extremely fat shetland - how much work?

DanceswithCows

DanceswithCows

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I recently inherited a REALLY fat shetland. She's 5yrs and not laminitic yet, which I think is some kind of miracle?

Luckily, we're going into winter now and she's going nowhere near a rug and gets absolutely nothing to eat other than grass (unfertilised old pasture). I have a hunch it'll take some real work to get some lbs shifted though?

She's tricky to catch so I thought I'd start by 'walking her on' which will get her running around on a regular basis AND help the catching issue. Then I thought about walking her in hand, introduce a pack saddle and increase the weight over time to add value to the in hand walking.

How much walking in hand are we going to have to do though do you think? no hills round here! what are we talking? an hour a day? more? less? weekends off?

spose I could do some lungeing but that is so dull and I want to keep her interested!

She has been long reined apparently, and I'm happy to squish her one day but I need to lose some lbs myself first!

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o283/sprogspawn/tallu.jpg
 
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She's positively trim compared to how my gelding came home from his loan home ...

Mine currently gets next to no grass, a handful of hay and hifi a day when the others in the field get fed. I ride him as oftenas possible and as I am having to reback him he is only walking and trotting for half an hour 3-4days a week and the weight isn't shifting easily!
 
if that is her current field then i would be sectioning her off on to a small bit, starting with 30 mins in hand at least 5 x per week and increasing over time to as long as you can, do you have something you can lead her from so you can ride and lead.

she does not need a day off but if it is better for you then one or even 2 days off wont do any great harm

get a harness and a good book on breaking to drive if she is sensible and you take it slowly there is no reason why you cant do all the harness work and just get someone to help if/when you attach the cart. you could get her pulling a tyre in time to create some resistance so she has to work harder
 
It's taken 9 months so far to get my mare into moderately less fat shape - she's out of the cat 5 redzone at least. Before she had an extremely flat back with a gutter along the spine, same as your shetland! My mare gets as much grass as she can eat, rationed hay and a mineral lick and that's about it. We started by walking, lots and lots of it, then graduated to me riding her in a pad, then to a saddle. 9 months and a hell of a lot of long distance walking later she's dropped a significant portion of weight and I'm starting to trot her. In the first 3-4 months we'd walk normally for 45 minutes, then upped it to an hour at a faster pace. I'd definitely walk your shetland in hand between the time it takes you to teach her to drive :) Make her work in any way possible for the variety factor, as much as possible, and try not to think about her weight because when a horse gets to that size it's a slow journey back (as I've discovered.) Then again, a year isn't so long to bring a horse back into a reasonable condition.

I wish you the best of luck and hope to hear more about your shetland's journey! She looks very sweet :)
 
Sadly no riding horse to lead from, although I may be looking after a friend's over winter so possibly could do that later. I have a field shelter to restrict her grazing in, but I'd rather make her work like b*gg*ry than try to starve her more, and this way she can get some exercise running around with the others more than if she was in a tiny paddock.

Sounds like we both have a LOT of walking to do! lol
 
A muzzle is a must! You don't have to section her off if you don't want to but you must muzzle her!
You could also give her a clip like a bib and belly or low tracer or chaser and leave her naked.
 
DanceswithCows said:
Sadly no riding horse to lead from, although I may be looking after a friend's over winter so possibly could do that later. I have a field shelter to restrict her grazing in, but I'd rather make her work like b*gg*ry than try to starve her more, and this way she can get some exercise running around with the others more than if she was in a tiny paddock.

Sounds like we both have a LOT of walking to do! lol
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You may well have to do both, in reality, not starve but make sure she is getting no more than 2.25% of body weight including everything, fed little and often. Otherwise even with a bit of exercise she may not lose much weight.
 
Please be careful about reducing her intake of food as Shetlands are predisposed to hyperlypideamia which is fatal. So firstly I would ensure she is getting as much soaked hay as she can eat and is on a smaller plot of land. I personally dont like muzzles. Then slowly but very slowly increase her work load. Nor sure how ethical clipping her to make her cold is either but if she is doing enough work to sweat then she needs clipping for welfare grounds and a suitable rug to compensate. If she is fed correctly and worked appropriately she will lose weight slowly and it will help her without being harmful to her health. No matter how gross she is she needs to do everything slowly as to not damage her winter make sure she is on bowling green grass and that is never gets any longer than that, and I am sure that will be enough to keep her grazing but not enough to gain weight. Summer is a different matter but hopefully by then she will be slim enough with all the walking out, driving and riding that she will be fine on short grass then too
 
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Don't worry I'm going really slowly, no drastic changes. Agree on the clipping - would it be acceptable to keep her unclipped but stable her until fully dried off after exercise perhaps?
 
I never muzzled my mare, but she lives out so she was put on a smaller tract of land which we'd open up to a larger paddock late in the morning at close off at 3pm. Her weightloss has been slow, but steady, and I'm pleased with her progress. Mostly I think it's down to the exercise she gets, which initially was pretty laid back and just involved leading her up the verge and back for the 45 mins I mentioned earlier. That was all it took to get her sweating, it's a sad thing to see a horse struggling just to propel itself along :( When she started to get a bit more spring back I'd walk her at a faster pace. I started a thread to chart her progress called 'Fat Horse Slim'.

I forgot to mention before that it really helped that I have a Garmin watch to time/pace ourselves, so maybe a phone app or something would also be of use! I love being able to set goals for her, it's a great motivator and really heartwarming when you look back from where you started. I'd definitely recommend this for anyone who is bringing a horse back into work and trying to get them fit again!

This is an example from late august/early september - by that time she'd been in work 7 and a bit months and I was up on her back riding, but we'd just slog along at a reasonable walking pace, with a bit of trotting now and then. Now she can bomb along the same track in well under 1hr 30mins.

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I'm afraid I disagree about the muzzle, get one on her ASAP. Remember shetlands are adapted to survive in conditions nothing like a decent grass paddock in winter. I would muzzle for part of the day , do a bib clip and start walk work gently. You need to get a fair bit of weight off before spring so you have got time to do it steadily but it's not going to be easy with a fatty Shetland! Good luck.
 
Forgot to add my mare is unclipped as of yet, but her winter pelt is coming in and she's started to get really damp even from shorter rides. I towel dry her in a stall and wait for her to be nice and toasty again before she goes out, but a clip is something I'm seriously considering. If you're not going to rug your shetland over the winter so as to help her burn off the excess weight you might want to leave off clipping and just towel dry her :) It just takes time to dry them properly.
 
2.25% of current weight is plenty to avoid problems. Remember its current overweight weight its based on, it will only result in gradual weight loss and perfectly safe if fed small and often. The risk you mention is why i didnt suggest 2% which is min intake or percentage of target weight which would be much lower! But still often used. A vet is the best person to confirm the safe approach OP.

Ad lib feed of any type for a heavily obese equine is not a safe option either, the biggest risk to this ponys health atm is their weight and resulting acute or chronic laminitis.

The pony needs exercise and frequent forage but ad lib will never sort the issues unless it cando more exercise than virtually all owners can commit to.
 
We also 'inherited' a shetland last year. We have quite poor grazing but I muzzle her most of the year round, took it off for august, and can usually do the same around december. She's stabled 12 hrs out of 24 with poor hay or soaked hay (although she is very good at jumping out!!!), my children ride/lead/jump her in hand and she looks pretty good. I don't think you can be too careful, remembering that they have adapted to survive on an extremely poor diet
 
Someone further back mentioned driving, and that's exactly what I did with my shettie once I got too big for him. If she is good on the road and already long reins then it won't take very long to get her going, only took a few weeks with my pony and he loved, we used to go for miles which really kept his weight off, vets always commented how unusual it was to see a slim Shetland.
You could probably bib clip without a rug, or clip more and lightly rug (you will need some seriously heavy duty clippers).
Bare minimum feed, unmolassed chaff, basic vits and mins, no carrots.
 
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