Getting weight off a very fat section A?

Doormouse

Doormouse

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 February 2009
Messages
1,680
Location
The West Country
Visit site
After handy hints, help advice please for getting some weight off my daughters new pony.

She is a 7 year old 11.1hh section a and she is very fat. I live in dairy country so our grass is very rich and therefore a nightmare with small ponies. I have a small pony paddock that is grazed so doesn't have lots of grass but judging by her poos there is still plenty there, more than I thought.

I thought about a muzzle but am concerned the grass in the pony paddock is too short for a muzzle, I don't want her to get nothing all night. I could put her out in the big paddock with my horse with a muzzle but am concerned she would get too much that way.

I am soaking her hay and she is being exercised at walk 6 days a week for about 30 mins up and down hill. She does a tiny bit of jog with my daughter but nothing to really be considered. I could lead her off my horse but don't want to over do her when she is so fat and unfit.

I hate having to ration horses, it always seems to make them so grumpy (I can sympathise, I hate diets) so any tips to keep them cheerful, any long lasting foods that are low cal etc?

Any help very gratefully received as I am not in my comfort zone here, I am used to skinny tb's!
 
I had no hesitation in lunging my son's overweight pony and leading her from mine when I went out riding.

Personally if she's fat I wouldn't give her any food, with the grass and soaked hay she's getting enough. How many poo's is she doing? Have you got a weigh tape? I used one with April so I could keep an eye on how she was doing. When she came to us she was 297kg now it says 223kg. We had an issue with saddle fitting as she was so fat it kept slipping.
 
Falconers said:
I had no hesitation in lunging my son's overweight pony and leading her from mine when I went out riding.

Personally if she's fat I wouldn't give her any food, with the grass and soaked hay she's getting enough. How many poo's is she doing? Have you got a weigh tape? I used one with April so I could keep an eye on how she was doing. When she came to us she was 297kg now it says 223kg. We had an issue with saddle fitting as she was so fat it kept slipping.
Click to expand...

I have had to put my old felt saddle on her because she is too wide for any pony saddles I've got! Luckily it doesn't seem to slip but I think that is because she is so fat her back is flat!

Will get a weigh tape, good plan and I will start dragging her off my horse when we are doing a steady ride.

Thank you.
 
I muzzle ours on short grass if need be, to be honest, its only the really long stuff that they struggle with in muzzles.

Ride and lead was the best thing ever when it came to keeping our section A slim. Start gently and build up.
 
Have you got somewhere with no grass or just scrub? That way you can just feed soaked hay. Your exercise plan sounds right, plenty of walking. But I would increase it to an hour a day if possible. I absolutely would not lunge.
 
amymay said:
Have you got somewhere with no grass or just scrub? That way you can just feed soaked hay. Your exercise plan sounds right, plenty of walking. But I would increase it to an hour a day if possible. I absolutely would not lunge.
Click to expand...

Sadly no, but she could go in the school overnight. As long as I put her hay in a small hole haynet, she shouldn't manage to eat any sand, should she?
 
If you do not have a patch of scrub I would get the lawn mower out and put her on a patch in the back garden a, mow it off first and collect the clipping and give her a slice of straw to pick at. My step brother almost killed a pony as he fed it like a bullock.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Can you mow the pony paddock with a garden lawnmower with a collection box? Get it right down and then feed soaked hay?
Click to expand...

It is really short to be honest but our landlord sprayed it for docks last week so it had a week with no ponies on and what has grown is obviously quite good and rich.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Earlier this year, I mowed an apparently bare 20m x 40m mini paddock and got a full 150L load of compressed grass cuttings off it.
Click to expand...

Ah, ok I will get out there and mow in that case. Hopefully I can persuade our land lord to lend me the big petrol mower, I might struggle to find enough cable to get my electric job to work!
 
First I would find out exactly what he weighs, then feed according to weight and how much exercise he does. You can feed as low as 1.5% of his bodyweight, any lower and you will be starving him which is not good. Also weigh & soak all his hay, on doing this you will have to make sure he get his vitamins & minerals. If you feed like this & muzzle when turned out then the weight will come off slowly :)
 
Cut the grass, muzzle and feed well soaked hay. Start the exercise very slowly and build it up gradually or you will do more harm than good! Once you've got them fitter/thinner .. Try and maintain it, my mare would never usually get any time off except for the winter, but she's had a couple of easy weeks due to me dislocating my shoulder and she's put on the pounds despite being in a small paddock, muzzled and only fed soaked hay!
 
Lots of leading from your horse will be great.
Can you not put your horse in the fatty paddock to mow it ?
That's what I do with Fatties his less metabolically challenged friends go into his paddock to get it down .
 
Goldenstar said:
Lots of leading from your horse will be great.
Can you not put your horse in the fatty paddock to mow it ?
That's what I do with Fatties his less metabolically challenged friends go into his paddock to get it down .
Click to expand...

this, but you cannot muzzle on really really short grass and you cannot feed hay with a muzzle on, personally I keep fatties on a really bare and I mean bare small paddock and feed soaked hay-poo pick daily and no muzzle. fairly good doers I muzzle and put out on average grazing with some length to it-but they all get worked the kids ponies I always long reined and then lunged when fit enough
 
How big is her paddock? With this wet weather the grass is growing really quickly so you might need to restrict her grazing a bit more. Some people find setting up a track system around a field keeps fatties moving more constantly than if they are on a small square paddock, so this could be something to consider.
 
this year is one of the worst we have had for fatties... the grass is so high in sugars at the moment.

To get the weight off you really need to get her off the grass altogether - so into a school or bare paddock. I have one of mine on a bare dirt paddock. I feed 1.5% of bodyweight - (remember this is 1.5% of what they ‘should’ weigh, not what they do) in straw that is scattered about to encourage movement and a very low calorie chaff with a vitamin and mineral supplement in it. Pony also has access to a salt lick. It sounds tough but it’s what you have to do to get the weight off some of these types, especially at the moment, and better than laminitis :(
 
When mine got fat I brought him in. He didn't go on grass for weeks. He had a big barn and a concrete yard, soaked hay in small amounts throughout the day, and straw mixed in with that. When he did go out, he wore a muzzle. The grass was short as I had my other pony on it to eat it down before I let fatty out. It took him about 10 minutes to work out how to eat with it on. He only wore it at night, during the day I brought him in so he could get a break from wearing it.
Something else I found useful were the compressed blocks of forage. It's low calorie chaff in a hard block. It takes him hours to work his way through one of those so it kept him busy. I think I got them from Feedmark.
 
My section A is in a small paddock..approx 20x20 with a large barn with a dirt floor attached. If she puts on weight I fence off the middle so she has a 3 sided track round the outside and supplement with soaked hay if necessary. She does no work at all and easily drops weight this way :)
 
amymay said:
Have you got somewhere with no grass or just scrub? That way you can just feed soaked hay. Your exercise plan sounds right, plenty of walking. But I would increase it to an hour a day if possible. I absolutely would not lunge.
Click to expand...

Just out of interest, why should you not lunge? Surely a good way to get the weight off??
 
I have a fat paddock that's about 20 x 40 at the moment there are 3 in there looks a bit funny to people who don't understand seeing 10 acres of lovely fields then 3 of them in a tiny bit, every few days I put my bigger 2 in for a day to eat it too but it's pretty bare I feed soaked hay 3 times a day spreading it all over the place then twice a day make speedi beet with supplements in and I also spread that around on the floor all 3 are looking well this yr and so far no lami
 
Doormouse said:
After handy hints, help advice please for getting some weight off my daughters new pony.
Click to expand...

You need to put the pony on some low cal feed. Beware of lunging an overweight fat pony, you could put strain on her joints due to her weight. Lots of road work would be useful, or loose schooling if possible. Do you have access to a horse walker? That would be very useful, start with 20 mins and gradually build up her time on there.

You could either strip graze her paddock or use a muzzle. What you don't want to do is make her lose weight too quickly as this can be very dangerous for hroses.
 
We've put our sect a's onto a bare paddock and also a corral (hard standing with wood chips down), they do get a bit of hay to ensure roughage going through the gut. They are on what was a dairy farm so I feel your pain ... Unless the grass is six inches long and bright green the farmers moan!!!!
 
I did lots of walking and leading before I lunged my son's pony as didn't want to put too much stress on already overloaded joints. Once she'd shifted a bit I lunged her as ridden work small lead rein ponies don't tend to do much cardio work!
 
Supagran I know what you mean I had the farmer ask me do I want him to fertilise my fields as that will help it shoot up I had to explain how I didn't want it to grow
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top