fat girl...how much..feed experts

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Oscar162

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Any feed clever clogs out there? I have a lovely cob x wb who I have had since late summer. When I got her her weight was good as she came from a yard with poor grass, and the yard I had her on also was over stocked with poor grazing so she kept a good weight as she had to hunt for grass and I gave her feed and sups to cover anything she may be lacking.
However as the winter last year was so hard up here I decided to move my horses closer to home and down to sea level as I lost three months riding last year due to deep snow.
It all was fine to start with, new YO as great hacking is fantastic.......but for 8 weeks now it has been solid ice...so no riding. Well my girl is now the size of a house....huge.
If I cant work her every day she just balloons in size. She was on add lib hay, has a handful of apple chaff with her bits and bobs in and when in work this was fine, weight was good, energy was good.
She shares her paddock with our pony who is a good weight and doesn't need restricted hay, so YO has split my area up and put in some huge strainer posts with rings on so I can put nets up for her and restrict her hay to what she should get, and not what she wants (she can eat quarter a big round bale in a day) as I am worried that it is now mid Jan and grass starts here around mid March...so about eight weeks to get her weight back down.
So my question is how much do you lot think I should feed her?
She is 15.1
cob x wb a middle weight (normally)
10 yo
At the moment not working as can't get her out her paddock, but it is to thaw over rest of week so will start fitness work again. so will just be light work.
 
is she out 24/7? and is there any grass? if so then she doesn't need ad lib hay so long as there's something to nibble on

how about doing half soaked hay and half good straw instead of all hay?

feed - i'd feed none tbh! if you feel she needs vits and mins then apple chaff is high calories - so maybe look to change to a low cal chaff (happy hoof or something) and adding a tiny bit of water for powder to blend with? or - feed D&H equibites instead of any feed/powder etc

is she clipped/rugged etc? i'd drop down a rug level too if you can so she needs to work harder to stay warm
 
Yes she is out 24/7
No there is no grass.
No she isn't clipped
Yes she is in a rug but just a light weight (70grm) premier to keep her dry, refuse to go to no fill as they leak in heavy rain and she has very sensitive skin so naked is not an option.
Wasn't looking for what you think I should feed her, what I am after is someone to work out what they think her daily intake in lbs per day should be.
 
Not sure what you're wanting to know but if it's any help,
My 15.2 chunky good doer gets one slice of soaked hay in the morning, then turned out on grass during the day. Two slices at night. Handful of topchop lite with vits/mins. If he didn't have any grass to eat he would get 2 slices hay during day and 2 at night, in a haylage net to make them last longer.
Try soaking the hay for 12 hours before feeding it. But the best way to drop weight is less rugs.
He wears a no-fill lightweight turnout, it's an Amigo and it does NOT leak!

Oh yeah meant to add. 2 slices of our dry hay weighs out at about 3 kg which is about 6 lb.
 
If you want to work out how much forage she should be eating then you will need to post her weight. I've always been taught horses should be eating about 2% of their body weight ideally in forage (grass/hay). For horses that need to loose weight then use about 1.5%, horses that need to gain weight use 2.5%. Obviously these are only guidelines and it depends very much on the horses type/exercise etc....also not actually able to see/know the mare in question. As above could you also soak the hay?

8 weeks is plenty of time to get her weight back down, can you ride her regularly now there is no ice? Where abouts are you? Our ice disappeared a couple of weeks ago!

Is there enough grass just for her to nibble on throughout the day, and have hay at night?
 
I agree with the above.

My good doer gets weighed and soaked hay and she's out during the day muzzled. I feed her 1.5% of her bodyweight and it seems to be working.
 
Think I have confused you all as to info I am after so I shall try again.
How many lbs per day would you feed a 500kg 15.1 10 yo good doer?
She is well over 500 by the way but when I got her to this in the autumn she looked fantastic, well on her way to a fit horse.
I never use the 1.5% of body weight way to work it out, got a very old fashioned way I was taught that worked for me as I have till now never had a good do'er. I have worked out what I want to give her, but I was after some reassurance that it still isn't too much.
Oh and I still cant work her as I am in the north of Scotland and we have thick ice with water on top in the last eight weeks I have had three days when I could work her.
There is grass , but just hard earned pickings, so as there is also no mud I plan to keep her in this paddock so I know exactly how much go's in.
 
Hay wise I'm currently feeding my good doer 10 kilos of hay (which I think is about 20 lbs) over 24 hours

This has been soaked for 12 hours, and is now put into a slow hay feeder am & pm (I hate haynets) he is in medium work and has limited turnout
 
Any time, its a mine field with a fatty, and what works for some will not for others. I would experiment with what works for you & your horse, for example when I was at last yard I ended up splitting hay into lb sections and feeding it at intervals throughout the day...but that was a comp yard so someone always around to put hay in.
 
feed per day for 500kg good doer at 1.5% is 7.5kg or 16.5lbs. Small square hay bales 1 slice equals approx 2kg, 1 large scoop of happy hoof, dengie, chaff is 400g there are 1000g in a kg so would need 2.5 scoops to make a kg, split that between your am and pm feed which would leave 6.5kg so you could give her 1.5 slices hay during the day and 2 slices at night hay. Keep her rugged as this is not a lot of feed and it is cold and horses are supposed to eat 16hrs a day. She will lose the weight when you start exercising her.
 
When you say she is the size of a house, I presume you cannot feel her ribs? If this is the case then I would probably give her about 8kg (sorry don't do pounds - use Google to convert if necessary) in total, to start off with. Perhaps a larger net at night and a little one in the morning. This is assuming this amount is less than she is getting at present. She has some grass to pick at so she has some fibre going through her regularly.

I would then weigh tape her once a week to see if she losing weight. If her weight was not reducing then I would start soaking the hay to remove some calories and/or reduce to 7.5kg (1.5% of bodyweight). Would also advise soaking hay if you notice adverse reactions to the reduction of hay such as wood-chewing etc. These amounts assume she is only getting a handful of chaff to hold her supplements.

Bearing in mind it is very difficult to advise over the internet without seeing the real condition the horse is in and what the grazing is like!
 
Bloody hell its not a lot is it? thank you for the info. Don't have small bales, but weighed one of my nets today and it was 8lbs. Got my fingers crossed the ice will be gone by the weekend.
 
I'd be minded if she was mine to reduce her hay allowance down to a maximum 5kg per 24 hours. Probably over a week or so, rather than in one go. She is obviously having far too much for her if she has put on weight. Some of them really do live on fresh air.

Our NF mare is currently in foal following on from Tendon injuries to both front legs discovered last March. Normal weight is around 400kg. We give her 4kg hay to last her overnight (1600-0800) in her stable (non edible bedding) and an absolutely minimal feed - 1 cup baileys lo-cal balancer, 1/4 round scoop chaff. Out during the day. She is fatter than I would like her to be on this meagre diet, some of them really do get fat on fresh air.

This time last year she was on adlib haylage 24/7 in a field with basically no grass. She and her field companion (he gets 6kg haylage per night, otherwise just the same as her, but he is in full work) were both thinner than I would have like them to be and they got a decent size feed as well. So much of it is down to the quality of the grass. So, I do understand your predicament, I've kind of been there myself.

I know what I am proposing sounds tough, but I'm not sure you have much choice if she's as fat as you have described and that you are starting to be concerned about the spring grass coming through. Perhaps you might have to bring her in to restrict her grazing when it does come through or muzzle her...
 
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Stable is sorted for her to come in to restrict grazing over spring summer. She just eats and eats. It was ok when I worked her every day as it kept her slim and add lib was no probs, but the snow and ice allowed her to just stand and eat, and then the frozen ground made it impossible for me to electric fence a paddock off till now. A good do'er is so new to me, and the other liveries made me feel cruel when I said how much I was going to give her that I started to question what I was giving her now. So thank you for the useful advice.
 
Oscar162 said:
Bloody hell its not a lot is it? thank you for the info. Don't have small bales, but weighed one of my nets today and it was 8lbs. Got my fingers crossed the ice will be gone by the weekend.
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It is only a small amount, which is why we add good quality straw to our hay/lage. Horses should be able to eat for 16 hours per day, spread over the 24. I cannot bear to see horses left with nothing to eat. This leads to all sorts of behavioural and digestive trouble.
 
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