Fat pony, at my wits end :(

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katymay

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I have a little Dartmoor pony who is as wide as he is tall, he came to us grossly overweight and we have been fighting a never ending battle to get him to loose weight. He is given exercise as much as possible and had actually lost some over winter. Even though they are still in the Winter paddock the grass is starting to show through so fenced off a corner for him and started a soaked hay only regime. This worked for the first day but on going up tonight three plastic stakes are snapped and little fat pony has escaped. This surprised me as he usually respects the electric fencing, brand new battery so know there is charge going through it, my only thought is that the naughty youngster I have is letting him out, he seems immune to a good zapping and often pulls at the tape with his teeth. so, I don't think the whole segregating thing is going to work! my only other option is to muzzle him 24/7 to slow down his intake and stop him from wolfing down the youngsters hay? please let me know any fab suggestions as I could cry :( thanks
 
Ah, good that he is naked. I have a bit of a porker, who has lost weight in the last couple of months, down from 420 to 360. He is in a bare paddock during daylight hours, fed a tiny feed with balancer twice a day and stabled overnight with a could of slices of hay on deep litter straw. The turning point in his fight against flab seemed to come when he took a liking to eating his straw rather than his hay. Now he rarely finishes his hay, and we ensure that the straw around the banks in his bed are daily topped up with fresh straw so he has something appetising to munch on. Perhaps your chap could lose weight on similar?
 
I'd stick to what you are doing, but make sure that your fencing is going to keep him in. Perhaps try doing a double line of fencing a few feet apart, and hook it up to the mains electric if you can?

How much soaked hay were you feeding in a 24 hour period?
 
CobsGalore said:
I'd stick to what you are doing, but make sure that your fencing is going to keep him in. Perhaps try doing a double line of fencing a few feet apart, and hook it up to the mains electric if you can?

How much soaked hay were you feeding in a 24 hour period?
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Sadly cant hook to mains as its a rented paddock not near any electric source, the more I think about it, the more I know it is the youngster that is letting him out as all of last year he didn't escape out of any fencing when he was with another companion, he was getting plenty of soaked hay, probably more than he needed but didn't want him to go without whilst he was getting used to the change if that makes sense? think my only option is a muzzle or move the youngster to the adjoining summer paddock and keep the fatty in a fence of trashed bit, but then how on earth am I going to keep the youngster from gorging if he wont respect any fencing, argggghhhh!
 
Can you work him at all .
If you ride can you teach him to lead from another horse ( if you ride ) or walk him briskly in hand .
Exercise really helps .
Double electric fencing round his paddock to make escaping harder .
 
would muzzle him as much as you can just while there's spring grass if i were you, mine has weight issues and I feed a small amount of hi-fi lite to mine with a handful of pony nuts, she gets soaked hay (i weigh it to make sure its consistent) and excersise is the best thing for it, very long slow hacks are most effective i've heard, sorry i can't help you much, its such a pain having horses that practically put on weight by breathing! hope i could help x

also i disagree with what Angus' Yard said earlier, mine was eating her straw bed and ended up getting colic as a lot of it isnt good for them, she also on weight because of how much she was eating (a lot!)
 
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Even a simple track round the field is a great idea without all the foot strengthening changes in surface. I have a track round about 2 acres about 10 ft wide so they can pass each other in a hooley and I also put small very small piles of dry hay round the edges so they actually have to walk farther than they get calories from the hay. Problem get to be when the middle bit grows and becomes more attractive than the hay track then you need them to respect the fence. My youngster doesnt have much respect but she works very hard daily and so I can keep her on a good covering of grass without her blowing up
 
Hi katymay, I managed to bring my horse down in weight but it was a LONG battle. She was huge (lovingly nicknamed the hippo) so I kept her muzzled while the grass was out, fed her 2 year old hay in interval rations and worked her 4-5 times a week. It's a year on and she's still not perfect, but she's about half as much horse and much happier.

Muzzling does seem to work well for keeping a fatty in check. I've noticed since my mare reached a healthy weight her appetite is much less voracious and she's less food obsessed, but muzzling was essential in the early days because it was incredible how much food she could hoover up. Plus if your boy has friends to play with he might spend less time attacking the grass/hay put out for him :)

GL to you both!
 
Thank you all, its given me lots of things to think about, I love the idea of a paradise track and have considered it in the past, it would need to be more permanent fencing though as the youngster would just trash it, he has a habit of finding the weak spots and pushes through, looking forward to when he is backed so I can hopefully tire him out daily! so I think I am going to try muzzle during the day and out with the youngster, soaked hay overnight in a double line electric fence muzzle off! if I owned the paddock I would be more inclined to pay for all the extra permanent fencing and would probably re- do the lot including installing a permanent paradise track, maybe I need to persuade paddock owner to sell, thanks again
 
I feel your pain! We got a fatty in August last year. I worked her hard, lunging and jumping her when son wasn't riding. Or I led her out when I was riding my pony. We've managed to shift over 60kg and she's lived on a very small handful of chaff with carrots and a slice of hay twice daily over the winter. I am dreading the spring as she shares a field with my rising 4yo who needs to put weight on. I think I will be investing in a muzzle for her too. My filly has no respect for fencing and quite happily barges through electric fencing or pulls it down so I can see I'm in for an interesting spring/summer. Hope you manage to sort things out.
 
Just because you have a new battery doesn't mean your fence is working properly. If you are wise, you will get a proper fence tester from somewhere and make sure.

Then change the diet gradually over to straw by first mixing the two, then gradually reduce the hay content. Ponies can still get fat on ad lib straw so that will probably have to be rationed too.
 
My first pony was overweight and keeping the weight off was always a fighting battle. However, we muzzled him and kept him in a small grass patch. We soaked his hay for 12hrs to get all the sugars out and we worked him hard, if you have an arena its worth trying to make him canter for longer periods than you normally would and get him puffing a bit, it will work wonders for his fitness. We gave ours a handful of happy hoof chaff twice a day when the others were fed. He did well on this regime. Don't be too hard on yourself, ponies are hard to keep slim as they are designed to get fat in spring/summer/autumn in store for winter, you're doing a great job x
 
Muzzle, track system, out with others to encourage movement, more exercise, if pony is fit enough try to canter every day, and remember it takes a lot longer to lose weight than to gain it. Mine took 2 years to get to a "healthy" weight, and is still prone to balloon if not kept in regular work
 
ridefast said:
Muzzle, track system, out with others to encourage movement, more exercise, if pony is fit enough try to canter every day, and remember it takes a lot longer to lose weight than to gain it. Mine took 2 years to get to a "healthy" weight, and is still prone to balloon if not kept in regular work
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This! Lots of fast work. As many times a week as you can. I know places to go galloping are dwindling in this country but do try. It makes a huge difference the cardio fat burning work.
 
Dry Rot said:
Just because you have a new battery doesn't mean your fence is working properly. If you are wise, you will get a proper fence tester from somewhere and make sure.

Then change the diet gradually over to straw by first mixing the two, then gradually reduce the hay content. Ponies can still get fat on ad lib straw so that will probably have to be rationed too.
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We have a fence tester and yes its working, youngster tried to pull the tape with his mouth and got a nasty zap so its definitely on :) I have straw so will start mixing that in, he has been having chopped oat straw over winter with fast fibre so I know if he is starving he will eat it, think exercise is my major problem, at 10.3hh I cant ride him and my kids aren't ready for the fast stuff yet, my youngster isn't backed so cant lead off of him, I am hoping to back him to drive this year so will start cracking on with that, thank you all x
 
Clip more hair off! Don't worry about spoiling the summer coat, far more important to get the weight off. I have just clipped a tubby welshie, leaving just a small blanket area and he is out with no rug day time and only a fleece if it's really cold at night. Once another millimetre of hair has grown I will leave off the fleecy.

It sounds mean but it's better than laminitis. If it's any comfort my friend has an obese Dartmoor that she struggles with. I think they are the hardest to get to drop weight as they are so well designed by nature to live on thin air.
 
Stop feeding it!Even hay. Give it the paddock to roam in, work it and keep it uncovered.

My Clydesdale has had no supplementary feed for the past two years as its the only way I can keep her weight under control. Her paddock is like a billiard table and she has to work very hard to get her daily rations.

These Dartmoors are bred to withstand incredibly harsh weather and poor food.
 
Hello, just lost a, long reply post, URGH !

To sum it up, muzzle during the day + access to a stable at night if you can for a while + soaked hay at night and small amount, bed on straw.
 
If he weight is that bad your need to be hardcore with your management and exercise all the time. I would put up two lines of tape on the posts and then another lot of fencing about a metre away from that, keep him and your youngsters un-rugged so they feel the mega zap- I would have it on high until they get the message it will hurt if they touch it. Maybe muzzle him for part of the day and feed hay thats been soaked for 12-24 hours a day. In regards to exercise I would work him 6 days a week, hacking would be really beneficial even if its just walking, make sure he walks out properly and hopefully... you should see some weight loss. It definitely is a hard thing to manage but it is achieveable.
 
Some good advice already in here.

I double, sometimes triple net my boys haylage. It certainly slows him down. Another thought; I use a big car/wagon battery for my electric fence and I have longer poles. My cob shows respect for the fence when the battery is fully charged but once it starts to run down he gets brave!

Good luck
Kx
 
I have an old Exmoor who came to me obese at 15. He eats everything you can give him and would never stop. He's taught me alot about feeding ie what ever you think is a suitable ration for a fat native pony, take 3/4 of it and save it for later!
They need to move and calorifically they don't need anything like what you think they need. So feed straw (wheat straw thats not been treated with anything if you can get it-these ponies need real stalky roughage), in small holed nets, muzzle if on grass and walk the wee toot's legs off. I take mine out for a walk with the dog-he has to jog to keep up with me, does him the world of good. I can't lunge atm but I used to-when he's fitter you can introduce pole work and jumping.
 
Muzzle him 24/7 and work him. I have a small one that came to me very fat at the beging of winter and she's now looking great having lived out muzzled all winter and being in work.
 
dafthoss said:
Muzzle him 24/7 and work him. I have a small one that came to me very fat at the beging of winter and she's now looking great having lived out muzzled all winter and being in work.
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I think I have a solution to try in the interim, I have spent most of the day at the paddock, grooming, poo picking, general tidying etc, walking around the grass is really sparse, only a few bits poking through here and there, watching the little fatty it amazed me how quickly he can walk around hoovering it up, so, I am going to muzzle him 24/7 on a trial basis, all hay will be soaked even the youngsters, and fed from the same feeder, the youngster is very protective over food so by the time he has finished what he wants there will only be the odd bit for fatty to hoover up, and lots and lots more exercise, I could do with dropping my winter pounds so me, the pony and the dog can go and get fit :) thanks all x
 
DuckToller said:
Clip more hair off! Don't worry about spoiling the summer coat, far more important to get the weight off. I have just clipped a tubby welshie, leaving just a small blanket area and he is out with no rug day time and only a fleece if it's really cold at night. Once another millimetre of hair has grown I will leave off the fleecy.

It sounds mean but it's better than laminitis. If it's any comfort my friend has an obese Dartmoor that she struggles with. I think they are the hardest to get to drop weight as they are so well designed by nature to live on thin air.
Click to expand...

I hadn't thought of clipping but opted to sell on the fatties and now only keep ponies that can regulate their weight! Yes, it certainly seems to be genetic.

Some sheep farmers clip their ewes prior to lambing which is not as brutal as it sounds. The arguments are that you can get more inside (a few inches of wool on each animal can add up!) and they eat more so producing fitter lambs. Personally, I've never done it but it certainly sounds logical for fatty natives ponies.
 
Just make sure the grass is long enough for him to get through the muzzle or he will be starving unless he can eat soaked hay with the muzzle.
 
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