Getting a bit fat

Birker2020

Birker2020

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My WB horse has come back from retirement and I'm strip grazing him as our grass is very good - ex dairy. He's out from about 6pm to around 8.30am the following day with a little damp hay left for him. His paddock is a decent size, see both ends in photo. I increase the fencing by about two feet every night.

Trouble is at night it's 15c or more when I need to leave the yard but it goes down to two or three for 3 or 4 hours overnight. So sometimes it's too warm to rug him so I've been leaving it off. He gets annoyed at being rugged when it's warm and as a result has in the past torn them with his teeth, but I've only been putting a no fill on him. It's not been raining overnight. If it's raining I would go up to a 50g rug.

It's not as option to go back up later to rug as I'm up at 5.15am everyday for work and I'm exhausted.

I had been leaving him naked as I knew had he still been at retirement he'd not have been rugged overnight but someone suggested I was being a bit unfair not rugging as he is now a pampered horse as he's being stabled during the day whereas at retirement he was out 24/7. I've noticed other people have been leaving their unclipped horses rugless too or putting a thin fly sheet on.

I don't feel I can cut down his food, he's on 3 mugs of calm and condition, one of speedibeet and a handful of linseed pellets. This obviously expands quite a lot when added to water so it does 2 decent feeds per day.

What would you do?
Kind answers only please.
 

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JBM said:
Is there a reason for the hard feed?
I wouldn’t rug
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Well it's because I was giving him bute as he'd gone lame at retirement, he came home was lame for two days then became sound for six then was lame again, we couldn'twork out why. He's been off bute for 3 days now and is fine, we think it was the difference between the ground conditions and the fact we were leading him down a stony track and he went footsore so he's led on the grass to the side now on the way to the paddock.

i do have a bag that I bought of feed from retirement to get through, but the hard food like I say, is minimal so can't imagine its that.
 
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Firstly, I'm jealous of the grass you have, it looks lovely!

He is looking rather plump going into spring. What is the reason for not being able to cut down on his feed? That's rather a lot of high calorie, high protein feed that it doesn't look like he needs. I would also be moving the fence back every other day/every couple of days instead of everyday as there still looks to be a fair amount of grass on the section he is on.

How easy would it be to set up a track around the paddock instead? More on the basis of encouraging movement for exercise and then you can strip graze towards the middle.

Regarding rugging, at that weight with a full coat, I wouldn't bother but if you feel guilty, perhaps something with a waterproof top on instead when it rains or just to keep the chill off would suffice.
 
GrassChop said:
Firstly, I'm jealous of the grass you have, it looks lovely!

He is looking rather plump going into spring. What is the reason for not being able to cut down on his feed? That's rather a lot of high calorie, high protein feed that it doesn't look like he needs. I would also be moving the fence back every other day/every couple of days instead of everyday as there still looks to be a fair amount of grass on the section he is on.

How easy would it be to set up a track around the paddock instead? More on the basis of encouraging movement for exercise and then you can strip graze towards the middle.

Regarding rugging, at that weight with a full coat, I wouldn't bother but if you feel guilty, perhaps something with a waterproof top on instead when it rains or just to keep the chill off would suffice.
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I think it was because he was so poor when he came back so I went out and bought speedi beet and linseed.

I know it's hard to believe but the these photos are seven days apart, the first day he came back and the 7th. That's how quickly he's picked up. That's why I know he's no real issues health wise like cushings, etc because it would take weeks to change, even his coat in 7 days was glossy and smooth.
 

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Birker2020 said:
i do have a bag that I bought of feed from retirement to get through, but the hard food like I say, is minimal.
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I personally wouldn't say the feed he is on is minimal.

The calm and condition is a high calorie conditioning feed, linseed is pure protein and speedibeet can also give more calories. If he needs a soaked feed, I'd have him on fast fibre and a basic balancer or vit/min powdered balancer only. Maybe a little linseed purely just for coat and skin health but he's retired and on decent grass, in theory, he doesn't need any feed.
 
Birker2020 said:
I think it was because he was so poor when he came back so I went out and bought speedi beet and linseed.

I know it's hard to believe but the these photos are seven days apart, the first day he came back and the 7th. That's how quickly he's picked up. That's why I know he's no real issues health wise like cushings, etc because it would take weeks to change, even his coat in 7 days was glossy and smooth.
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Wow! That is quite the difference. He looks great now but yes, rather rotund for going into spring! Coat looks good though.

He's on very good grass now, I don't think he needs to be on any hard feed at all as he's not burning any of it off. I would say the first picture of him, aside from his coat, he looks okay for this time of the year. I'd give him a token feed at most.
 
I would just drastically reduce the amount you are feeding him. Cut down to one cup of C&C and reduce the speedibeet. My sister's two have come through the winter unrugged, grass only and a token amount of Fast Fibre and a taste of speedibeet. That is purely to put their supplements in and encourage them to come to the gate. Both are looking really good.
Once you have used up the feed you have think again.
 
I think you could cut his feed down quite a bit. My pony has multiple supplements so he has a 25ml scoop of grass nuts and a 25ml scoop of Speedibeet as feed. Once it's soaked it's plenty to mix his supplements in. I wouldn't rug him unless it's very wet and cold. Can you muzzle him? Mine wears one of the Thinline muzzles and this has really cut his grass consumption down.
 
My retired lad is also going into spring quite rotund so I've gone for the no rug option, and lowered his feed, but kept up with ad lib forage. I'm lucky though as the grass he is out on is nice quality but not extremely rich so it's providing enough to keep him satisfied during the day when out. His feed is also pretty low calorie (chaff, small handful of mix, tiny amount of micronised linseed and some herbal supplements).

Regarding the strip grazing - I'd move it back every few days rather than every day, and I'd also lessen the amount he is being fed - that way he can still have his feed(s) that he is used to, but at a lower amount which would hopefully combat the weight gain. Alternatively, is there any reason why he needs a feed - from what I can see it all seems to be quite high calorie (which is understandable as he needed a pick me up when he came back from the retirement livery), but he is looking lovely now so I'd deffo look at reducing/ stopping the feed all together. Is there anyone you know who feeds similarly to you? Perhaps they can buy whatever left over feed you have (if you decide to go down the no feed route) and that way you can recoup some of your costs x
 
Goldenstar said:
No way I would rug him he will be fine without .
I would get the hard food down to a tiny amount I am assume he’s getting two Bute a day hence the two feeds .
One gram of Bute is a tiny amount of powder get the feed as small as possible .
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No he's not on any bute, he's been free of it for three days, tonight will be his fourth night without. He was foot sore due to going from quagmire to dry mud free paddock but with a stone path so me and staff are keeping him off it. It wasn't there when we were last there, it's been put down since and I never gave it a thought.

It doesn't help that he gallops up his paddock every night and I found him bucking when I turned him out the other day so he's obviously feeling better.

On the livery yard most horses are fed twice daily. At retirement he was getting a round stubbs scoop once a day so I'm surprised to learn I'm giving too much but I will reduce and stop, no problem. I suppose the difference was he was out 24/7 there and now in a stable for 8-10 hrs a day. He never finishes his hay nets so the grass must be filling his tummy.
 

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Chianti said:
I think you could cut his feed down quite a bit. My pony has multiple supplements so he has a 25ml scoop of grass nuts and a 25ml scoop of Speedibeet as feed. Once it's soaked it's plenty to mix his supplements in. I wouldn't rug him unless it's very wet and cold. Can you muzzle him? Mine wears one of the Thinline muzzles and this has really cut his grass consumption down.
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No there's no way on earth he'd keep a muzzle on. This rug lasted less than 12 hrs! He's got through about 8 in retirement, his fly masks always get taken off, I don't bother to fly rug or mask any more so I know he'd end up wearing it as a hat lol

The look of defiance on his face, how can you possibly get angry with that?? 🤣🤣
 

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I'm afraid that I think he is fat and that is not good at this time of the year. I don't see the need to rug at all unless it comes in very wet.
He is having a large amount of a feed which is advertised for horses needing to put weight on.
I feed 2 feeds a day with 8 oz (dry weight) each of soaked sugar beet. That is plenty enough to get supplements in. Just for a supplement and salt half of that amount would be sufficient. For the rest of the feed, if you want to or if you feel he needs a larger feed as everyone else is eating, I would feed a chop such as Dengie Meadow lite which is very low starch and sugar (around 3.5% I think) I would feed a supplement and salt.

If you don't get his weight down now he could be in trouble when the grass really takes off.
 
Hey @Birker2020 - my retired girl will be 23 in June, she is a 16.2hh KWPN x ISH (she's really only 1/8 Irish). She lives out all year unrugged and I think your boy will be absolutely fine without a rug on. :) I would start to cut his hard food back right away and wean him off it if you can. We have poor grazing and ours get some hay twice a day and my girl gets a flat stubbs scoop of molasses-free chaff with balancer in the evenings. If you feel you want to give him something in a bucket when others on the yard are fed, then I'd go down the light chaff route too, as @paddy555 has also suggested. Even just a handful so that he has something as I expect he doesn't need more (your grazing looks better than ours).

It's hard to get it right sometimes but my girl looks good on this and Lari will soon level off if you cut out the extras and leave the rug off I think.
 
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