Help my horse lose weight?

[Ahrena]

I had a revelation the other day - my pony is on the chubby side.

Not obese by any means, but I'm worried that if she doesn't slim down then with the spring grass, it'll be a recipe for disaster.

She's a 14.3hh welsh d x cob who lives off fresh air. I feed her literially a handful of hifi lite chaff plus a carrot AM and PM. She gets a pretty big net of hay (not sure how much it weights, and its hay from a big bale so not sure about slices either I'm afraid), but its always finished by morning.

She's out from 7am-3/4pm, I can't turn her out for shorter due to work hours plus she's very hyperactive and being in more fries her brain. I ride her for about half an hour 6 days a week, (she can't handle schooling longer than that and hacking is awful, busy roads where she gets pretty wound up).


Soo yeah. What can I do?

 

[twinkle]

Do you soak the hay? this would help.
Apart from trying to up the exercise or putting a grazing muzzle on there isnt much else you can do.

 

[Ahrena]

I don't at the moment, but I can start?

How long does it need to be soaked for to be efficient? I've only ever soaked to stop coughing so only enough to get it wet.

 

[Bertolie]

I too have a 14.3 Welsh d x who is on the chunky side. He gets a handful of Dengie good doer with a cup of Baileys Lo-cal balancer once a day. He has two small haynets at night, approx 6kgs in total and a small amount of hay in field when out as no grass. He is slowly losing a bit of weight. Hay needs to be soaked for approx 12 hours to leech the calories out. I tried this with my boy but he won't touch soaked hay and this is a horse whose life revolves around food!

 

[Alphamare]

I would stop feeding the carrots for a start
Your horse needs more exercise and less food.
If you don't want to start weighing your hay you need to soak it for 12 hours or mix it with barley straw

 

[tazzle]

having a welshie I can sure appreciate your situation

first question really is how big the haynet is (and the holes)....... we have three haynets that are huuuuuuuuge as well as the usual bog standard haynets and a couple of very samolled holed nets. The huge one takes half an ordinary hay bale ( ours this year are quite well packed and heavy ) so easliy holds about twice what a 14.2 good doer needs to eat overnight !!!!

you can get quite cheaply a luggage scale ( supermarkets even sell them) and weigh the haynet.

our bales weigh 25 kg and we put out two bales for four cobs per 24 hours (they are yarded so dont get individual nets) ..... thats roughly 8kg each.

If we did not feed them anything else they would be losing weight ( we introduced the hard feed a few weeks ago when they did start to lose their autumn weight as they were just right then)

If your haynet is a large one then you could be feeding up to 12kg hay per night as well as whatever grass there is.... maybe too much for her. ?

so as well as soaking or adding straw ....maybe less hay /double net one inside the other so hay last all night ?

 

[jesterfaerie]

I would double net the hay net and soak your hay, so it if of less nutritional value and will take longer to eat so you may be able to cut down the amount if you find it is not all being eaten. As others have mentioned mix in barley straw, this is good for adding bulk but not the calories. Is there a reason for her being fed? Could you giver her a slightly smaller handful and cut out the carrot? Every little helps. You don't seem to have mentioned how her turnout so, would it be possible to strip graze or fence her a smaller paddock off to limit her intake? If not (I am in the same position, fat pony, can't be inside, big field which we are unable to fence off) then grazing muzzles are a god send.
Also if you are on a livery yard, could you ask another livery to bring yours in earlier in exchange for turning theirs out in a morning?
Could you extend her working, by giving her a 10-15 minute walk then do a bit more schooling with her?
Good luck

 

[Alphamare]

I wouldn't be bringing in earlier myself I would use a grazing muzzle and keep her out as long as possible so she is moving around.