grumpy hungry horse what to do ?!

[hannah28]

hi guys

ok basically my boy has come out of summer a bit on the fat side and he does need to loose weight (pref sooner rather than later as saddle does not fit anymore and finding it difficult to find a new one as he holds weight in the wrong areas) he is not majorly fat but does need to loose weight..

he is stabled at night and is having good quality hay (6lbs) with one section of oat straw mixed.

he has a small feed of hi-fi origional and lo-cal balancer. he is out during the day for 9hours.

but with the grass getting worse he is coming in so hungry and very grumpy, so tonight i decided to add some sppedi-beet to his feed to fill him up a bit and plan to feed him it with his feed everynight.

however my friends say im wrong and shoudnt be feeding the speedi-beet and should stick with what i was doing before. but personally i dont think its right to starve the weight of him.

what would you do ??

thankyou xx

 

[curio]

i would reduce the hay and increase the straw to fill him up and exercise him more i wouldnt give him the speedibeet

 

[babymare]

I feed unmolassed sugar beet - good fibre no sugar etc - my lass is shall we say chunky and winter is time she looses weight - no rugs 2 slices of hay (extra small slice if below minus) and a smigen of healthy hoof and beet - out for approx 9 - 10 hours aday and she comes out of winter greaaaatttttttt

 

[Toffee44]

Cut the hay if hes a good doer he will be fine, and it will be cheaper for you?

Mine dont have speedi beet and just have good doer or happy hoof which can be fed as a sole feed.

 

[Toffee44]

I mean replace the hay with straw, im not that mean a mummy!!

 

[DellaMoon]

I have a very similar problem! I soak my mares hay and split it into two double nets but she still gets through it very quickly! By the morning she's very hungry and I worry that she's spent a good part of the night with nothing. I know I need to get the weight off but she's out of work at the moment (will turn four in Feb) and I feel awful that she's so hungry in the morning. It's hard to get the balance right and I feel your pain!