Chunky monkey horse help?!!!

[el_Snowflakes]

Hi guys,

My mare is 16 and in good health. I find it so hard to keep the weight off her all year round. She is turned out at good grass for about 5 hours a day (strip grazing is not an option) and when she comes in she has one medium haynet and one small, both are small holed AND double netted. she doesnt get a feed but occasionally gets an apple or carrot for doing stretches. She is in light/medium work. I ride her between 2-6 days a week and this is usually for between 30 min-half an hour...we do schooling, hacking and some jumping....sometimes i lunge her too. I worry about restricting her forage but do you think i should cut her back to 1 haynet (bearing in mind she comes in at about 2.30 pm and goes back out at 8.30 am? i do worry about her going for long periods without hay-its a catch 22 situation!

ps. She has haylage but in a couple of months we are due to switch over to hay again. (hay not an option right now as haylage provided as part of livery package)

many thanks

 

[Quantock-cob]

Hello, as the owner of a fellow chunky monkey I feel your pain! How I would love a horse that never got fat.

I'm sure there are more experienced people on here who will give advice, but from my experience I would suggest a few points:

I know you say it is not possible to restrict grazing - can you use a grass muzzle? I'm not fond of the things myself but they are useful if you are having to share a field of lush grass. Even though your horse is only out for 5 hours she will not stop eating in that time, and will make up for all the hours of confinement.

I would not feed haylage as it is full of sugar. My fat cob only ever gets fairly poor quality hay that has been soaked for 12 hours and then double netted. He doesn't really like it - and makes longing faces at the horse next door who has a massive pile of haylage - put he just has to put up with it. Could you perhaps buy yourself a few bales of hay to last you the next two months? Oh and weigh her hay/ haylage so you know you are giving the exact same amount every day.

Good luck - I know how hard it is - and we have so much grass this year it is making it even harder. My poor boy has had his paddock reduced in size yet again, just to try and control the amount of grass.

 

[Kallibear]

You can't give her much less forage whilst stabled but you could mix straw through it to lower it's quality, and poss soak the hay.

However it's pointless if you can't restrict her grazing. 5hrs of good grass is enough to make boy horse fat. If you can't reduce the quality or size, then get her a muzzle. It'll half her intake easily.

On top of that she's in really light work (that's not medium work, sorry!) so can that be upped? Work her 6days a week religiously, lunging her on the days your lack time. Also think about getting her a sharer to up her work load?

There is no magic fix: she needs to take in less calories and expend more in exercise.

 

[Mongoose11]

Muzzle, muzzle, muzzle, muzzle, muzzle......


Saved my sanity and my mare's health! Happy horse who is turned out for about 12 hours a day but she keeps a constant(ish) weight and I am not permanently worried about her ballooning or getting colic!

My saviour piece of kit!

 

[Littlelegs]

I'd muzzle & turn out for much longer, the extra moving will help. If hay isn't an option, soak the haylage first. If even with a muzzle on the yard rules means its only 5 hours turnout, then split her ration up more, ideally into small net 2.30, 6.00 & last one as late as poss. If that's not practical, split into two lots so she's not left for one long period without. And more exercise. Even 10 mins loose schooling or lunging at the opposite end of the day to when you ride helps.

 

[bobette]

if you can't muzzle then it really would be looking for a yard withthe facilities to suit your horse...

ideally some where where you have the fatty paddock that doesnt have a lot of grass in.. then you can ablib hay as and when needed....