Feed & Weight advice needed please

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jo.barr1

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Hi, I'm relatively new to horse ownership (having had my first horse at 41). Anyway she is a beautiful 14.2 Arab x Welsh D & is putting on weight like there is no tomorrow! I've owned her for a couple of years but recently moved to a 2 acre field which she shares with a 12.2, 26 year old pony I've been given for my daughter. Having a friend who has recently had two horses with laminitis (megga overfed) I'm really worried about her weight gain. She is now weighing approx 455 kilo's and normally she's around 400. She currently lives in at night and out in the day & having read stuff on here recently now restricted the area she is grazing. I currently give her around half a scoop of safe n sound with a few carrots/hay overnight and have just bought Naf Slimline to add in her feed. Admit I didnt fit in much riding and was just hacking for a couple of hours a week at the weekend. I'm now trying to fit in more excerise and have increased it to four days riding per week. Am I doing the right thing? Any advice on how to manage her weight/feed please?
x
 
I tried a grazing muzzle last spring and she hated it, never had any grass at all just sulked. I felt so bad I gave up after two days :confused:
 
Agree she shouldn't need feeding if she is having good quality hay at night. Do you soak her hay?? This would be good to reduce the calories.

I would try to persevere with the muzzle. They do stand there when you are around but I can almost guarantee she goes off to graze when you're not there. She will get used to it.....it would be meaner to let her get laminitis.
 
Thanks for the advice, I havent soaked her hay but have read that I should. Is it twleve hours that I need to soak for?

I only feed her as I've had to give the old companion pony food to keep his weight on and they are in stables with just a half partitionl...nightmare although I managing him okay.
Will try the muzzle again then thanks, does turning out at night and stabled during the day make a big difference?

Thanks ever s much.
 
When you try the muzzle make sure you train her to get used to it- dont just stick it on and leave it on for hours. Start with half an hour and gradually build up the time. Show her water everytime you put it on and gradually she will learn to drink with it on. If the grass is too long or short then they actually cant eat with them on, so f your grass is at an extreme length then it may not work. A muzzle is always better than laminitis though.

An alternative is to make the paddock very small and feed hay instead when out, to limit grass intake.

Active walking and trotting is the best exercise to burn fat.

If you need to give the vit/min supplemet, rather than half a scoop just give her one handful and dampen it so the supplement sticks to the chaff.
 
That's great, thanks. I have sectioned some of the field I guess to around half an acre but as the grass is so good I'll make it smaller again.
I'm finding it hard to excerise lots (work full time with two kids) and the two ponies are very attached. The old one loves to work & i thought that I couldnt excerise him to much.
My mare will work in the field for around 20 minutes then quickly gets bored and starts to buck & bolt etc but suppose need to overcome my nerves and get on with it!
Thanks for you help will cut the feed and try the muzzle again.
 
You could always put the fatter pony in a smaller paddock than the thinner one. They will still be able to see each other over the fence. Then let them in together for some of the time in the smaller paddock to groom and socialise.
 
Having witnessed a treasured 28 old section d over the last few days with crippling laminitis, please act now!
She was still being fed 16+ alongside lush grass & hay. She is having x rays today to determine how much pedal bone rotation there is. It isnt looking to be honest.
Drop the feed completley. She doesnt need it. If you still think she needs the vits/mins, which on good grass she prob wont, then dampen it on a feed scoop to a paste & she will more than likely eat it like that.
Persevere with the muzzle. Most horses, when left to their own devices just crack on with it when they get a bit peckish. The problem I have found with introducing muzzles gradually is that in the time they are muzxle free, they gorge themselves silly knowing eating is going to be much harder later!
And then of course, exercise is essential to get some weight off. As much as you can. :)
 
Well I have just started riding my Welsh D out for short distances following laminitis back in Aug 09...that grumbled on with flare ups and I would not wish the stress and trauma of it on any horse or owner!
I have had to completely review my whole management of my lad in order to prevent it happening again, get his weight down and keep it down.
He is on a fair sized paddock...about three quarters of an acre that he is on all year...so it was completely trashed in winter and now he is just able to nibble grass as it grows through.
He is in at night with no more than three pads of dampened down hay that is 1 year old, has 2 handfuls of hi fi lite chaff to put his vit supplement in and is out during the day with 1 pad of hay and the nibbly bits in his paddock. He has adapted to this very well after many months where he acted as if he was starved to death and I worried that he had no hay in his stable for hours at night...but now some mornings he has a bit left from 3 pads wheras before I was feeding him ad lib!
He has dropped weight from 470 pre-laminitis to 435 and I have managed to keep him at this for many months even though he was not in work.
He looks slim and has a faint outline of ribs visible.
I find that it is best to monitor weight weekly with a good eye and weigh tape. I adjust his food ration accordingly...perhaps give him a foot strip of new grass every few days or an extra pad of hay during the day. It has rained now so the grass will spurt through, so I have cut back on his hay during the day and keep him in at night.
Previous to laminitis he lived out 24/7 and this suited us both well...but I relaise that is not possible if I want to keep his weight down and will do all can to keep laminitis at bay.
Riding is the best thing really...good long active walk hacks on a regular basis and the weight soon goes.
 
I must admit I saw my friends horses go through laminitis and that's why I'm so worried. Guess at 455kilo I'm pushing my luck. The field I'm in hasnt been grazed on all winter so the grass is too good.
I'll take all the advice and start today thanks ever so much. Realise now I was way to inexperienced to have my own horse but am learning all the time and pray I get the weight off as quick as I can.
Any idea if I soak hay, excerise more and restrict the grass etc that I should start to see some difference? I tape weigh every week now but just get more disheartened when it goes up instead of down x
 
Thanks, i'll certainly take the advice...any idea if I increase the excerise, drop the feed, soak hay, muzzle etc should I see a difference?
I tape weigh every week but get so disheartened when she doesnt lose any.

Luckily I've lots of hills where I am for the excercise.

Sorry for al lthe questions, managed okay last 2 summers but now realise I've still lots and lots to learn! x
 
cut out the carrots for a start as they are high sugar ;)

if feeding soaked hay does not work try feeding half soaked hay and half good quailty straw to keep fibre intake up but calories down. introduce the straw slowley and you should have no troubles :) my mare is odd and prefers staw to hay! no idea why! but great for fatties as then you'll not run the risk of stomach ulcers from lack of fibre.

for soaked hay/straw = feed in double netted haynets so it lasts longer - or get a hay bag (shires ;)) with the one small opening that is also covered in net - the longer they take to get to it the longer they take to eat it so the less you can feed.

then have a look at the paddock paradise system - i was scepticle to begin with but it really works - my mare lost weight and got fitter on it. if you manage your own fields i'd def do that rather than restrict to a small paddock as then you are also effectivly erstricting exersise too.

oh - and if you can - lunge in morning and ride in evening :)
 
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Thanks for that....just been on-line at the paradise system (which I had never heard of) looks a great idea and one which could work easily on my field.
Just dread the cost of the posts ;)
 
I have a paddock paradise system that goes around my 1 acre paddock;

My third summer using it and its a fantastic way of keeping your horse fit and weight down, they live out 24/7; Mine actually goes in a figure of eight with the water at one end!

I have a 14.1hh welsh x arab too he is around 400kilos and has been since I bought him 15 months ago :)

Have a look on here, really good prices; I bought 80 posts and 4 x 200 metres of tape over winter!!

http://www.farmcareuk.com/

Best of luck
 
I'm another who uses the paddock paradise system successfully, electric fencing is fab, and I don't need to muzzle which is good because they rub my poor horse raw. One thing to watch though is to achieve weight loss slowly, a horse dropping weight quickly can be at risk health wise too, so slow regular weight loss is much better for them. As long as the weight doesn't go up then don't get too disheartened at first, if you stick with it you will see the changes in time.
 
With regards to feeding...if you are restricting grass and feeding soaked hay and the weight does not start to drop after a couple of weeks...then start lowering the amount you provide on a weekly basis. My vet has always said that you need to find a balance where the horse maintains its weight on the food provided and then lessen the amount to get them to loose weight or increase it to put on weight...this does work if you can get it right and perservere with it.
When my lad went down with laminitis he was put on a strict diet of how much hay he was given and on vets advice he was given 4 pads of hay during the day on box rest and 3 pads at night on box rest. He lost plenty of weight on this but I had to harden myself up to the fact that he was unhappy with the situation but it was for his own good.
When he came down to the right weight and was allowed out for periods of time I had to up his hay ration to maintain the weight he was at.
Now he is out on restricted grass during the day and he is nibbling grass I have cut his day hay ration right back to 1 pad and judge on a daily basis what to give him depending on what grass there is to nibble, weather etc.
It can be done but you need to keep playing around a bit with the ration for the first few weeks.
 
Thanks for the advice, think I'll try a figure of 8 as it will help not to block in the public footpath that runs through my field. Is it okay to use this system even though mine are not barefoot?
Wish my horse was at 400 kilo....she was in the winter when I was lodging at a friends while finding my own field. As she spent longer in the stable her weight was great and she looked realy good.

Last question honest....if I weigh tape her at night when bringing her in she's at 455k and in the morning she is at 447, which ones would be the most accurate?
Thanks for everyone's help, really appreciate it x
 
My ponies are barefoot too, they do really well on grass 24/7 which I am very gratefull for!! Some can become footy.

Weigh tape the same time of day each time ( I used to do it once a fortnight), doesn't matter when either morning or evening. you will get a more acurate reading
 
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