Help please!

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Kalico

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We are about to buy our first pony :) we have part loaned her for the past 2y so know her well. She's a 14 2 Irish Cob with the sweetest nature.

The decisions now will all be ours....eek....!!

Sally is stabled overnight from late October to April. She's a good doer...so the vet says. Farrier says her feet are good, she only has front shoes on.

She's fully vacc'd and just had her teeth done last week.

Some questions please....

She's a bit overweight (was being over fed) - we're going up start her on HappyHoof. She was on all sorts of sugary rubbish. She will be on hay not haylage over winter now.

Should we clip her? She will be worked (lightly) through the winter but she is hairy! She had a trace clip last year but was a little fussy getting her girth on in the weeks that followed...I guess it felt odd/spiky to her?

After being ridden in winter how do we make sure she doesn't get chilled if sweaty?

Any advice would be great.

Please be gentle :) we 're trying to get it right :)
 
Sounds like you are doing very well, and after all you've had her two years already..........A good cooler sheet/rug which wicks sweat away after riding will help to prevent chills, or "thatching" with straw under a light weight sheet works too (old fashioned, but works - bit like me really....). If the weather is mild and horse is not too hot (and unclipped), we just turn them out, let them have a good roll and get on with cooling themselves down: never had a horse with a chill yet.

Good luck with your pony!
 
I think it depends a bit on how hairy she gets, how much fast work you do and what weather we have in the winter. We used to clip our ponies and rug up in winter because if we didn't they came in covered in wet mud and we couldn't tack up until we had sorted the mud out. If daughter was jumping or hunting, pony got too hot and sweated up badly. I'm sure someone will jump in and say that ponies are meant to be left as nature intended but frankly we went for convenience. Why not see how you go and if having a hairy pony becomes a bit of a trial, you can always do a clip to suit.
 
Thanks - that makes sense. Over winter she'll be ridden once or twice a week by the vet who is part loaning her - during the day, ridden at the weekend by my daughter (a bit of lunging/schooling or maybe a short hack if the weather allows) and that's about it over the worst of winter.

I had thought about putting a lightweight (non fill) rug on her if the weather was bad if she's unclipped, but a med weight if she has anything more than a bib clip.

She wears a high viz exercise sheet during the ride, when she returns and is sweating, should a fleece rug be out on then? We tend to groom out any sweat marks but I'm aware in foul weather that she can't be left sweaty.

Although we've part loaned and know her, the responsibility of ownership feels huge! I'd be gutted if we inadvertently through lack of knowledge did something that harmed her.
 
I've just read re the biting mare up above and hope someone can advise - we were about to put our mare onto Happy Hoof - is this not a good idea?

She's a 14 2 Cob and the most chilled girl - she has no vices nor naughty habits. She's quite forward going and very responsive to voice and very eager to please. Even in season she's rarely mareish. I definitely don't want this to change!

Last winter/early spring she was on apple chaff/ pony nuts/speedy beet/cool mix - she was also on haylage all last winter/spring. She's too fat - a bit cresty. What's best to feed her?

Really want to get it right!
 
If she is overweight, she needs to lose weight before you start to feed her anything but hay. Ideally horses should have constant access to forage - it is best for their digestive systems. They are 'trickle feeders'. To reduce calories whilst giving her as much access to forage as possible, don't give her anything extra.
I don't use anything with alfalfa in these days, as we have a mare who can't tolerate it but we used to have a mare who couldn't tolerate cereals and we gave her alfalfa, as one of the few things she could eat. Some mares react very badly to alfalfa, so now I err on the side of caution.
If she is extremely overweight, you could give her chopped oat straw to fill her up when she has finished her hay ration.
I'm sure the vet who is sharing her will be able to advise you.
 
Yes, she does know the basics but like us is a bit confused by the multitude of different options re food. Now that we're in sole charge the overfeeding won't happen and everything will be more consistent.

Does it sound totally fairyish to say that as excited as I am to own her....that I get moments of panic and moments where I doubt everything!! I'm a natural worrier!
 
If you do decide to clip, I think just a waterproof rain sheet would be sufficient to start with which will stop the wind chill, keep her dry and keep her clean! Change rugs, I wouldn't keep one rug on 24/7. Mine have gone through winter with only rain sheets when mild and I only put on something thicker if it is REALLY cold and miserable,like snow. I also don't rug until mine is clipped, but that means scraping the mud off to ride. Just a small bib clip doesn't need lots of extra rugging.

Only feed forage feed to start with, so you could feed a complete forage feed with vits and minerals plus some hay. But you might need to be cruel to be kind, and let her loose some weight. Keep an eye on her body condition - you could buy a measuring tape so you would know if she is loosing weight. It is natural/good that horses loose some weight in the winter. I don't mean that they should get thin,but they use up fat to keep warm, so don't over feed and don't over rug.

She sounds a nice pony, so have fun.
 
If she's overweight I'd cut out all hard feed completely and definitely wouldn't be putting her in a MW TO unless the weather is really grim, even once clipped.

To give you an idea, my boy is a 15.1hh irish cob. He lives out year round and has been shod fronts only since May. In summer he relies on grass alone, come winter he will also get hay and will only be fed hard feed if he starts to drop condition. He usually has a trace clip and will spend most of winter in a no fill rain sheet or either our JHL lightweight plus (80g) turnout or the Mark Todd autumner rug (150g) unless we end up having snow.

Most of all, have fun, if you've had her on loan for 2 years already with no problems you must be doing something right :)
 
GG2B said:
If she's overweight I'd cut out all hard feed completely and definitely wouldn't be putting her in a MW TO unless the weather is really grim, even once clipped.

To give you an idea, my boy is a 15.1hh irish cob. He lives out year round and has been shod fronts only since May. In summer he relies on grass alone, come winter he will also get hay and will only be fed hard feed if he starts to drop condition. He usually has a trace clip and will spend most of winter in a no fill rain sheet or either our JHL lightweight plus (80g) turnout or the Mark Todd autumner rug (150g) unless we end up having snow.

Most of all, have fun, if you've had her on loan for 2 years already with no problems you must be doing something right :)
Click to expand...

That's great advice thank you. We're up in Scotland and the yard is relatively high and exposed when bad weather hits, however I'm hoping that even clipped (looking at a bib clip) she can be left un rugged unless the weather gets very bad. I wasn't in agreement with her being fed on haylage and on 2 hard feeds a day AND wearing a med weight rug last year. However, now the decisions are only ours :)
 
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