Condition question

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_Libby_

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one of my horses a 15hh arabxtb is a poor doer
worked hard to keep weight on him all winter, good hay, three feeds of sugar beet, alpha a, build up and soya oil, now he is looking well I am thinking of reducing his feed as I am worried when the spring grass comes through he will get too fat ?
Was thinking of dropping the build up completely, just giving two feeds of sugar beet and alpha a,along with good hay and 10 hrs turnout on reasonable grazing, how does this sound?
Would you rather your horse go into the summer a little slim?
 
Absolutely as mine is very much a good doer and I really do not want a repeat of last years obesity problems! She has had no hard feed at all this winter and is looking much better.
 
sounds ok i have a good doer but does tend to lose a little weight which is good cause come spring she got a bit of room to put that extra weight on
Then i put a grazing muzzle once full up to weight if in dought you think she/he losing weight up the feed or reduce feed if to much with the help of a grazing muzzle .
just beaware that his breeding is two finer breeds so they are not a good doer compare to a cob and can lose weight and condition very easyly
 
If he is usually a poor doer then I wouldn't reduce his feeds until you actually see him increasing his weight. If he was a good doer it would be a different scenario though.
 
Why not cut down the build up and soya oil over a couple of weeks and see how he goes? My tb mare was a very poor doer, in winter it was a nightmare to keep the weight on but as soon as the spring came she piled the weight on.
 
I took the term 'looking well' to mean that he is in correct condition at the moment, not too fat or not too thin, in which case I would keep feed at current level until that situation changes. If she is using 'looking well' as a euphemism for being fat, then indeed she should cut the feed down now.

I have a poor doer and several good doers - I like my good doers to be a little lean going into spring, but I would not cut down the feed of my poor doer until I was certain that the spring grass was through and she was gaining good nutrition from that.
 
if she meant that then i think she should work out the proper feeding weight for that horse then in figure he should stick to the weight over feeding can put on excess weight on so when it comes to spring shes going to have the problem of a over weight horse . a horse of his size should have at least 11kg of feed but bearing in mind height his age and type and also the amount and nature of the work he is doing
 
I think the crux of the matter is whether the horse is currently maintaining its weight on the diet, or still increasing. If she monitors it weekly with a weigh tape, then the OP can determine which is the case. If the horse stays the same weight then she should keep the diet the same, if it is increasing then she should obviously start to decrease it.
 
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