HELP - Overweight Connie

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Hi all!
I was wondering if any of you had any advice for a very overweight Connie. My friend has recently bought a 14.2hh Connemara gelding and he came to her incredibly overweight. He is currently out overnight (field not very lush) and for a couple of hours every morning (lush grazing) with 4 others and in during the day with approx. 1.5/2kg of haylage, split between 2 nets. He is worked 6 days a week doing 1 day hacking, 3 days intense schooling and 2 days jumping - each session being about 45 mins for more intense work going up to 3+ hour hacks. My friend has tried different diets and limiting grazing but it isn't seeming to make any difference whatsoever and any weight he has lost is not lost in a healthy way and is very quickly piled back on.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Also, do you think he is being overfed as he is very greedy and very much a good-doer and will eat anything and everything that is put in front of him.
 
How long as your friend had him?
If he is very overweight he is also probably not very fit and he could be doing a lot of intense work for an overweight horse.
I think weight is best lost slow and steady, with plenty of low grade exercise and reduced calories.
Now is a good time to lose weight as grass does not have the sugars in it and winter on its way.
 
She has had him for 6 months now and has slowly built up his workload.
 
Jenko109 said:
Having him out on lush grazing for a few hours each day is enough to undo any work she is putting in.

This pony should not be on lush grazing whatsoever.
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I did wonder about this, but if he is taken off lush grazing will he have enough to keep him full?
 
motherof2beasts! said:
How long has she had him?! That’s a lot if he’s not done much, might be better to do more hacking.

I would maybe cut out the lush grazing and do soaked hay instead of haylage. I have a forever fattie it’s not easy.
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He was briefly tried on soaked hay and refused to eat it, but that might be because he was full from the lush grazing?
 
Absolutely, the fullness doesn't come from the sugars in lush graze but from adequate fibre.

I'd the haulage the tested low sugar, maybe Timothy haulage variety or just the local untested variety?
 
Tarragon said:
How long as your friend had him?
If he is very overweight he is also probably not very fit and he could be doing a lot of intense work for an overweight horse.
I think weight is best lost slow and steady, with plenty of low grade exercise and reduced calories.
Now is a good time to lose weight as grass does not have the sugars in it and winter on its way.
Click to expand...
Thank you, all advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Cloball said:
Absolutely, the fullness doesn't come from the sugars in lush graze but from adequate fibre.

I'd the haulage the tested low sugar, maybe Timothy haulage variety or just the local untested variety?
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Thank you, would you keep the amount of haylege?
 
Hard to tell without knowing what his weight/ideal weight is. But if it's not known to be a low sugar variety of haylage and he doesn't need it for respiratory reasons I'd switch to soak/steamed hay.
 
Horseloverrrrr said:
He was briefly tried on soaked hay and refused to eat it, but that might be because he was full from the lush grazing?
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He’ll eat it if he’s hungry , he’s obviously not hungry enough. I soak for 10 hours and rinse. He’s on a good balancer too, I recommend thunderbrooks daily essentials (power to add to a pity handful of unmollassed chaff). Will he come in overnight in winter?
 
I got mine from overweight last Dec to what the vet yesterday described as not needing to lose any more by working on 1.8% dry matter based on his weight at the time (which I did have to estimate with a tape and then added some on) and he is now on 2% DM of his current and correct weight.
We did it, pretty easily, by no grass. He can eat the bits of grass at the side of his stony short track and off the bank but that it is. In addition I fed him the calculated amount of feed/forage which I kept at under 10% s & s. It was devonhaylage timothy, late cut low sugar hay, small amount of molassed sugar beet for his Spillers lite and lean, salt and vit E, micro linseed, equibeet and chaff (thunderbrooks herbal and Molichaff no molasses) plus once a day exercise. (not fast for various reasons)

It took a while, about 3 months for me to work it all out, but since then it has all worked perfectly, he has sufficient to eat and gradually lost weight. (he was overweight but not VERY overweight so if he had been very overweight I think we would have seen results more quickly)

in view of the fact that we are now in the Autumn laminitis season I would urge your friend to get the horse off grass to reduce the risk of laminitis while she gets it all sorted.
 
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paddy555 said:
I got mine from overweight last Dec to what the vet yesterday described as not needing to lose any more by working on 1.8% dry matter based on his weight at the time (which I did have to estimate with a tape and then added some on) and he is now on 2% DM of his current and correct weight.
We did it, pretty easily, by no grass. He can eat the bits of grass at the side of his stony short track and off the bank but that it is. In addition I fed him the calculated amount of feed/forage which I kept at under 10% s & s. It was devonhaylage timothy, late cut low sugar hay, small amount of molassed sugar beet for his Spillers lite and lean, salt and vit E, micro linseed, equibeet and chaff (thunderbrooks herbal and Molichaff no molasses) plus once a day exercise. (not fast for various reasons)

It took a while, about 3 months for me to work it all out, but since then it has all worked perfectly, he has sufficient to eat and gradually lost weight. (he was overweight but not VERY overweight so if he had been very overweight I think we would have seen results more quickly)

in view of the fact that we are now in the Autumn laminitis season I would urge your friend to get the horse off grass to reduce the risk of laminitis which she gets it all sorted.
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thank you i will do.
 
My 14hh Welsh D is 378kg and looks absolutely spot on for weight. She's lost some since we upped her hacking and reduced the grass from out 24/7 to in at night.

Definitley off the lush grass, haylage is fine if its lower sugar/calories - find out what brand and if its been tested etc. I bring mine in at night now just to keep off the grass as its quite good where she is (recently moved) and she has low sugar timothy haylage in a slow feeder net, Equilibrium's Portion Pacer haynet: https://equilibriumproducts.com/products/portionpacer-haynets?variant=49129268052282 I weigh it to make sure she's not having too much...she always has a good 1/4 of a net left over in the morning so that's about the right amount.

Does he have any hard feed? Again diet needs to be forage based (hay, grass), exercise sounds pretty good so he's obvioulsy getting too many calories IF he is actually that overweight
 
355kg is too low for a 14.2 connemara. My boy is fit and slim and weight tapes at 460kg.
Native ponies don't need any lush grass, he is probably getting enough calories for the whole day in a couple of hours! I would have him on poor grazing with soaked hay and a balancer. Be careful with the intensity of his work until he is a better weight.
 
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