Does anybody have poor AND good-doers living out together 24/7?

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here_i_am

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If so, how do u cope?! Im really struggling trying to give the poor ones extra hay whilst keeping the fat-pig-pony away from it! She has ZERO respect for any sort of fencing & will go over/under/through it if you try to separate her from the other 2 :/ I can muzzle her in the spring, but it would be cruel to now because the grass is inaccessibly-short. The other 2 NEED weight on but they let her share their hay. Any ideas?
 
Yes I do I simply give the poor doer bigger feeds! Luckily the good doer eats very slowly but previously I have fed totally dif feeds to suit,quite simple in my situation so never caused a problem although seperate feeds for dif horses can work out more costly! :)
 
I have this issue. The poor doers just had to come in. the TB and the oldie and her were fighting as she was trying to take theirs and they were defending it. She doesnt respect fencing normally either but the leccy wire and a good earthed energiser with 3 strands she cant seem to go through under or over as she broke through the wire fencing then through the wooden fencing to get onto the yard to get to the hay bale :rolleyes:

She will be muzzled in the spring and is muzzled during the day when the others are out with hay as she would gorge on all four piles the greedy guts.
 
Yes for most of the winter. I have adlib hay out for everyone, no rugs on the fattest one. I have separated my skinny one now just because I am busy at work and don't have the time to wait while she picks and fusses over her feed twice a day. Now its just out for her all the time so she can eat it when she wants and actually she eats better like this. None of the other three get anything except hay.
 
Yes I do in summer. The poor-er doer gets more feed, and the lami risk one gets stints in the arena or bare paddock at high risk times. By mid-summer there is not loads of grass, but TBH the all look really well picking away at a bit but not a lot of grass.
 
I have a good doer cob and an elderly pony.
The old boy comes in twice a day for extra feed all year round, it's difficult to manage when you have opposites!!
 
I get my two in twice a day and the companion (with dodgy teeth) gets a proper hard feed while Polo gets a handful
I tried feeding them in the field holding Polo - he went loopy
I tried feeding polo loads of dull chaff but he knows the other feed is much nicer so chases the other one away
In the really cold weather I even fed them the same but the good doer chased the poor off his feed and the stupid poor one just stood there watching - didn't even go and eat from the spare bucket !!
 
I have a safe area just outside the field gate which I put the pd in to have feeds and hay out of the gds' reach. If you don't have, maybe you could bring your pd outside the gate in headcollar and leadrope and hold on to her while she eats?
 
Yes and it's a pita. I put a headcollar on her at mealtimes to stop her inhaling her tiny feed and then grabbing everyone else's. Or sometimes I have a little enclosure inside the field gate for her to eat in. I tried muzzling but she rubbed her face raw trying to take it off. If kept away from the others she will walk through any fencing, including wooden. In winter they have ad-lib hay when it's really cold as there isn't much grass, but it's controlled in hay feeders. They boys manage to keep a nice weight since I started putting linseed in their feeds in suitable quantities, but keeping the girl away from food is something I struggle withl. A bit of a problem to be honest!
 
I did a few years ago and it was worse in winter when hay was required.

It was a right pain but I would bring the old poor doer in so he could eat his hay and feed in peace. Otherwise greedy cob would gobble up his haynet in warp speed and then push old boy to one side and proceed to gobble up his lot as well.

Not a good combination but the bonus was they got on like a house on fire otherwise.
And were both so easy to do.

I would segregate ie when feeds are dished out. I did all the little piles of hay but my cob was like a hoover and that never worked either. The old horse needed too much slow time to finish his off.
 
Yes and it's not easy! The whole poimy of having a couple if horses is so they have company. And having to out the good doer into starvation/away from the hay or the poor doer onto more grass/separated with a bucket feed completely defeats the purpose!

So fatty has gone away to livery with other fatties and poor/average doer has another average doer friend instead.

It's when people say 'oooo, Im getting a Shetland/Welsh A/generic small fat pony to live with my big poor-doing TB as a friend' that I think they're mad!
 
Yes, and it's a bloomin' nightmare :rolleyes:

At present, there is virtually no grass, and I feed hay twice a day. FatBoy (17hh ISH) is looking just about perfect. Hooray!

Oh, hang on, there's two TBs looking like skeletons, and another ISH with wobbly teeth looking on the poor side...

Then we have the restricted grazing all summer, and FatBoy looks sleek and good. The TBs cope, with a bit of extra feeding, and then we get to October. I take the chance to turn them all on to the longer grass, and after two weeks, the TBs look much the same, and FatBoy looks like a whale :rolleyes:

I cope as best I can with non ad lib hay, extra feed for the skinnies a few times a day, fed in electric pens so FB can't take their dinners (which he would, because of course he's starving!). In summer, we have restricted grazing for everybody for the sake of their feet but the skinnies still get a bit extra in a bucket.

FatBoy is also the only one who goes out and gets any exercise, the others - who are not owned by me - are all (currently at any rate and for the last 4 years) paddock ornaments. So I can partly manage him by adding some calorie burning in addition to restricting grazing etc.
ETA - the other management tactic is that FB is either rugless or in a rainsheet. The others wear HWs with necks. To be honest, I don't think this makes a huge amount of different - the TB mare in particular would probably do better with a slightly lighter weight rug, I think she loses weight through overrugging.

I spend a lot of time worrying about it though :o I worry all winter that the skinnies are too skinny. I worry all summer that FatBoy is too fat :rolleyes: If it wasn't that FB's BFF is one of the skinnies, I'd move and get him a chubby companion :rolleyes:
 
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Yes - fatty mare gets a tiny feed of straw chaff and minerals and is kept in concrete yard at feed times. Old chap gets different bigger feed and time in stable with hay whilst mare is on concrete yard. I couldn't do it without stables / yard / somewhere to keep them apart.
 
I manage it with body language and a carrot stick when I put the hard feeds down - fatty gets his bit of chaff and balancer, thinny gets whatever he has, and I play piggy in the middle until thinny finishes. Fatty knows the score, and just stands looking peed off until he's allowed to go and clean the plate. It works for us.:o

For hay, not so easy! This winter I just fed it in a couple of piles and they took their chance, fatty in lightweight rug and thinny in heavy one.
 
It's not just me who struggles then? :D Mine are on 5 acres of rough (but well drained, so not muddy) grazing. We don't have stables - just shelters. I resorted last night to locking the skinnies in the manege with a big round hay bale, leaving FattyBum in the field. But when I've done this in the past, FattyBum manages to magically appear in there with them when i next go down! She's a proper real life houdini pony :/
The skinnies get much much bigger feeds, with tons of micronised linseed, whereas she just gets a token one. It's just that the skinnies could really do with ad lib hay when they're like this, but pigface would turn into an elephant within a week. Bloody nuisances!
 
Me I do x I have managed to find something that works for everyone. A balancer for the good doer with half scoop or handful of chaff depending on time of year and 2 scoops of chaff nuts and balancer for the poor doer. For now I have cracked it.
 
You can muzzle during winter then ad lib in the field to give poor doers enough but muzzle will slow down hay intake. I've had people tell me they can't eat hay through a muzzle but any genuine fat boy will prove very quickly that not to be the case ! It's difficult and fiddly and takes time = perfect!
 
I have 4 brood mares non in foal 3 of which I got last spring. 3 are proper do gooders and then one who is a bit on the lean side, fortuately shes the stroppy one so when they get their hard feed she gets loads of linseed whilst the rest get b**** all.
I have notice the ones that tend to be thin have a picky attitude to food, while the're deciding which bit to eat or looking around the fat guys have eaten it.
I have a Welsh A thats only 5 but has as much hard feed as a 14.2 pony in work and had a 16hh that would live all winter with hay and straw and no hard feed and still be well covered in March
 
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