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SummerThePony

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I have a 11.2hh strawberry roan, Welsh section a cross 9yo mare called Summer. Summer stays out most of the time but she's quite round and I'm starting to do more with her. I'm not giving her any feed except the odd handful of chaff and balancer and carrots after a workout. I'm starting to want to go to tiny tots jumping and dressage with her. How do I get her fitter faster? (She won't lunge and I can only do things with her Mondays, Thursdays, Some Fridays a and if not then Weekends)
 
My mare has a muzzle and is certainly not miserable it gets taken off at night and she is fine with it. If the choice is between reducing her grass intake by muzzle as well as upping the exercise or my mare getting laminitis I'll take the muzzle every time.
 
I'm not a fan of muzzles either - but you can definitely get them small enough. I had one for our 11.2 sec A who had Cushings. Strip or bare grazing was not available for him so a muzzle it had to be. OP if you can restrict grazing with tape or put her on a bare paddock that would be better. But it isn't always an option if you don't have your own land. Ask your instructor for a fitness plan for her so that you can get the most out of the days you have available for her. Is there anyone on yard who could long line or ride and lead? Or even teach her to lunge!
 
My boy came with a muzzle and I didn't find it helped a lot. All it did was him just plunging for the grass whenever it was taken off. I couldn't properly lead him anywhere as the grass was way too tempting.
(He's a cob, they're always starving anyway so might be different for other horses :D)

Muzzle has been off since last autumn now and he's not exploded. He's a bit round and I need to exercise him more but he's happy and I can lead him through nice grass with no issues - which to me is a win as I hate being dragged around by horses.
 
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