Feeding advice please :)

Casey76

Casey76

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My mare is remaining tubby despite increase in workload.

I bought my 6yo mare from the field at the beginning of May this year. She was very unfit as hadn't been in work for 3 years (bought as a brood mare prospect but it didn't materialise), at the time she was out at grass 24/7 with no restriction and was a bit tubby.

Initially I moved her to my old yard where whe was stabled 24/7 for 30 days for quarantine, and fed only hay (though occasionally she got a stubbs scoop of barley if the staff forgot she wasn't to have any food) and exercised, gently, daily.

In June she moved to my current yard where she is stables during the day and out at night on a starvation paddock. Feed did consist of 1 measure of Baileys Lo Cal on a morning and 1/3 scoop of Baileys Every Day Mix on an evening with hay on a morning.

Despite her workload being increased to schooling for 40 minutes 3x per week, lunging for 25 mins 2x per week and hacking for 1 hour per week (still increasing fitness levels) she is remaining tubby (last taped at 450kg in Jun).

I asked the YM to decrease food to 1/2 measure of Lo Cal on a morning and 1/2 on an evening from Saturday (evening feed just so she doesn't go daft when everyone else is fed), however she has seriously increased eating her bed (wheat straw), and felt very "flat" during schooling yesterday.

She doesn't have any fat pads, her crest is soft, her ribs are feelable, though she does have the double croup which is typical (and required) for the Mérens.

So, I'm not really sure what I could try next. As I said we are still building her fitness up, so I don't want to increase her workload too drastically as she just doesn't have the muscle or endurance to do that at the moment.

the only thing I could really think of is changing her bedding to something non-edible - though this would be at my own expense as straw is covered with the livery price. And I would have to talk to the YO regarding the disposal of something other than straw...
 
She is probably eating a fair amount of bedding and changing that may help but I think increasing her work would be the best way to go, she is doing 2 x lunge sessions and 3 x schooling which, unless it is to save time, could easily have a half hour walking hack added to them, if not more, walking will not put her under stress and adding a half hour walk out to her daily exercise will make a difference to her weight and fitness, it will also get her out of the stable for longer, less time to eat the bed.
 
You could also try soaking her hay,( 6-12hours), changing her feed to hi fi molasses free chop ( a handful) and add half the amount of low cal balancer. Def change her bedding to shavings ( i worked out it was the same price as straw and mine used to eat his bedding till i changed). Make sure after a warm up in walk, that you get her to stride out on your hacks and incorporate hill work if you have any near you, letting the last 5 mins be a cool down long rein home.
 
Thanks be positive. At the moment I'm not doing too much hacking as she is very nervous to hack by herself, and I only have a hacking buddy once a week.

Micky, it's not possible to change to a chop, as they don't exist in France, that I've found. My yard imports Baileys, but we have a very limited range available (and compared to locally available food it is very expensive - but the whole yard are on the same basic food).

I guess I'll see how it goes. Obviously her workload is increasing and becoming more intensive as she gets fitter. Mérens are a very "round" breed in general, so I know she isn't going to look like a race horse, so I think that once she is fitter and engaging her abs more she will look better.
 
hi is there any way you could spray the bed with something to make it inedible? then at least you can eliminate the extra calories from the straw.
 
archiepoo said:
hi is there any way you could spray the bed with something to make it inedible? then at least you can eliminate the extra calories from the straw.
Click to expand...

At 19 calories per kilo, she would have to eat an awful lot of wheat straw to put on much weight. I'd make sure that she isn't given any hard food and only a tiny amount of balancer if she really does go nuts when the others are fed. I would feed her on well-soaked hay and if she doesn't have fat pads etc monitor her weight carefully and expect it to take some time before you see much change. Winter will help.
 
Change bedding to shavings or wood pellets, I wouldn't want my horse eating his bedding anyway.

You could put a muzzle on
 
You could try an extra 10mins of brisk walking at the end of a schooling session, we found our lad had gained a bit of weight earlier on in the year and I read that a bit of brisk walking was a good way of burning excess calories gently. I have to say it really does work, but it does have to be brisk not plodding round.
 
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