Help!! Greedy horse!

[joanne2207]

My 14yr old mare is extremely greedy. She is 16.3hh and the vet has said she is overweight so I feed her hay now instead of haylege and she only has a small handful of hard feed (happy hoof) in the evening. However, whenever she can get extra food she will (i.e pinching haylege out of the mouth of the horse next door when she's tied up, 'hoovering' the yard as I lead her to the field, grabbing at leaves when out hacking, and even eating dirty straw/haylege in the bottom of the wheelbarrow).

Obviously I try not to let her do all these things but she is very strong and sometimes I just can't physically pull her away from the food she's trying to eat. Trying to put her bridle on is a nightmare because once I take her headcollar off she starts searching the floor for food. She also paws at the floor of the stable and kicks the door when she sees me coming with her food. I shout at her and make her step back before I give her it but I just don't know what to do when she pulls me over to food??

Thanks xxx

 

[Bikerchickone]

Does she go for long periods of time without forage? I ask because I had a Welsh pony who couldn't have a lot due to laminitis but she got just like you describe your horse because she was going long periods of time without something to munch on.

In the end I thoroughly soaked all her hay and put it in three small hole nets so that it would last longer. She did get better when she had a constant slow trickle of food. Unfortunately though I think some horses are just that way inclined.

 

[SillyMares]

You definitely shouldn't be affraid of telling her off and even giving her the odd smack whenever she gets bolshy around you for food
If she's over weight, then you also need to tackle how much exercise she gets too, if you cant ride her then you can also put her in the walker

 

[joanne2207]

Thanks for your advice, I will get some smaller holed haynets and split the hay between them because at the moment she mainly has the ones with the larger holes.

This morning leading her to the field I managed to keep her in check by holding her leadrope right where it clips to her head collar and firmly saying "no" everytime it felt like she was going to pull me towards food.

Exercise wise, she hates being ridden in the school so I mainly take her on an hr long hack 3 or 4 times a week and then lunge her on the other days with the odd day off. The field she is in doesn't have much grass so I'm not overly concerned about the amount she's eating when she's out.

She is my first horse and she does everything she can to take the mick!!!

Thanks again everyone xxx