Help with overweight horse

greenlivery

greenlivery

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My 7 year old Friesian gelding gets fat on thin air. All winter he was a little bigger than I wanted, so now its warmer I have worked really hard with him and got him to a good weight and very very well muslced with lots and lots of extra work and limited grass - he only ever gets fed 'real food' in winter. He was looking the best he has done in a long time. He was also gelded very very late as was used for breeding, which has resulted in him having a 'fallen crest' or 'floppy neck' - I had got him to a point where the muscle had actually started to pick up and neck close to 'normal'.

He has now been lame for a month (neck flopped back over, and gaining weight to fast for me to cope with!). He is in during the day, and on the starvation paddock at night (a bit of grass but mostly dust). He has a low sugar lick for vitamins/minerals etc. I have started to leave him out all day as he moves about more in the field and I think its better for his recovery to stretch his leg (vets advice). He is now terribly overweight, to the point where I'm really very upset. I can lightly work him in the school when its not too deep (today is perfect as we had some rain last night) - I can't ride him but he is allowed to lunge on a large circle in walk and trot every other day now, if I'm careful. He is also ok to have a canter if I loose school him. But this is hardly a decent workout as I have to be careful not to push him too hard because of his previous knock on his leg, and with all that extra weight on him I really don't want to cause an injury.

Vet has given him the once over, and agrees that he is on the large side! But has also told me that I must not push his exercise too hard, especially for another two weeks or so. I'm just really worried as I can't really starve the chap much more, and exercise is slow.
Any exercise recomendations for the limited exercise I can offer? Would lots of trotting be better than canter? Any ideas would really be great!

Can't face attaching a body shot (you lot will slaughter me) - so just a head shot of him and I admiring the view!
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Lots of trotting!! Try doing two shorter sessions in a day rather than 1 longer one aswell. Difficult when they are lame. You could try mixing some strw in with his hay then he will be getting fibre and have something to munch on but not many calories
 
My section a also gains weight on this air so I've started doing my own pony fat camp! I do mostly brisk walking and trotting, I read that a brisk trot or walk burns more calories than canter so that's what I've been doing and it seems to be working. I know how you're feeling because I've also felt at breaking point when I thought about the weight of my pony but slowly it's improving with a grazing muzzle and lots of walk and trot!
 
Firstly, please ignore any self righteous pillocks who attack you because your horse is overweight in these circumstances. If you are following vets advice on workload, then stick to it.

Can i suggest you try contacting the Laminitis trust. They will charge to talk to you, but probably offer the best advice on weight control for a horse that has a restricted work load.

Personally, I would replace the stable lick with a Lite balancer, ie topspec lite/baileys lo-cal and some unmollassed chaff.
 
We have been feeding good quality oat straw to our fat bunch this spring/summer, with very little grass and it has worked! We also fed two of them 1/4 staw to 3/4 hay over the winter, to try and get to the spring in a reasonable shape. The smallest is a 14hh native type and we have got rid of the gutter down her back with this regime! Good luck with it all.
 
I know this may sound odd, but is he getting enough forage?

I also struggle to keep my mare's weight down, and our fields sound like yours, a bit of grass but mainly dust. She was looking really bloated & tubby a couple of weeks ago, & I genuinely couldn't understand where she was getting the calories from! I honestly think she just wasn't getting enough forage :o

She's now in during the day with a 10-12lb net of well-soaked hay, & gets half a handful of unmollased chaff with vit & min supplement every eve. She's looking much sleeker for it & has lost her bloated-ness. I weight tape her every week, just to keep track, and it's slowly but steadily coming off.

Other than that, is he well enough to walk out in hand? :)
 
Thank you for those suggestions - I will try shorter sessions twice a day, and trotting seems to be the best idea so far.
His lick is a low sugar one, and I only let him on it for a very short period, but every little helps so will look into a low cal balancer and compare sugars/calories etc.
Just getting so worried as it took a LOT of work getting him muscled up (exercise twice a day, expencive muscle building suppliment, restricted grazing etc), especially because of his neck issue, and now its all gone to pot, plus I'm so worried he is going to hurt himself hulking about so much extra weight! Things will be a lot easier once he can work harder.
 
His paddock does have grass, its just rougher and shorter than most, and some of the paddock is just dust, so I think he is. When he is in for long periods he gets a little well soaked hay to keep him occupied, so I think he is geting enough. Perhaps next time the vet is up I will ask him to take a look and suggest that perhaps I need to give him more hay.
 
Can you set up a perimeter track around the outside of his paddock, using electric fence for example? That encourages them to move more,especially if they haven't got much to nibble on, and it does help keep them fit/get rid of surplus weight.
 
When they are very overweight you will not see the change immediately but keep plugging away at it and don't despair - you are playing the long game here!

The vet has said be careful for 2 weeks so do just that, in no time at all you will be back to normal work. When I was much younger (!) I used to exercise hunters to get them fit, they were colossal after their summer rest and they were walked round the roads for weeks, building up to 2 hours marching. It was a brilliant way of getting them fit and shifting the weight without straining them.

Not much help for now but I find the only way to shift really established weight is to let the winter pull them right down. I have 2 who lard it up on thin air during the summer, but I make them live on that stored fat during the winter so when the spring grass hits they have loads in hand. There is no way (for their health) that I want them coming out of the winter in topping condition ready to gain additional weight each year.

From what I could see of the photo :D he is absolutely stunning.

Good luck!
 
JillA said:
Can you set up a perimeter track around the outside of his paddock, using electric fence for example? That encourages them to move more,especially if they haven't got much to nibble on, and it does help keep them fit/get rid of surplus weight.
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest that too:)
 
Thanks everyone, great suggestions and I feel a lot better :) Will keep plugging away and fingers crossed he starts to drop a bit soon :)
 
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