Fat cob help!!

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NooNoo59

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We have just had a yard visit from a main feed company with a weighbridge and my mare is officially overweight! Her current regime it ridden 5 to 6 times a week, in during the day with a haynet (under 5kg) soaked for hour non edible bedding small cup of Baileys high fibre cubes after work and turn out at night on pasture that has been grazed throughout the summer.
The feed company suggested soaking hay for 6 to 12 hours which I have been doing but she is refusing to eat most of it and I am chucking it away, lite balancer and low calorie chaff (in the winter she has some Dengie hi fi lite which I thought was low calorie? ) possibly introduce a grazing muzzle which I am not keen on atm.
I have also been given the advice of feeding straw to slow her eating time down?
I know this a very popular discussion but thoughts/pointers will be gratefully received.
 
how much work is she doing? Especially cantering. Id swap the lite balancer for a better quality on from progressive earth or forage plus. I have suceesfully mixed hay and straw together and it worked brilliantly. The other option is to reduce hay and add a bucket of chopped straw.
 
Can you put a track up in her field?

I found it made a huge difference to my mare. She lost 50kg and wasn't in ridden work but I did a lot of hand walking and soaked her hay.
 
Grazing muzzle has been a lifesaver for us this summer. Nothing is without disadvantages and you need to find the right model but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

You could swap the pellet balancer for speedi beet and a powder one but the bulk of calorie reduction will have to come from forage quantity/ energy density. There is a middle ground between soaking hay for an hour and soaking for 6-8! If you can up the soaking time gradually you might have better luck with her eating it. Or mix the more heavily soaked hay in with the lightly soaked?
 
smolmaus said:
Grazing muzzle has been a lifesaver for us this summer. Nothing is without disadvantages and you need to find the right model but I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

You could swap the pellet balancer for speedi beet and a powder one but the bulk of calorie reduction will have to come from forage quantity/ energy density. There is a middle ground between soaking hay for an hour and soaking for 6-8! If you can up the soaking time gradually you might have better luck with her eating it. Or mix the more heavily soaked hay in with the lightly soaked?
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Yes good point I have gone from one to the other quite quickly! It's managing to soaking time around yard visits!
 
The grass around us is coming through thick and fast - normally we are switching to winter grazing before now but the good doers are doing too well on the summer grazing and the grass looks better than it has all summer … no t complaining though the shorter they can be on the winter patches the better… but a grazing muzzle might be a must if you can’t up the work any more
 
Depending on the size of your cob, 5kg might be a bit much during the day. For reference: the 24hr-daily forage intake of my 14hh cob should be around 6kg. (If you’re talking about a 24 hour period ignore this! 🫣)

I feed hay in trickle nets, with 3kg overnight (it does last, with careful planning and net-selection). If they’re in during the day I feed 1.5kg because they’re both technically still dieting. Research suggests that there is little difference between soaking for 1hr or 12hrs.

If she’s leaving hay (whether soaked or unsoaked) then she’s not really actually that hungry. Harsh as it sounds, it’s true. It’s like putting a carrot in front of you when you’re full, if you’re not that hungry you won’t eat the carrot, if you’re hungry you’ll eat the carrot. As long as she will eat a bit when she’s hungry, that’s fine. I understand if she point-blank refuses to eat it AT ALL, but if she’ll live then it’s in her best interests to keep feeding it to slim her down.

Also, (correct me if I’m wrong) but I don’t think you need to throw away the day-old hay?

I know I sound a bit callous, but sometimes we have to be a bit callous with feeding the fatties. I know how difficult it is and how guilty it can make you feel. 😢
 
Good doers are such hard work. I second the faster work. Only exercise that ever helped my highland was cantering. Could walk him for hours and he wouldn’t lose an ounce! How overweight is she and what will be happening over winter? Maybe you’ll be able to improve things then?
 
I got the weight off my obese mare by bringing her in overnight and giving small amounts unsoaked hay, alongside huge trugs of Honeychop/Halleys plain oat straw chaff. I didn't ride daily or increase her work. She learned to self-regulate eventually and over 2 yrs I got her down to an appropriate weight.
 
Hifi lite has molasses in it so I would avoid. Dengie do molasses free options which I prefer.

I also put a bucket of honeychop oat straw in my stable. It gets eaten when needed but left otherwise.
 
NooNoo59 said:
Seen so with sores caused by rubbing so .....
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Mine got a mild sore on her muzzle the first day I used it, so I let it recover. I then gradually increased the amount of time she was wearing the muzzle to build up the toughness of her skin. She can now go out in it for a full 8 hour day with no rubbing and it allows her to spend more time out to move around, forage and use her brain.
 
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How long is she in for during the day? What is her target weight? I would make sure I wasn't giving her any more than 1.5% of her target weight in hay divided by the proportion of time she was in. So for example if her target weight is 400kg, 1.5% of that is 6kg. Say she's in for 6 hours during the day. So that's 1/4 of the day. So she would get 1/4 of 6kg = 1.5kg of hay, maximum. If in for 8 hours she would get 1/3 of 6kg, so 2kg of hay, etc etc. Unless needed to carry supplements high fibre cubes could go into a toy to extend eating time or you can always offer a bucket of plain, unmolassed oat straw if you're concerned about her standing with nothing to eat. My greedy pony never touched his, that's how I knew the extra he would eat given the chance was greed not need!

I understand that you may be limited by your own health at the moment so obviously just do what you can but I'd be aiming to build up to trotting for at least 50% of the time that you are hacking for. You want to get and keep their heart rate up in the fat burning zone and walking just doesn't cut it. If trotting that much is too hard physically for you then try to do a LOT of hill work which increases the intensity of the exercise without increasing the speed.

Finally it's getting a bit too late in the year now but think about implementing a track system round the outside of your field once the ground dries out next spring, very useful for decreasing grass consumption without reducing movement. In fact they often move more particularly if there's one dominant character pushing the others on all the time.

I've had a fair bit of experience slimming down obese loan ponies!
 
Worth trying a different muzzle. My friend brings her obese cobs in overnight and I swear they just snooze, relax, conserve some calories until the next day when they eat their RDA of forage stuffing themselves in the field. It's well eaten down but they're gaining weight. All the overnight stabling does is allow them to gain weight by taking it easy.

My fatty has rubbed on certain muzzles but without one she just doesn't stop.
 
Yes the muzzle that works perfectly for mine rubs others on the yard terribly. I think they put them on too tight tbh and theirs are clipped and mine isnt so has more protection, but different models will suit different horses!
 
After you've soaked the hay are you rinsing and hanging to drain? It's hard to say how much she should be getting without knowing her weight and also how much grass she's getting.

If you think on the regime she's on she really should be losing weight then it may be worth speaking to your vet in case there are underlying metabolic issues.
 
How overweight is she and did they condition score or were they just doing expected weight for height?

My cobs are always overweight at this time of the year, I'm careful through the winter and they go into spring a nice slim weight.

Its hard to influence a horses weight with exercise, you can get them fit and looking slimmer but unless you're restricting food ive never seen it make much difference. The exception is if you're riding for hours several times a week - but that restricts food in itself.

If you need her to lose weight right now then the advice from the feed company was sound but she'll likely sleep in the stable then graze all night so I wouldn't expect weight loss unless you muzzle or until the grass goes.
 
Jambarissa said:
How overweight is she and did they condition score or were they just doing expected weight for height?

My cobs are always overweight at this time of the year, I'm careful through the winter and they go into spring a nice slim weight.

Its hard to influence a horses weight with exercise, you can get them fit and looking slimmer but unless you're restricting food ive never seen it make much difference. The exception is if you're riding for hours several times a week - but that restricts food in itself.

If you need her to lose weight right now then the advice from the feed company was sound but she'll likely sleep in the stable then graze all night so I wouldn't expect weight loss unless you muzzle or until the grass goes.
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She was scored an 8 and was 540 she is only 14hh but chunky. Something isn't working atm not sure what it is but lots of great advice on here
 
I don’t think you need to worry too much going into winter. Is she clipped and no rug or lightweight might help. As your health improves increase the intensity of exercise.
 
Do you think she is overweight when objectively looking at her against those established markers? What do other experienced people, e.g. trainer, YO etc., think?
I don't think that actual weight alone is the be-all and end-all of an indication, especially when it is compared against a "guide" which includes breed etc. If yes, then perhaps look for further tactics, but otherwise, it sounds like you are already doing a lot of the right things.
 
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