Help with weight management of my 'good doer'

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casinosolo

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I think I may need some advice from those with good doers...

I've had my horse a couple of weeks now and am having trouble managing his weight. When I had him vetted before buying he passed a 5 stage with no problem but the vet did say he was unfit and overweight as hadn't been ridden much by previous owner (a friend of hers was riding him once or twice a week).

His old owner had him in at night with haylage and out at in the day in a grazing muzzle. She fed him a bucket of chop in the evening, and as I said, he wasn't really being exercised.

I've fazed out the chop as I was advised by the vet but he is out in the field more now; he stays out at night every other weekday. He is ridden every day; either schooling for about half an hour or a hack at walk, trot, bit of canter for between 40 mins and an hour.

The problem is he doesn't seem to be dropping weight, if anything he looks fatter to me! He does seem to be getting a bit more 'match fit' as they say as when I was first riding him he seemed to get tired very quickly but is now much better and much keener.

How else can I ensure he loses weight? Is it really all down to keeping him in stable more? Should I restrict haylage? He has a small holed haynet for 'trickle' feeding. He has a green guard grazing muzzle, but is obviously still managing to stuff his face so if anyone can recommend a better one I would be all ears!

Thanks! :)
 
Last edited:
Forgot to say he is a 14 yr old 15.2hh IDxTB x

I have just invested in a weight tape that arrived today so will be trying that out later as currently judging by eye/ photos!
 
I have been struggling for months with our Connie mare this year, there has just been sooooo much grass.

She is ridden 4 or 5 times a week & fit enough to do local ODE's.

This is the regime that i have found works, she's lost weight & looks gr8 :-)

Out over-night on 'track system' (she & 1 other basically have a approx 24m by 150m strip to graze, i do move the boundary about 2m longer each day)
When she comes in she has a handful of Fast Fibre, a double handful of chopped straw, some linseed & half a cup of Bailey's lo cal balancer. She has the same before she goes out for the night. A small (approx 2k) net of soaked hay at lunchtime.

Hope that helps & good luck.
 
kaiserchief said:
Muzzle on whenever he's out - Greenguard is fine if he's happy with it.
Soaked hay is much lower in sugar than haylage so I'd feed that instead when he's in.

Other than that, exercise is your friend!

Good luck :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips! Sorry if this is a stupid question, but do people continue to use grazing muzzles over the winter? I am sort of expecting him to drop some weight in winter so not sure if he needs it? The yard don't provide hay but I've heard you can soak haylage? Does anyone know if this is true? Sorry, I know I sound like an absolute worry wort and prob complete novice but I just want to do the right thing by him and don't want him ending up with lammy or colic :/
 
HazyXmas said:
I have been struggling for months with our Connie mare this year, there has just been sooooo much grass.

She is ridden 4 or 5 times a week & fit enough to do local ODE's.

This is the regime that i have found works, she's lost weight & looks gr8 :-)

Out over-night on 'track system' (she & 1 other basically have a approx 24m by 150m strip to graze, i do move the boundary about 2m longer each day)
When she comes in she has a handful of Fast Fibre, a double handful of chopped straw, some linseed & half a cup of Bailey's lo cal balancer. She has the same before she goes out for the night. A small (approx 2k) net of soaked hay at lunchtime.

Hope that helps & good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot! I'll give some of this a go :) He's on a DIY yard so do you think if I spoke to the YO she'd be happy for me to do some strip grazing?
 
It would depend on your grazing - my yard rotates fields so for the first few weeks, our winter grazing will be deep, rested grass and my pony will have his muzzle on whenever he's out there. Once it's eaten down though, and we've had a cold snap, it won't grow anymore and for the rest of the winter it will be a bare paddock, used for turnout and socialisation rather than food, and the muzzle will come off.

Do you condition score? I find this a more useful way of monitoring weight than weigh taping: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...1YGgAQ&usg=AFQjCNEaXxGog613C82LycI8b_bhDNtZLw
 
I'm in exactly the same boat as you, I bought an unfit, fat cob 2 weeks ago.

He is living out on good grazing with a muzzle on 24/7 at the moment. I am exercising him every day - at the moment it is just little hacks but I will be building them up to longer faster rides which should help him lose the weight.

I also bought a tape to monitor him and I think he has lost a little since I got him.

If I were you I would buy my own hay and soak it for when he is in. Make sure he has his muzzle on whenever he goes out and lots of exercise.

I am also going to rug as late as possible so he has to move around to keep warm!
 
To lose weight you need less feed & more exercise, same as in people. A grazing muzzle is fine, I use a greenguard & this works a treat. In addition limit the amount of grass he has access to, fence off part of a paddock using electric tape & when he's eaten that off move the fence slightly so he's got a little new grass each day but no a lot. When he's in his stable give him some soaked hay but again not a lot. Don't feed ad lib or you'll be undoing all your work. Personally I would give him a small chop feed each night (possibly hifi lite, our vet says they use more energy chewing it that there actually is it it) as this is handy to get him to take any suppliments or medications he may need, but again not miuch. Then take him out for lengthy hacks or work him in the school & I mean work him. He needs to burn off a large proportion of the feed you've given him.

You are at the right time of the year to try & get him to lose weight, winter is coming & there will be very little goodness in the grass so hopefully he'll drop some weight. Becareful though because when we start easing into spring he will start putting on weight again if you don't realise the new grass is coming through so be alert.

Good luck.
 
Are you rugging at all? Cut out rugs straight away, my good doer isn't in one yet. He is also out 247 in a greenguard. Even then, he doesn't lose weight without exercise. faster work seems to get weight off best - even just a good blast in a stubble field twice a week in addition to regular work makes a difference.
Other than that, soak your hay, feed though a small-holed net etc etc. I am about to move to a yard with haylage and I will be having to buy in my own hay if the haylage is too rich, I will have to wait and see how he goes on it.
 
kaiserchief said:
It would depend on your grazing - my yard rotates fields so for the first few weeks, our winter grazing will be deep, rested grass and my pony will have his muzzle on whenever he's out there. Once it's eaten down though, and we've had a cold snap, it won't grow anymore and for the rest of the winter it will be a bare paddock, used for turnout and socialisation rather than food, and the muzzle will come off.

Do you condition score? I find this a more useful way of monitoring weight than weigh taping: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...1YGgAQ&usg=AFQjCNEaXxGog613C82LycI8b_bhDNtZLw
Click to expand...

Thanks, that pdf is really useful and gives more info than weight taping!
 
CobsGalore said:
I'm in exactly the same boat as you, I bought an unfit, fat cob 2 weeks ago.

He is living out on good grazing with a muzzle on 24/7 at the moment. I am exercising him every day - at the moment it is just little hacks but I will be building them up to longer faster rides which should help him lose the weight.

I also bought a tape to monitor him and I think he has lost a little since I got him.

If I were you I would buy my own hay and soak it for when he is in. Make sure he has his muzzle on whenever he goes out and lots of exercise.

I am also going to rug as late as possible so he has to move around to keep warm!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips! :) I am upping his exercise gradually so hopefully that will help. He was clipped by his previous owner so I was advised by someone to have him in a lightweight turnout to avoid rain scold if it's very wet. On dry days he goes out naked though. I sometimes put him in a fleece if it's chilly overnight in stable.
 
Toby_Zaphod said:
You are at the right time of the year to try & get him to lose weight, winter is coming & there will be very little goodness in the grass so hopefully he'll drop some weight. Becareful though because when we start easing into spring he will start putting on weight again if you don't realise the new grass is coming through so be alert.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thank you for all your advice! Yes, I am hoping he drops some over winter so fingers crossed!
 
I weight tape and condition score weekly.

Normally (not at the moment as she has had surgery) she is muzzled all the time she is on grass from March-Nov, she comes in either overnight or during the day and has hay that has been soaked for at least 12 hrs, preferably 16hrs. Haylage is hopeless for good doers. If you can't get hay get straw and feed that half and half with haylage.

Molly can have pretty much ad lib hay if it is well soaked and fed in a trickle net, she gets about 6kg dry weight (14.2hh, 470kg).

I feed lo-cal balancer to replace the vitamins lost by muzzling and soaking hay, in a small amount of low calorie chaff (I use TopChop Lite).

As he gets fitter exercise is key - active walking is the best fat burner, mine usually does a minimum of 2x2hr hacks at weekends and 2x45 schooling sessions in winter, in summer much, much more (at least 4 hacks, longer the better)!

I find in winter she doesn't drop any but stops gaining, so it is important she goes in to winter as slim as possible.

Its very hard work - next time I'm getting a poor doer!
 
noblesteed said:
Are you rugging at all? Cut out rugs straight away, my good doer isn't in one yet. He is also out 247 in a greenguard. Even then, he doesn't lose weight without exercise. faster work seems to get weight off best - even just a good blast in a stubble field twice a week in addition to regular work makes a difference.
Other than that, soak your hay, feed though a small-holed net etc etc. I am about to move to a yard with haylage and I will be having to buy in my own hay if the haylage is too rich, I will have to wait and see how he goes on it.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I have a lightweight turnout for him when it's wet as he's clipped and someone on here advised it as they said he could get rain scold. He doesn't wear it when it's dry though. Will have a think about the haylage!
 
It does depend on your grazing but ;

My very over-weight Draft horse (we bought her like that) has her weight monitored weekly with a tape. She has been out 24/7 over the summer on adequate old meadow grass, which has not been fertilised to my certain knowledge for the last 20 yrs. She has been bought in for a maximum of 1 hr daily to a feed of plain oat straw chaff. She has lost an average of 1cm on the tape each week, so steady sustainable weight loss. I would get this horse into a routine of out every night (so no haylage) and try to organise a track around your available grazing, I don't like strip grazing as I don't think that the horse gets enough exercise.
 
noblesteed said:
Are you rugging at all? Cut out rugs straight away, my good doer isn't in one yet. He is also out 247 in a greenguard. Even then, he doesn't lose weight without exercise. faster work seems to get weight off best - even just a good blast in a stubble field twice a week in addition to regular work makes a difference.
Other than that, soak your hay, feed though a small-holed net etc etc. I am about to move to a yard with haylage and I will be having to buy in my own hay if the haylage is too rich, I will have to wait and see how he goes on it.
Click to expand...

This is what i use to do and I would restrict in a muzzle too(not starve) Good doers do get fat on thin air.The other thing to watch is the frost too as this grass can hang onto the sugars in the short new growth. You probably wont need to rug either? I never did(just needed strong arms to groom a bit of mud off for saddle). Good luck at least you realise the problem. You can save yourself loads of money as cobs tend to be easy to feed. Good luck.
 
acw295 said:
I weight tape and condition score weekly.

Normally (not at the moment as she has had surgery) she is muzzled all the time she is on grass from March-Nov, she comes in either overnight or during the day and has hay that has been soaked for at least 12 hrs, preferably 16hrs. Haylage is hopeless for good doers. If you can't get hay get straw and feed that half and half with haylage.

Molly can have pretty much ad lib hay if it is well soaked and fed in a trickle net, she gets about 6kg dry weight (14.2hh, 470kg).

I feed lo-cal balancer to replace the vitamins lost by muzzling and soaking hay, in a small amount of low calorie chaff (I use TopChop Lite).

As he gets fitter exercise is key - active walking is the best fat burner, mine usually does a minimum of 2x2hr hacks at weekends and 2x45 schooling sessions in winter, in summer much, much more (at least 4 hacks, longer the better)!

I find in winter she doesn't drop any but stops gaining, so it is important she goes in to winter as slim as possible.

Its very hard work - next time I'm getting a poor doer!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! I'll try and up his exercise and think about getting some hay rather than haylage.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I would get this horse into a routine of out every night (so no haylage) and try to organise a track around your available grazing, I don't like strip grazing as I don't think that the horse gets enough exercise.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips; I had him out every night when I first got him but was told by someone that this would probably make him fat as too much grass even with muzzle!? They advised bringing him in :/ I think it's just a case of trial and error and working out what works for him!
 
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