Fat horse - please help!

Bertolie

Bertolie

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Had my 7 year old 15.2hh traditional cob x Clydesdale weighed by a feed company this morning. She clocked in at 740kg with a body condition score of 3.75 (0-5 score). I am horrified and need to get her weight under control. She went into summer weighing 682kg so has put on 58kg.

Feed wise she gets a large handful of Honeychop Lite and Healthy chaff with one cup of Spillers Lite balancer once a day. She gets a double handful of the chaff in the evening with her regumate in.

She goes out in a smallish paddock with her 14.2 buddy during the day which doesn't have loads of grass for between 4 and 9 hours a day. Stabled at night all year round with 6kg of 6-8 hour soaked hay. Bedded on barley straw which she does nibble.

Now here's the crunch, due to various reasons I can only ride her at weekends. She has also had a lot of foot problems which has meant she is not comfortable on the soft school surface and vet wants her to avoid the school for a while longer yet. She also doesn't lunge very well even if we could use the school. I am currently paying my instructor to hack her out once or twice a week depending on her work schedule. I know this is not enough exercise but it's the best I can do at present.

Any hints, tips or suggestions for getting weight off of her with the restrictions I have mentioned? I know it's my fault for letting her get big and I am absolutely horrified and gutted so if you could be nice I would appreciate it 😊
 
This is my specialist subject! it feels daunting but it can be done. Its just harder if you cant work them.

Reduce the hay, either give her more straw or leave her to pick at her bad. You can give big buckets of oat straw chaff as well. I'd drop the balancer and feed a powdered mineral balancer like Progressive Earth etc, 40gms of salt, and extra magnesium. Muzzle during the day. The reason the field doesnt have loads of grass is because they are eating it! Is there any option to set up a track?
 
Indroduce oat straw as a partial hay replacer you need to do this gradually and watch the droppings as it can cause impactions and I would not do this with any horse who has a history of impaction colic .
If you can get really good baled oat straw that's perfect if not feed a plain oat chop ( honeychop make one .
Half the hay ration and soak it well before feeding .
If the horses soundness allows increase the intensity of the work when the horse is ridden so it really works .
Don't keep the horse warm keep it on the cold side so minimal rugging if any .
It's hard and I am in the same boat Fatty can't be fully worked ATM the vet wants him living out so he's moving so he's out with the others who have haylege and he's gaining weight I have clipped him and put a no fill on and am working him as much as I am allowed .
 
I found it very, very hard to shift weight off my one without work. The vet who advised on her myopathy told me that 'walk is not work' (that was double under-lined on her notes!) and said she needed to build up to a minimum of 20 mins trot and canter work a day. So if yours is able to hack then make sure those hacks are as active as she is capable of doing.

Others above have said about soaking hay, replacing with oat chaff (I use topchop zero) and powder balancers. I've shifted nearly 100kg off mine in 6 months, but needed the exercise to make a difference.
 
I've got a mare who only needs to look at grass to put on weight so I sympathise. I second keeping her a bit cold and swapping to a mineral balancer (you can add a little micronised linseed for omega 3). I would also make sure that when you bring her in/turn her out she walks as briskly as possible, it's a small thing but any activity helps.
 
Just to say her 14.2 gelding companion who is kept on the same regime but only 4kg soaked hay at night has lost around 20kgs over summer and is a perfect condition score of 3! He has probably been exercised even less than my mare as his owner recently had a baby. He's clipped and rugged whereas my mare isn't clipped and doesn't see a rug all through winter if I can help it!
 
Stop panicking!

This is the time of year when they are most likely to be at their heaviest, she should naturally lose weight over the winter. Of course you can give nature a helping a hand by swapping some of the hay for plain oat straw chaff. I used Honeychop plain with nothing added at all - What does their Lite and Healthy have in it? My mare, who is a Westphalian Kaltblut (Draft) had trugs full of the chaff, we went through two bags per week for a while.
 
I wrote this post last night on the BD forum, but mine is retired, also way too fat.
I would cut as much feed as possible - does she NEED 2 feeds a day? Can you put the balancer & regumate in the same feed and cut out a lot of the chaff?
Is she rugged? Could you clip a little to keep her a bit cooler.
When your instructor hacks her is she toddling along or really working her? Is she able to build up trot and canter to work of those calories?
Can you muzzle during the day?
 
Bertolie said:
No, she doesn't get much of a winter coat at all.
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I'd be tempted to give her a bib clip. My two fatties are hairy, so have had the whole front taken off (face left on) in a sort of Irish clip. They will have lightish rugs on if it gets cold, but so far they seem perfectly happy and slightly thinner already.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Stop panicking!

This is the time of year when they are most likely to be at their heaviest, she should naturally lose weight over the winter. Of course you can give nature a helping a hand by swapping some of the hay for plain oat straw chaff. I used Honeychop plain with nothing added at all - What does their Lite and Healthy have in it? My mare, who is a Westphalian Kaltblut (Draft) had trugs full of the chaff, we went through two bags per week for a while.
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I agree, amazingly after three years perfecting managing my non ridden pony I’ve got him to this time of year over 30kg lighter than this time last year. He will keep dropping through winter though, but he doesn’t really drop weight until March/April time.

Oat straw chaff has been a god send this year and will carry on being so over the winter, along with last years hay.
 
Track system works really well for my laminitic dartmoor he gallops from one end to the other he is given a tiny amount of grass at one end and his bucket feed at the other he is always greedy which helps with this system but for the first time in 4 years he hasnt had a bout of laminitis this year mind you he maybe heard me say it would be his last as I would be Puttng him down if he got it again. Mostly due to his difficult temperament if I cant keep him happy he gets very aggressive and dangerous this seems to be working he is still fairly fat as in not a hat rack but the running about has kept him fit and well. He has lost enough fat to lose his crest and fat pads though
 
With my fatty the only thing that works is work and lots of it I'm afraid.
I muzzle, I weigh and soak hay. I clip and minimally rug. I feed as little as poss and all low calorie/molasses free. But the only thing that every makes a substantial difference is being worked 6 days per week. It doesn't have to be fast work - just lots of miles. As I work full time and have a long commute this is often blinking hard to achieve.

At the moment she is massive as has been off work for months and had surgery and is only just in the early stages of return to work - although the 20-30 mins walking we are doing daily is already making a difference.

I'm not trying to be negative but you may be banging your head against the wall until you can get more work in.
 
It can be done. I’d bed on shavings and use a teeny holed net for hay, soaked if possible. Mine puts on weight with straw and will eat a huge amount overnight. He gets a small normal holed net and a large 25mm holed net which is pretty much ad-lib. Grazing wise they have a track through the summer with plenty of brambles to nibble on but not much in the way of grass. He’s on the same feed as yours which he looks well on.
 
Unfortunately I think more work is going to be your main help here. Aside from that you could try muzzling while she is out and replace some of her hay with chopped oat straw. Would losing a feed one end of the day drop a pound or two off her allowance perhaps? Sometimes it's the little things in this sort of situation that you have to look at.

I am in a fat battle with a mare who is limited in her workload due to a rare breathing problem. She hacks out in walk 4-5 days a week, but she went from full work to this after her diagnosis and as a result I just can't shift a thing off her. She also removes any muzzle off her face and will take out fences in a dangerous manner to do this, so I can no longer muzzle her.

She is out during the day, has 3kg of hay overnight and a handful of light chaff and lite Balancer that houses her medication. She is also fully clipped out and minimally rugged (currently naked due to how warm it has been). I have started increasing the trot work again, she copes much better in autumn and winter with her breathing, so hopefully I can get her weight down as best I can this winter and it will allow for inevitable gain next spring and summer.
 
Don't restrict forage too much. She must have either 1.5% of current weight, or 2% of target weight (which ever is GREATER).

6kgs of hay is nothing for a horse of her size, so you will find yourself increasing the amount of forage she is getting over the course of 24 hours.

As the others have said, soak the hay (30 mins hot water or 1 hour cold water is sufficient to decrease sugars), and top up with hay replacers as necessary; if she finds plain oat straw chaff unpalatable, then Agrobs Grünhafer is a good substitute - this is oatgrass chaff, and is also very low in sugar and starch (3% total), so only a little higher than oat straw chaff (which is normally around 2% total).

It's difficult when you can't work them, however removing access to the middle of the field, essentially putting a track in, really does increase movement. I've managed to do it on 1/3 of an acre, and have not created a mud pit yet, so it is possible, even with very small spaces.
 
i'd do a big clip and leave unrugged. and knock out all feeds. I used the tiny netted haynets specially made for fatties, they can only put a few strands out at a time. could you get a sharer who likes hacking?
 
shes fat but not terribly so. don't panic. can she live out? leave her unrugged I wouldn't clip btw. feed her hay and oat straw but not ad lib and let the cold weather do the rest.
 
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I am also struggling with a fat horse! normally by now she has started to drop weight a little, but it was been so warm that the grass is still green and she is still fat. But due to 1 year old child and decreasing day light I struggle to exercise her.

I did implement the track system for my three- I didn't actually do it until august, then a few weeks ago I had to go back to a square as the track from getting too poached and slippy (we are by a river). But for the 2 months I did it it certainly made a difference- they covered so much more ground to eat, and drink. where as I had been strip grazing so I could rest parts of my field and weed kill, but then they would move onto a fresh bit and gorge and barely move!

I'm hoping with the weather getting colder winter will start (sounds awful wishing for winter! but my mare and my new forest pony are so fat and I know its so risky)

we do have a brisk 10 minute walk to the field and then back which is better than nothing. I will certainly put the track back up as soon as spring comes. It works as long as the battery doesn't go flat!
 
Do you have a pic? i cant offer much advice but would love to see a pic.... not to just look at a fat horse but they sound really similar to mine in terms of breed and size i would love to compare :)

Bertolie said:
Had my 7 year old 15.2hh traditional cob x Clydesdale weighed by a feed company this morning. She clocked in at 740kg with a body condition score of 3.75 (0-5 score). I am horrified and need to get her weight under control. She went into summer weighing 682kg so has put on 58kg.

Feed wise she gets a large handful of Honeychop Lite and Healthy chaff with one cup of Spillers Lite balancer once a day. She gets a double handful of the chaff in the evening with her regumate in.

She goes out in a smallish paddock with her 14.2 buddy during the day which doesn't have loads of grass for between 4 and 9 hours a day. Stabled at night all year round with 6kg of 6-8 hour soaked hay. Bedded on barley straw which she does nibble.

Now here's the crunch, due to various reasons I can only ride her at weekends. She has also had a lot of foot problems which has meant she is not comfortable on the soft school surface and vet wants her to avoid the school for a while longer yet. She also doesn't lunge very well even if we could use the school. I am currently paying my instructor to hack her out once or twice a week depending on her work schedule. I know this is not enough exercise but it's the best I can do at present.

Any hints, tips or suggestions for getting weight off of her with the restrictions I have mentioned? I know it's my fault for letting her get big and I am absolutely horrified and gutted so if you could be nice I would appreciate it ��
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