Grazing dilemma for extreme good-doer. Advice needed!

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Bojingles

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My little 14.3 cob is an extreme good-doer. She's the extreme sports/skydiving/mountaineering good-doer. I literally have no idea how her metabolism works but she can transform fresh air into condition. At the moment she's on a smallish paddock that she's grazed right down and is having no additional forage. She's certainly not slim but I'm not worried about her weight. (Should add, she's never had lami or any kind of metabolic problems, touch wood. Has never been cresty or had fat pads). But she is hungry. But this pony is a champion eater and can't be trusted with ad-lib anything. She'll eat until she becomes extremely round and explodes; there's definitely no off switch. Not even have a breather switch. So which of my options would you go for? 1) Leave thing as they are; there's clearly grass coming through that she's getting but having to work for a bit 2) relieve her hunger and give her a bit of hay in the knowledge that she will put weight on 3) make a tiny paddock on long grass that's not stressed
Opinions welcome!
 
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I would top up with soaked hay and straw sprinkled round the bald paddock, along with some straw chaff sprinkled about too.
I don't like them to be too hungry, they need food in their bellies for all sorts of reasons but making them over to get that food is key.
Can you put a track in? That would be my other choice and of course increase her work.
 
Can you put in a track? I'm managing my extreme good doer on an eaten down grass track around the outside of a 1.5 acre paddock. I give her a bit of hay in the evenings to take the edge off (she gets HANGRY because I don't think the grass has enough fibre in it for her to feel full... on balance I think a bit of hay means less grass gets eaten in the quest for fibre) and she will trough a few scoops of Top chop Zero when she comes in to work, again topping up the fibre. I'm not at the moment but I might start soaking the hay again.

The track means she's always moving moving moving while still having actual grazing area restricted.
 
I have one of those here, she can live on virtually nothing, she's out on a bare paddock, there is a hay feeder in the field but she rarely get the chance to get close to it. If she's on the yard she gets haylage well mixed with straw in a net
More exercise is helping a bit
 
Count the poos you get each day and that will tell you if there is enough going through her gut. I'm working towards Peternatt's method with mine :)
 
track system and/or small holed net with some straw/trug of oat straw chop. I have one of these too (Fell pony) he will eat as much as you give him, never stops eating and is an efficient converter of fresh air into fat. Yes there will be grass coming through but I don't like to see them too hungry and don't think the very short stuff gives them a full gut feeling.
As much as I'd like to hack for 4 hours daily, I have a job, a commute and dogs to walk.
 
If it's long, old, unfertlised, stalky grass I'd perhaps let him on that at nights. The sugars in stressed grass is higher than long, old grass. If all hes eating is the short, stressed stuff that could be contributing to his weight. Have a read of the equicentral website for more grass info.

Having the same problem with mums overweight cob. Hes currently in a dry paddock with soaked hay and is doing a fair amount of walking to ensure he keeps the others in view (random big mound of earth in paddock so hes up and down it a bit too). He gets into an eaten down paddock and strip at night and needs to walk to hay and water.

It's so hard! He is a project horse so is currently doing groundwork and building up trot work but hes barely dropped anything since he arrived and that includes going through winter. Ugh
 
I always go by their droppings if they need more fibre. I strip graze and feed hay in trickle nets for the barefoot ones and find this keeps them busy for longer eating
 
The trouble with smallish paddocks is that they don't move much so then it is only the exercise you can give them, this is why tracks work well if they are doable.

I do always feed hay when restricting grazing significantly as I don't like them forage short.

re. the off switch when F stayed at the vets for the first time he got haylage, and the groom was like ermm he has no off switch I've taken it off him. Next time he went with some of our poor hay ;). He probably spends at least half as long again if not longer eating than his non native companion, which can mean moving less as well.
 
Many thanks for all your replies! I would love to hack her for four hours a day (don't think she'd agree ;) ) but she's just coming back into work after a lay-off from laser surgery. Fortunately we're in a very hilly area so we're going out for decent hour - hour and a half walks with brief trots. She's definitely getting fitter. So it sounds like the track is the most popular solution. This is good as my field mate has been talking of the possibility of us setting one up. Definitely one to be explored!
 
Oh if that's the case totally do it.
It is a bit of a ballache to set up originally but once it's done it's done. And depending on temp/rain/grass growth etc we do move the inner fencing in and out over the summer so they do sometimes get some strip-grazing too.

The first year F went home and was forcibly in less work than had been we strip grazed and muzzled but he still ended up fatter so it's worth the effort in my book.

It is easiest done with 4 wooden stakes for the corners if you can? otherwise it does tend to all pull in on itself- we have used metal corner posts too but getting them in once the ground gets a bit hard is nigh on impossible!

We have two round about 2.5 acres. 1558804829990.png
 
ester said:
Oh if that's the case totally do it.
It is a bit of a ballache to set up originally but once it's done it's done. And depending on temp/rain/grass growth etc we do move the inner fencing in and out over the summer so they do sometimes get some strip-grazing too.

The first year F went home and was forcibly in less work than had been we strip grazed and muzzled but he still ended up fatter so it's worth the effort in my book.

It is easiest done with 4 wooden stakes for the corners if you can? otherwise it does tend to all pull in on itself- we have used metal corner posts too but getting them in once the ground gets a bit hard is nigh on impossible!

We have two round about 2.5 acres. View attachment 32781
Click to expand...

Thanks Ester! That looks great. And good advice for the corner posts - wouldn't have thought of that. Thank you.
 
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If we’re doing aerial shots :D... I’ve set up a ‘not quite a track system’ arrangement this year for my 3. They’re currently on about 1.5 acres, comprising two adjoining paddocks connected by a track.

This is more acreage than they normally have at this time of year, but I am not moving the strip grazing, so what is on the field is all they get. It was grazed down hard over winter and so there is no lush grass there. They are moving about a lot more than when I strip graze, they seem to be always on the move. Two of them have PPID so I have to be very careful on their grass intake, but so far they are all doing well. Previously I have put water out in both paddocks. but just having it in the one place seems to encourage to keep them moving. Would be interesting to have a step counter fitted to them!

E85C53D2-E461-4328-B18E-11491D6AEED9.jpeg
 
that looks more equicentral :) we couldn't do that as we have a ruddy great stoney bouldery dry ditch between paddocks.

(I was quite excited to see google earth had updated :D). saves me drawing lines on it! I love your arena patterns too.
 
I have one exactly the same. He pretty much inhales hay!

Mine are on a track round 2 acres in the summer. I wouldn’t be able to not give hay though or he’d think he was starving! They have hay teeny holed nets (25mm) which takes them a good few hours to eat. I figure all the time they are eating hay they aren’t eating grass. When it’s winter and everyone else is buying hay in mine have a the middle full of grass to eat so it does even out.
 
Ah, equicentral, so my mish mash set up for this year is an actual ‘thing’!

This is how I’ve always set up the same land previously for strip grazing at this time of year, overlaid on the same photo as above. They would be on a much smaller area, less than an acre, but the strip grazing posts were shifted x 2 daily. In practice, this meant that x 2 daily they would zoom over to the fresh grass and gobble it up inside an hour, and then stand around for a lot of the rest of the time. The two water points, (I thought I was being kind), meant that they never had far to walk for a drink, either.

CBBEC1F8-92BF-4CE6-80C9-DAADBBB10C23.jpeg

They do seem more content with the 2019 bodged up equicentral arrangement, though it’s early days on it (it’s been set up just over a week).
 
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