Fattty Saff in deep doodoo

[Asimmons]

Fat Saff is in fat camp( in most of the time). This makes her very, very cross. She is food-obsessed. I am not starving her..tho' she wd claim otherwise. Anyway, she nearly got sent to the great fat camp in the sky today. Let her and Purdey(son's pony) out for a nibble in the 1 acre steep paddock and Saff immediately herded Purdey into a corner and double-barrelled her ...thrice. For NO reason other than vile temper. They have lived together for 18 months now so this cannot be put down to anything other than hideous behaviour on Saff's part.Broke the skin on Purdey's backside in three places( big grazed patches) and left two distinct hoof prints. Purdey is now on bute/ice packs and arnica and in. Saff, in a vain attempt to curry favour having been roundly abused(verbally!) took herself round a course of jumps in the arena...totally off her own bat. But it didn't wash..she's an evil witch on a diet..and a fat witch off it. Cried masses to see poor Purds gamely limping back to her box but she does seem a lot better tonight after a jab from the vet.
I go back to a previous post. I'll never again have two mares with completely different metabolisms and attitudes to company. Saff gets fat on air and will jump ANYTHING to reach food. Quite happy to be alone. Purdey nervy, slim. Can't bear to be left in field alone..but needs the grass. She will jump out to be with Saff, even if it means standing outside Saff's box

. It's a nightmare!

 

[scotsmare]

Is there no-one else you can turn them out with?

 

[Asimmons]

Not at the moment...but we move end June and will be renting a field while stables are built/paddocks fenced and there will be three exmoors in it...so Saff can be banged up in temporary stables and Purdey can stay out and enjoy!

 

[angiebaby]

I have the same problem but with geldings, I have had to seperate them with electric fencing hooked up to a very large battery!
My Welshie still tries to charge at the skinny TB !

 

[Thistle]

Can you put Saff out in a muzzle so everyone is happy?

 

[Missmac]

She is food-obsessed. I am not starving her..tho' she wd claim otherwise.

She sounds like my gelding who is also in fat camp!! He would have the world believe that im starving him, and every time I exersize him he screams his head off in protest, broadcasting to the world that im torturing him!

He is also very teritorial(sp?) about his grass and who he shares it with.

 

[LizGooch1]

My two are the same. I have a fat horse who lives off nothing living with a skinny nervous TB companion. Not ideal at this time of the year!

 

[Asimmons]

Glad to find I'm not alone...but very sorry for all fellow sufferers of the mixed metabolism conundrum!

 

[2K85]

Same problem! One lardy welsh cob x who cares about her stomach above all else, and one skinny, neurotic TB, with separation anxiety. Nightmare. Lardy one gets very angry on her diet - climbed the muck heap and threatened to throw herself off the top when the muzzle went on last week.

 

[henryhorn]

I would use a well fitting muzzle on her I think, it must be horrible for her to feel hungry even though we know it's for her own good.
The other alternative is to make a double electric fence of 5 feet between the two tapes and fence the fat one in a smaller area in the same field.
Some of the problem will be the fact it's an acre paddock. if you provide enough acres for them to escape they never seem to get the opportunity to attack each other, but of course then she would have access to acres of grass too, so you can't do that either..

No, it would get a muzzle on I'm afraid!