good doer- getting ready for spring!

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NooNoo59

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Advice please - have a 14.2 good doer, already looking a little tubby after the winter. On a straw bed which i am sure he is eating, so considering going onto shavings but much more expensive, but do not like the idea of leaving him overnight with nothing to eat. On haylage as normal hay makes him cough, but am using a hay bar at the moment so soaking is not really an option.
on happy hoof and basic nuts in two small feeds per day and getting worked six days a week.
Grazing at the yard is very good (old dairy pasture) so have to restrict in the spring anyway. but i am not a believer in leaving horses in stables for long periods of time with no food.
any ideas?
 
What do you do just now? Could you bring in later and give weighed out haynets and then leave a smidgen in a bucket with the breakfast for him and get up later in the morning? Sorry it's hard to say without knowing your situation.
 
Or leave a bit for someone to give later on in the night? That way he's got small amounts but at every now and again.
 
do you really need to feed him the nuts and chop? Id probably be tempted to knock that on the head, change to a non edible bedding, Soak the hay in a net and tie the net inside the haybar.
 
He is given hard feed in the am by the yard owner and put out, i go in the pm and work, feed and give him hay ration. as yard is twenty minutes away can really only go once a day but yard owner and other liveries very helpful so could split hay up, can you still get trickle nets and are they detrimental to teeth? Interesting about the hard feed, might cut it down by half, but will he have enough energy for the work he is doing?
 
Cut out the feed, he doesn't need all that. A handful of low-cal chaff (mollichaff calmer is good) and D & H equibites are enough for mine, they provide all necessary nutrients and are very small.
Only use lightweight rugs.
Can you not feed him normal hay but well-soaked, ie 12 hours? Wet hay doesn't make them cough.
Double-net the hay so it takes longer to eat - mine used to demolish a haybar in 30 mins flat!
And stick him in a grazing muzzle so he can be out with his friends!!!!
 
vanessa roberts said:
Interesting about the hard feed, might cut it down by half, but will he have enough energy for the work he is doing?
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Hes clearly getting more calories than he needs right now since hes a bit fat, so yes (at a guess since I dont actually know the pony) Id say giving the hard feed a miss would not be detrimental to him. :)
 
I have the same problem with my 14.2 good doer!

I have started under rugging, she is traced clipped. But is mostly naked now, with a fleece at night if its really cold.

I have cut her Happy Hoof down (she was on half a scoop AM & PM) to a tiny handful (token feed)

Feed hay in smalll holed haylege nets as it lasts them much longer. I am in 2 minds of getting a trickle net, as I have heard they are great. Soak the hay for 12 hours. Mine gets wet hay everyday anyway as she gets a cough otherwise.

Increase workload.

Good luck :)
 
My fatty is on restricted grazing already :( she actually looks a good weight for once so want to keep it that way. She's on a small patch of field nekid/ in a rain sheet if I need her dry. she gets one mug of fast fibre a day with her suppliments in and once she's eaten more of the grass she'll get 12hr soaked hay. Oh and she's ridden more as days get lighter
 
LaurenBay said:
I have the same problem with my 14.2 good doer!

I have started under rugging, she is traced clipped. But is mostly naked now, with a fleece at night if its really cold.

I have cut her Happy Hoof down (she was on half a scoop AM & PM) to a tiny handful (token feed)

Feed hay in smalll holed haylege nets as it lasts them much longer. I am in 2 minds of getting a trickle net, as I have heard they are great. Soak the hay for 12 hours. Mine gets wet hay everyday anyway as she gets a cough otherwise.

Increase workload.

Good luck :)
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This! Although my fat git is fully clipped and out 24/7 in a rain sheet if wet/windy or naked if not. He gets a tiny handful of dengie good doer before being ridden (habit from the ulcer prone TB!) and again as a treat afterwards. Unfortunately he has ad-lib hay as my TB is also out 24/7 and if I don't put a bale in the field for her she trashes the fencing :mad:
 
Cut out the feed, and haylage will be piling on the pounds!! So if possible turn to soaked hay with small holed net- they wont caugh on soaked hay!

I have a very good doer, 16.3hh TB mare. If I fed her with a hay bar it would be gone in 20 minutes flat also. I feed 12hour soaked hay in a small holed net, 3 sections on vets orders to help get ther weight down, she gets a small handful of chaff (low cal Dengi Hifi Good Doer) twice daily but this is only because she needs supplements.
She is now restricted to 3 hours per week work due to being diagnosed with ringbone so I can't work it off. I have been cutting down the rugs so she is using the food she does get to keep warm and she is also on pretty rubbish turnout.
Come summer she will be in her stable during the day with 2 sections of soaked hay in a small holed, maybe even doubled up net, and runed out at night as there are less sugars in the grass then.

You may not be a fan of leaving them with not enough to get through the night BUT it is being cruel to be kind as weight eventually could lead to health problems. I have to ignore feeling bad for my mare as if she is too heavy it puts pressure on her joints and she would be in pain, would rather she just had a bit less to eat to be honest! ;)
 
my boy is a 16.3 shire x and a good doer, he only has a small scoop of hi-fi lite when the other horses are fed to mix his supplements in, he also has his hay in a hay bar (I don't like haynets) and it is soaked and doesn't cause a problem. He is now on woodchips because he has COPD and since changing to them from straw he lost weight as he wasn't scoffing his bed :D also after a few weeks he started eating his hay more slowly, as if he realised he needed to make it last! As soon as the spring grass comes through he has to be muzzled or he balloons, but at least then he can go out with his friends for as long as possible.
 
You could try oat straw as a feed for the night if they are healthy-gutty and not colic prone, mix half and half with soaked hay.Nice oat straw is appetising but not too much so, hence they eat it slower. Measured quantities still, not ad lib and not as a bed, bed needs to be non edible.The suggestions made are good ones.

Reall , the pony is likely to be at greater danger health wise from going into spring a bit tubby than they are from not having ad lib feed at night. I know from bitter experience, I didnt feed any hard feed and had a bareish paddock but fed too much haylage because the hay was a bit ropey and I wanted them to have ad lib forage......... and got a great big fat warning shot across the bows in the shape of an acute lami episode in the autumn (Not even spring...).

You do have to be tough and harden your heart, in the end you cant ad lib feed and lose weight at this most challenging time of year, you do have to ration even to stand still with a good doer.To lose weight gradually you are looking at feeding 2-2.5% of bodyweight total, including grazing, forage and any feed per day. No hard feed. Try and keep any chaff/forage within this allowance under 8MJ/kg energy.

Now I have to go and feed more meagre rations to the pony :-))
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
You could try oat straw as a feed for the night if they are healthy-gutty and not colic prone, mix half and half with soaked hay.Nice oat straw is appetising but not too much so, hence they eat it slower
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Oat straw also uses up more calories to chew than it actually contains so they will loose weight by eating it!!!!

Although cutting out hard feed is a good idea he will still need his vits and mins and quailty protein, esp if he is going to have restricted grazing and soaked hay. Therefore it might by a good idea to put him on a low calorie balancer such as Baileys Lo-Cal, Blue Chip Lami-lite or Spillers lite. He can just have a small handful of a low sugar chaff (ie Saracen Slim chaff) and then his balancer. This should mean he'll have enough energy for the work your doing with him and will keep him healthy and hopefully not fat!
 
I have been feeding barley straw (cant get oat straw round here) I believe this is ok as now you dont seem to get the barley awns in it which I think were not good.
Fat cob not in work and living on nothing. I think I will have to invest in a muzzle although I absolutely hate them
 
flying solo said:
I would double net the haylage, cut out the feeds and don't rug him when he's out.
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Could not have put it any better myself!
Trickle nets and Elim-a-nets( I have them- they are fabulous!)
And get all that feed out- he is on good haylage? I am sure he is getting all vits and mins in there :p
Couple of nets if he is in at night, lasts my boy till the morning!
And yeah- nakedness--- it's amazing what it can do.:D:rolleyes:

Love from:
"A self confessed cruel mum!"
 
vanessa roberts said:
Advice please - have a 14.2 good doer, already looking a little tubby after the winter. On a straw bed which i am sure he is eating, so considering going onto shavings but much more expensive, but do not like the idea of leaving him overnight with nothing to eat. On haylage as normal hay makes him cough, but am using a hay bar at the moment so soaking is not really an option.
on happy hoof and basic nuts in two small feeds per day and getting worked six days a week.
Grazing at the yard is very good (old dairy pasture) so have to restrict in the spring anyway. but i am not a believer in leaving horses in stables for long periods of time with no food.
any ideas?
Click to expand...




1. How much haylage are you feeding overnight? Consider changing hay/haylage to Horsehage High Fibre, http://www.horsehage.co.uk/HH-HighFibre.html

2. Soak for 20 mins above horsehage, and also weigh out, overnight I feed 5 kilo in tricklenet, thats it.

3. buy a trickle net, took my good doer cob an hour of pleasant nibbling to get through a small amount of hay which would normally be thrashed out in 10 minutes. Better to nibble for hours, than bolt down a haybar full and start on the straw bed.

4. ditch the straw bed, if he's eating it overnight its also increasing the risk of colic. Shavings arn't that expensive and easy to pick out poo and top up as needed

5. How much happy hoof per day are you feeding? For a 500 kilo lami prone good doer the packet reccomends 2kg a day over 2 meals. I feed 1 kilo per day over 2 meals.

6. Get rid of the nuts, more calories per day than horse burns = fat storage

7. Day time turned out with minimal grazing.

8. Consider removing all rugs completely, extra calorie burn.

9. As well as riding, lunge for 20 minutes every other day (I restart in April when the grass paddock slush dries up)

.
 
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The OP seems to be full of a lot of "can't" and "won't". You need to change these because they are the reason the horse is already fat. Horses should come out of the winter fairly slim, not already fat.

In your situation I would cut the feed out altogether and switch haylage for hay - soak your hay, you can still feed it in a haybar. Just soak it in nets then empty into the haybar. How much exercise is the horse getting? On a basic level... more exercise + less calories = thinner horse.

Sorry to be blunt but you will need to change your management of the horse if you want it to lose some weight. I wouldn't dream of giving my incredibly good doer haylage and buckets of hard feed at this time of year... mine has worked reasonably hard all winter, is hunter clipped with minimal rugs on, only gets hay (which I will start soaking again soon), worked as hard as I can manage and minimal feed. I am going to start muzzling him for turnout soon and rugs will come off as soon as possible. I daren't let him get too warm as he just piles on the pounds. When stabled he gets his hay in small nets at various points through the day, ie small net when he comes in (morning), another small net at lunch then another in the afternoon. Better to give three small nets than one bigger one which is finished in an hour.
 
Thanks everyone, thats all very helpful. I love using this forum for bouncing ideas about! Am defo going on to shavings, have already swapped to soaked normal hay, very small feed of chaff and nuts, literally a handful. Might consider a balancer, but which one? very confusing with so many on the market. Our yard mainly supplies baileys and top spec and spillers. Then all I have to do is sort my weight out!!
 
Spillers ballancer is very good, also very cost effective!! I would also cut the nuts out.
I tried mine on baileys lo-cal (later transfered to spillers due to feed shop stocking this a lot cheaper!) and a handful of chaff.... she did not lose any weight, if anything she put it on! But always worth a try as every horse is different :) If yours also has this problem just feed chaff with a good supplement!
 
My 14.2hh very good doer is getting hay soaked for 12hrs, in a trickle nets so lasts all night (has about 9kg). Haylage is hopess for her, she puts on weight just looking at it! One feed which is only few handfuls of TopChop Lite and 2 mugs Lo-cal balancer and Lamigard. She has plenty of energy for her work - only doing 4 days a week until the clocks change, then it will be 6 including lots of fat burning activity!

She put on a bit when we had snow due to no work, but started soaking the hay 2 weeks ago and cut down the chop and she has dropped 10kg already. I will muzzle once we have enough grass (field very bare and they have no hay out), usually in the muzzle from end of March and from about late April I will swap to in during the day, out muzled at night.
 
My 17hh id is still a bit overweight. Although when I got him 3 years ago he was obese! He's out with my tb which isn't ideal and can't separate them! What I do is when he comes in at night (5pm) I give him a token feed of a handful of chaff with his joint supps. He has a small, small holed haylage net of hay which has been soaked the previous night. Then when I go out and check them at 9pm I put up another (horse sized elimanet) net for him of soaked hay (been soaking all day). He's stabled on straw as its the only bedding I can easily get the farmers to take with my muck heap! I put carbolic powder by Lincoln on it to stop him from eating it!
The next morning he gets his token feed again and is chucked out with my tb. They have a hay feeder and adlib hay whilst out. Grazing is very poor! I slightly under rug him.
Doesn't help that he's arthritic (only 10yrs old!) so he can't be worked! Although my tb does keep him exercised in field!

In the summer, he's out 24/7 with my tb on 3 acres between them. Plenty of grass. He's naked unless it's wet and windy. Again gets a token feed twice daily for supps.
I'v never starved him, he's always got hay left in his net and he's lost a lot of weight! If he could be worked he'd probably be about right now!!
 
vanessa roberts said:
Do trickle nets have an adverse effect on teeth? and where do you get them from?
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Only had mine a little while so don't know, but I muzzle and its the same things really and she's never had teeth issues from the muzzle.

If you google Tirckle nets the site comes up :) they are good but take a bit of getting used to - I find them very heavy which is not ideal for soaking
 
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