Frustrated with my horse

[littlen]

I feel like I cant win at the moment!

When I first got him he was obese and had laminitis. A year of starvation paddocks and restricted rations later he has made a full recovery and is completley sound and happy.


However, he has lost too much weight. He has also lost most of his muscle tone and looks very angular. I can see his ribs although they have a slight covering it is not much. His bum is angular not rounded and he just dosent look right to me I rang out the vet who did a full check and just said its because of minimal grazing and his breed, plus the fact he is in work.

I then rang the feed company who reccomended a conditioning mix and oil which he has been on for over a month now with no noticeable improvement. He may have gained a little bit but not much. Unfortunatley with him being a lami risk he cant have lots of different feeds and this is the only conditioning feed he can have.
I have also thought about speedibeet but I am scared of feeding too much?

At the moment he is also on a limited grazing paddock as he cant go in with the other horses as he gets bullied and also because the grass is too rich as it is cow pasture not really good horse grazing, so he must stay in the smaller paddock with his pony friend. I would hay the field but his 2 companions are both laminitic also (one with rotated pedal bone) and so I cant add any extra feed to the field, and he wont stable very well at all on his own so its hard to bring him in (he stresses and dosent eat and looses weight that way, in winter he is fine but as they are all our for summer its hard to bring him in)

I have also been trying so hard to build some muscle but nothing. He still looks scrawny despite months of working in a consistant outline and lunging in side reins, he hasnt gained muscle anywhere! Its very dishearening as I hoped to show this year but he would be laughed out the ring the weight he is at the moment, i mean he isnt rspca standard but he is no means as conditoned as most of the horses at the show. I am also in the catch 22 that i ride him so he looses weight, but without riding he would not gain any sort of muscle?

His teeth and back have been checked, he has been tested for cushings and also blood tested but he is 100% healthy, he just isnt gaining weight. The simple answer is stick him on the lush grazing for a bit, but I darent risk it with his lami and also with the other horses chasing him away and bullying him as he lost weight last time from stress.

I wish winter would come back so I can rug him and feed masses of haylage!

Sorry, I suppose this is a wingy post but I am so sick of people complaining of their overweight horses at the farm, I would rather have my boy looking muscled and conditioned like theirs than like he is!

 

[AmyMay]

So really your frustrated with your management - not your horse......

Do you feed him hay / haylage????

 

[littlen]

True

Although he isnt the easiest of horses to keep. I dont know how else I can do things differently. I feed for weight gain, he gets lami, I cut back feed/grazing, then he drops loads of weight.
I have tried so hard to get topline and bum but he just wont muscle up at all.

He gets unlimited haylage in the winter and soaked hay in the summer as we cant get haylage through summer at all. He is brought in daily to have his feed and a net of hay, as I cant hay the field due to lami companions. I also cant bring him in as he stresses (we are moving stables in 3 weeks to see if he will settle better in that one as there is another horse with him then)

 

[pottamus]

It does sound like you need to find a way of feeding him some good quality hay...as this will help with the weight issue, help build muscle (through a good roughage diet) and be safer from a laminitis point of view. You may also be better doing some good old hacking up and down hills in a good walk pace...as this will build muscle much better than hours of endless circles in the school...in my opinion.
Having been through 8 months of hell with my horse having laminitis...I wiould prefer a lack of weight issue than laminitis and a good doer anyday.

 

[Rueysmum]

I've got one potential fatty and one potential skinny who share a field (luckily on our DIY yard we all have our own fields).

The solution is to bring them both in during the afternoon and give the fatty about half a pound of hay in a net so he thinks he's had something, and give the skinny a much larger net tied up outside his stable.

If you can't feed the hay in the field then you must be able to find another way to get it down his neck.

 

[littlen]

I do have good quality hay but I will definatley try and feed more. Iwould love to bring him in and feed him but he just wont stay in on his own, he weaves and box walks and egnores his hay as he is so busy shouting and sweating that I thought it was doing more harm than good. As I said he is moving stables at the end of the month so hopefully he will settle there enough to be able to be brought in, in winter it dosent matter as all others are in with him but at the moment all liveries horses are out so he is alone.

Work wise he is hacked for 30-60mins a day in walk and trot with lots of hill work. He is also schooled twice a week in a consistant outline and over raised poles and is also lunged in side reins for an hour a week, no results at all!