joints.
The wrong type of work for a young horse is asking him to "work in an outline" and so on before he is strong enough and sufficiently well balanced and muscled to cope with a rider.
I don't think he looks 50kg overweight tbh, but you should just keep walking with him as part of his education anyway.
 
Ok thanks guys- it's just I was talking to a lady at the NPS show about her Connie 4 year old who she was basically doing the same- walking out and he had thrown a splint- it then made me rethink what I was doing.
 
I think you would have to b e very unlucky to throw a splint in these circumstances, just think about the way these Connies were bred traditionally, they would be up on the moors, foraging as best they could and covering miles and miles every day.
 
I've walked my filly in-hand from a yearling and she has clean legs. (Sorry the pic doesn't show her legs.)

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My friend's gelding has been stabled and turned out into a small, flat paddock for a few hours a day (never left the yard) and he has three splints!

I don't believe that calmly walking on the roads will cause splints.
 
Unfortuanatley splint's happen. Sometimes they have a reason, sometimes they don't!

I would say that increasing his work will do him no harm. Infact, the more weight you shift off, the easier it will be for his joints and there is proven evidence that controlled work (which yours would be) strengthens young bones (it is called cyclical loading).

Good luck - he is absolutley lovely :)
 
if you can the best thing i have found for the good doers and i know i harp on about it every so often, is to put a track system in the paddock, leave them out there and let nature takes its course on the exercise front. by design horses are ment to travel x amount a day to find food, we give them it in nice square fields and they don't have to move as much. a horse will either be prone to splints or not, i gave my cob a 6 month holiday he gave me a splint in return. yes if you work them on hard ground, relativley hard ie loades of jumping and cantering then you increase the strain on the younger leg, but they have been design to walk for miles. of course now i have said this your youngster will have thrown a splint. so have fun enjoy your horse
 
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