done to death but thought id peeve some people off!

edgedem

edgedem

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my 13.2 heavy cob is currently out 24/7 un rugged and fat!
no grass in field at all.

she gets 1 flake of hay in morning and one at night.

little bit of hi fi light if she needs wormers etc. currently not much weight change as training issues with work (previous posts a plenty)

sound about right? what are your guys on atm?
 
If there is no grass at all in the field ( although my grass is still growing as its warm ) and she is only getting two sections of hay a day I don't think thats enough fibre tbh. Like humans they will go into starvation mode and hang on to fat.

Only way to rid her of her weight is by exercise and lots of it.

Neither of mine are rugged, are at an ideal weight, on loads of grass, but are ridden plenty!
 
Should be on about 1.5% of current bodyweight a day to lose weight safely and stay healthy. What does he weigh now and how much do your 2 flakes of hay weigh? Its a simple calculation. Giving too little can cause many problems. :)
 
Definitely not enough fibre, even fat ponies that need to lose weight need to eat, I would feed more hay but soak if first to reduce the calorie content. She could be at risk of hyperlipaemia syndrome, not to mention ulcers as if she is like mine, one section of hay will be gone very quickly then she is left with nothing to eat. Mine are out unrugged and are fat but I have lots of grass and they are grazing constantly, I wont be feeding anything else until the weather gets bad then they will have hay (last years) ad lib in the field, mine live out 24/7 and are natives.
 
When you say no grass, do you actually mean no grass?

People's idea of a bare field can be very different. The grass is still growing so she will be eating it as it comes through.

Fence a bit of the field off for a few days and you will soon notice a difference!
 
At this present moment in time mine gets t/o till 3, grass isn't doing too bad there's not a lot tho, then he gets a section of hay when he comes in at 3, he gets half scoop of hi fi lite for breakfast and dinner, then gets half a scoop of hi fibre cubes in a ball when I leave the yard about 7, and his night haynet he gets 3/4 sections of hay :) he is rugged out and in the stable
 
I think we should probably assume that there is sparse grass/little grass in the field as very few people have access to BARE ground. Count her poos in 24 hours OP and then we can all tell you if she is getting enough :)
 
I agree with above - not enough food intake all you are doing is slowing metabolism and then the weight won't come off. Feed more hay - soak it for 12 hours if you need to and exercise +++++, maybe look into paradise paddock system to encourage movement in the field.
 
i think you need to up the hay, especially when it gets colder. Shy is currently out during the day, nothing in the grass though, and he gets ad lib hay in the stable
 
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If she ain't losing weight, she is getting at least "enough" from the grass & hay. What looks bare to you or I may be feeding your pony very well indeed. I start feeding when horses start losing, not when they do the puppy dog eyes and "Please, please feed me" whickering thing. I'm a meanie :-), but I don't have fat horses, nor thin ones.
 
edgedem said:
my 13.2 heavy cob is currently out 24/7 un rugged and fat!
no grass in field at all.

she gets 1 flake of hay in morning and one at night.

little bit of hi fi light if she needs wormers etc. currently not much weight change as training issues with work (previous posts a plenty)

sound about right? what are your guys on atm?
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Well she must be getting it from somewhere. I bet she has good teeth nibbling around. Sounds perfect. Wouldnt want her to starve(how much is a flake of hay)? but I NEVER rugged old boy when he was alive and he had a beautiful coat and yes sounds just like yours fat on thin air. Any pic of your non existent grazing? I bet there must be an odd blade of grass?
 
CobsGalore said:
When you say no grass, do you actually mean no grass?

People's idea of a bare field can be very different. The grass is still growing so she will be eating it as it comes through.

Fence a bit of the field off for a few days and you will soon notice a difference!
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sorry i dont really make myself clear, she isnt in a bare paddock or anything! there is still grass there as she is grazing in the day just very little,

we have a section of field that has a couple of weeks growth and she is going onto that section this weekend
 
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well a flake of our hay stuffs a large haynet full :/ bulging at the seams in fact, its also double netted and small holed so she takes her time.

i will weigh though and check the percentages, seems ive been given false information :mad::mad: someone told me shes fine on it and they rescue horses.

i hate the thought of doing her wrong :(
 
I think the problem was you told us she was on NO grass at all, and all she was getting was two flakes a day, I took this to mean this was how you were trying to get weight off her, which would not be a sensible way to do it. However if she is grazing all day and getting two flakes then I would up her exercise if you still want to get weight off her :)
 
SarahAndScout said:
I think the problem was you told us she was on NO grass at all, and all she was getting was two flakes a day, I took this to mean this was how you were trying to get weight off her, which would not be a sensible way to do it. However if she is grazing all day and getting two flakes then I would up her exercise if you still want to get weight off her :)
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yea i know sorry! i just mean in terms of summer fields, there isnt really any grass, its still growing but sparse! she must be finding some bits to nibble on in the day but not enough to sustain her im sure.

so she should be getting more really form what everyone has said.

so if i up the amount would you do haynets in the field or try and get some sort of rack? what do people find best?
 
If you want to feed more hay I would carry on with the double netting of the nets, it will last longer and keep her busy. If she's still grazing though and not losing weight on what she's on now then maybe she doesn't need more? As I said, mine get last years hay as it has less nutritional value and I feed it as lib once the weather gets bad, I like mine to have plenty of fibre as they need it to keep warm. Mine also get a handful of balancer mixed in with some hifi :)
 
Honestly people in here do my head in sometimes. your regime sounds perfect OP, similar to my chubby ISH, year round.

The reason the grass is short/not there/bare (I get what you were saying) is that the horse is EATING IT!!!!!

Don't be in a rush to move onto better grass OP, especially as pony is chubby. More work is your answer. How nice to have a cheap pony to keep - mine are the same.
 
siennamum said:
Honestly people in here do my head in sometimes. your regime sounds perfect OP, similar to my chubby ISH, year round.

The reason the grass is short/not there/bare (I get what you were saying) is that the horse is EATING IT!!!!!

Don't be in a rush to move onto better grass OP, especially as pony is chubby. More work is your answer. How nice to have a cheap pony to keep - mine are the same.
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thanks, well i didnt want to move then yet, trying to save it for if the weather get really awful december ish time..

it all gets a little confusing with feeding, she seems more than happy, always having a trot about and i asked my dad to feed her when we were away 1 night and he threw a whole small bale in (he doesnt know bless him :rolleyes:) and they demolished it. doesnt mean shes starving i dont think she will just keep eating til she cant stand up if she had her way. if i fed Ad-lib i would have a beast of a horse.


im working on the exercise bit! having some training issues but we are getting there and by summer i hope to ride her 3-4 times a week if not more.
 
CobsGalore said:
When you say no grass, do you actually mean no grass?

People's idea of a bare field can be very different. The grass is still growing so she will be eating it as it comes through.

Fence a bit of the field off for a few days and you will soon notice a difference!
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/\ This. My grass is still growing.
 
My youngster is chubby at the moment, he is a cob rising 3 years. He gets 400g of low cal balancer a day and 2 handfuls of happy hoof. They go out with a net at night at the mo which I only increase if it gets really cold. I have plenty of grass though, I've just sectioned 3 acres off that I havent even started grazing yet. I find that his roundness seems to be more about how bloated he is rather than how much grass he's getting. If he's looking huge I restrict him for a couple of days util he looks normal again! He's out 24/7 with no rug.
 
Hi OP, I ended up getting really confused about this also when I posted that mine were on ad-lib haylage but had put on weight and was it OK just to leave them with grass for a couple of days as I can only use big bales. Apparently not. However none of my neighbours are even putting hay out yet!

Fact is I think that when we look at grass we can't see it - end of day if the weight is OK ie they are getting enough calories then you can be sure they are getting enough fibre as the fibre:calorie ratio in forage is massive.

Sounds like you are doing fine!
 
I would stick with the 1.5% to be safe how much does she weight? Say 400kgs so needs 6kgs of dry matter per day. Grass is approx 50% water so you need to take this into account.

Horses need fibre constantly moving thru their gut to keep the bacteria who digest it healthy, buffer stomach acid (which can casue ulcers) and provide buldk to keep the GI tract full and moving and to stop it from twisting or collasping and causing colic as its designed to be full.

The small hole need with make sure it is being consumed slowly over the day so there arn't long periods without fibre.
 
My middle almost heavy weight cob is unrugged, out on rubbish grazing for 7/8 hours, stuffed haynet overnight whilst in, scoop of unmollassed sugar beet for supplement intake.

Think yours sounds fine, OP.
 
cinnamontoast said:
My middle almost heavy weight cob is unrugged, out on rubbish grazing for 7/8 hours, stuffed haynet overnight whilst in, scoop of unmollassed sugar beet for supplement intake.

Think yours sounds fine, OP.
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thanks, ive upped it to 3 large nets a day but soaked. so shes getting 3 flakes, no calories.

She still scoffs the hay in an hour probably, and im at work from 7-5 so she will have to lump it if she runs out during then!

shell get another soaked one when im home!

job done :)
 
I have a 14hh good doer hunter pony who is on a similar regime to yours. She is about perfect weight at the moment and is on fairly sparse grazing but the grass still seems to be growing quite strongly (we are in South East) - so there is always something for her to eat, although she has to work for it! She gets two sections of small bale haylage a day and a few pony nuts morning and evening. She is ridden about 5 times a week, usually with hunting or a competition at the weekend.

Your current regime sounds very sensible, but I would like to clarify what makes you say your pony is fat? Do you mean she has a fat belly, or that she has a cresty neck, ribs you can't feel easily or a gutter down her bottom?
 
TGM said:
I have a 14hh good doer hunter pony who is on a similar regime to yours. She is about perfect weight at the moment and is on fairly sparse grazing but the grass still seems to be growing quite strongly (we are in South East) - so there is always something for her to eat, although she has to work for it! She gets two sections of small bale haylage a day and a few pony nuts morning and evening. She is ridden about 5 times a week, usually with hunting or a competition at the weekend.

Your current regime sounds very sensible, but I would like to clarify what makes you say your pony is fat? Do you mean she has a fat belly, or that she has a cresty neck, ribs you can't feel easily or a gutter down her bottom?
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ive looked into fat scoring and i am by no means an expert, she has lots the gutter on her bum in last month or so, its starting to level out, she's still, IMO have some crest on the neck, i think she has a grass/left over foal belly so im unsure if she will ever lose this and have the flat belly look, until i can get some serious hill work in, have to be summer as i work until dark :(

However i cant feel her ribs easily (i definitely wont see them becasue of her winter coat anyway!)

i dont think she is obese just a little over weight. farrier also agrees she needs to lose a little.

im just trying to get the balance between what she needs to loose a little and whats too much. she came to me a little over weight so its difficult to know what her ideal weight should be :rolleyes:
 
My warmblood 16.2hh mare lives out, and has a fair bit of grass in her field. She is ridden 4-5 days a week, 2 or 3 days schooling and jumping in the week and hacked out both weekend days for an hour maybe more. She isn't clipped (will low chaser clip her soon as have a few longer distance pleasure rides coming up and she gets hot under her tummy and on her neck.

She has a haynet when she come in to be ridden while I de-mud her! And is fed on half a stubbs scoop of fast fibre and a scoop of healthy hooves each evening plus a slice of hay. Often the hay is left in the morning as she would prefer grass but like her to have it any way (greedy NF pony comes out in the mornings and hoovers it up!)

She is a perfect weight I think at the moment, perhaps a little rounder than a lot of horses her type, but she is a pretty good doer and I would rather she had a little weight on coming into the colder weather as the grass will not be so plentiful soon. When that happens she will be given much more hay and a feed in the morning as well.
 
edgedem said:
ive looked into fat scoring and i am by no means an expert, she has lots the gutter on her bum in last month or so, its starting to level out, she's still, IMO have some crest on the neck, i think she has a grass/left over foal belly so im unsure if she will ever lose this and have the flat belly look, until i can get some serious hill work in, have to be summer as i work until dark :(

However i cant feel her ribs easily (i definitely wont see them becasue of her winter coat anyway!)

i dont think she is obese just a little over weight. farrier also agrees she needs to lose a little.

im just trying to get the balance between what she needs to loose a little and whats too much. she came to me a little over weight so its difficult to know what her ideal weight should be :rolleyes:
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It does sound like she is still a little overweight then - I thought I'd better check as so many people say their horses are fat when actually all they have is a big belly! I'm not sure what the weather has been like round your way, but here it has been mostly mild and wet, so the grass is still growing. It may look short in the field but that is because the horses and ponies are gobbling it down as fast as it comes up!

Sounds like you are being very sensible about keeping her weight under control and I am sure you know to up her hay ration a bit more when and if the grass really deteriorates and/or her condition drops.
 
Sounds like you are doing everything right OP. If she has had a foal and is doing little work then she wont loose her belly until her muscles strengthen and lift it. What you need to aim for is to be able to easily feel her ribs along her sides and to have no gutter. Some cobs never loose their crests and the best you can aim for is a soft floppy one.

I feel your pain, we have always had natives/cobs and my new cob is very overweight. I soak my hay for 12 hours at least, i put morning hay in to soak when I drain off the evening hay. Another thing you could perhaps try is to get some oat straw and mix it in with your hay. I replace about 1/4 with it. Some ponies will yum it up, others don't like it, but, in picking around trying to avoid it it slows down the whole eating process.

There is always goodness in grass, granted whilst the growth is slower there will be less of it, whilst a plant is alive and photosynthesis is taking place there will be sugar present, particularly on bright frosty morning. Plus remember too that horses have bacteria in their guts which break down fibre to produce energy. If I had plenty of grass I wouldn't bother with hay at all.

I took my horses of a paddock on Saturday because it was getting bogged up. It looked brown, now a week later is is green again so don't presume nothing is growing. The only other thing I would consider if I were you (and you may do this already) is to provide a mineral and vitamin supplement. You could spend a fortune on pellets and powdes, but the cheapest easiest way is to get a big pink mineralised salt lick and put in her field (this is what WHW do).

If you can't ride her more how about taking her out for a walk in hand, long reining or lunging?
 
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