Cannot get the fat TB to lose weight.. Any thoughts?

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kit279

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I'm kind of at my wits end with my chestnut TB!

He's not stupidly overweight but his ribs are well covered, he has a huge belly, I feed him no hard feed whatsoever and he's in a half acre paddock with another TB. In addition, I'm riding the b*gger twice a day, 1 hour of fast hacking and 1 hour of schooling, plus 30 minutes jumping twice a week. He's pretty fit and has lots of stamina but he is not really any thinner, if anything I think he is putting on weight!

What in God's name do I have to do to get this horse's weight down? He's going eventing at the end of the summer and trust me, people are going to mistake him for a pregnant mare... I do accept that fat is relative (he's not Shetland fat) but I'd really like my TB to start looking like a TB!
 
Maybe he's just pear shaped?!
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Lol - seriously, in my quest to get him fit and thin, I myself have lost about a stone of weight - if I bl**dy well can, SO CAN HE!!!!
 
How bizaar - I alway thought TBs were the worst to maintain weight - such as my TB! I watch her like a hawk.

Perhaps with all the exercise you are doing you are building muscle over fat thus making your horse seem larger than he is.

You will be the envy of all come Winter!
 
I don't know, its sounds like he has a grass belly, but then that doesn't make sense if he is sharing only half an acre with another horse. I wouldn't put a muzzle on a horse myself, but maybe that, or can you put him in during the day? and turnout at night?

Getting fit yourself sounds good though, wish I could ride twice a day - mind you, I could, if I wasn't so lazy
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Maybe he just has a saggy belly from previous over-gluttinous (sp?!) years?!
 
My TB is the same! He puts on weight very easily...... and I struggle to keep him looking anything other than podgy!
 
H also has the good doer gene! the only way is to have them on a diet that makes you think you're starving them. H has a v small paddock like less than 1/4 of an acre, then i let him into the slightly grassier bit for a couple of hours a day- however when he was really dieting he had no extra and only got a piece of hay twice a day- he's 16.3hh so not small, but it seems can live on pretty much nothing. once he'd got to a reasonable weight i started letting him have a bit more grass in the other paddock. i found the trick is to make sure they're hungry, ie when you give them hay they must eat every scrap otherwise they're getting too much in the field.
i know it sounds mean but it does work like this. i find it easier to supplement with hay and keep them on a short paddock than give too m uch paddock and then they balloon, just for comparison our shetland is having the run of the whole paddock most days and in a small paddock at night but is still slimmer than H!!!!!!
 
You need to assess whether your horse is truly overweight or not. The belly is not a good place to assess condition, as it goes up and down according to how full of fibre it is. Check his ribs first - you say they are well-covered, but can you feel them easily? If so, then he is probably in correct condition. Has he got a fatty crest or a gutter down his bum? If so, they are signs of overweight.

If you can feel his ribs easily, and he doesn't have a fatty crest or a gutter down his bum, then he is not really overweight, even if his belly is big!
 
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