Helping new horse get in shape

[Miss_Millie]

I've had my new horse for a few weeks now. She's good as gold and we're having a lovely time together. She is however, quite a bit overweight. Not disastrously so, but all the same I would like to get on top of it. She is a cob x draught breed so naturally quite big built, but has a bit of a hay tummy and fat shoulders. In her previous home she was turned away for several months with no work, and she is clearly a 'good doer'.

As she is unfit, I am slowly starting to build her fitness up. At the moment we are hacking 5 days a week, 1 hour sessions, a mixture of walk and trot. The off-road hacking isn't great unless you go further, which she isn't fit enough for at the moment, but we will build up to that. There are lots of steep hills for us to walk up.

She is in at night with a net of haylage and out in the day. She has a handful of chaff morning and evening as a token feed, to mix in her balancer powder with.

I am rugging her in a 0g if it is cold, as she came to me fully clipped, so I don't know if leaving her out completely un-rugged would be a bit too far, but I hope the light rugging will also help. The only rug she came with was 200g, which she definitely does not need!

Is there anything else I can do in the meantime to help with her weight loss? I intend to build up the length of time we go out for, but as she is so unfit at the moment, I don't want to push her too far

 

[Birker2020]

I've had my new horse for a few weeks now. She's good as gold and we're having a lovely time together. She is however, quite a bit overweight. Not disastrously so, but all the same I would like to get on top of it. She is a cob x draught breed so naturally quite big built, but has a bit of a hay tummy and fat shoulders. In her previous home she was turned away for several months with no work, and she is clearly a 'good doer'.

As she is unfit, I am slowly starting to build her fitness up. At the moment we are hacking 5 days a week, 1 hour sessions, a mixture of walk and trot. The off-road hacking isn't great unless you go further, which she isn't fit enough for at the moment, but we will build up to that. There are lots of steep hills for us to walk up.

She is in at night with a net of haylage and out in the day. She has a handful of chaff morning and evening as a token feed, to mix in her balancer powder with.

I am rugging her in a 0g if it is cold, as she came to me fully clipped, so I don't know if leaving her out completely un-rugged would be a bit too far, but I hope the light rugging will also help. The only rug she came with was 200g, which she definitely does not need!

Is there anything else I can do in the meantime to help with her weight loss? I intend to build up the length of time we go out for, but as she is so unfit at the moment, I don't want to push her too far

Does she have 'fat' shoulders or is it over developed muscle from pulling herself along instead of pushing from her engine (hind quarters?)

I would double bag any haylage you give her to make it last longer, or hang plenty of smaller nets. Haylage contains a high content of water so as a general guide, haylage should be fed at a rate of 1¼ times more than hay but it depends on the dry matter content. if we were to feed our yard haylage at that rate we'd use it too quickly and our horses would be fat at its good quality, so it depends on the quality of your haylage. Its less dusty and more palatable. You need to make sure you increase her forage content otherwise your horse has potential for developing stomach ulcers.

If you decide to switch to hay possibly think about soaking it for a few hours to reduce the sugars in the grass. You can also restrict her grazing by using electric fence as the problem will only get worse going into the spring. I have always strip grazed my horses, I find it the most effective way of keeping their weight down and to try and prevent colic and other issues.

She would be better out at night as there is no light available to use for photosynthesis which is the process that produces sugar in plants. As the sugars in the grass is increased in daylight night time is better. If its too cold at the moment to be turned out overnight you can combat that by putting her in a thicker rug.

Horses will walk up to 15 kilometers in the wild so I wouldn't worry too much about incorporating longer distances. Less weight on the joints is what you want really.

Having previously had a WB that only had to sniff grass to put weight on, I feel your struggle.

 

[Miss_Millie]

Does she have 'fat' shoulders or is it over developed muscle?
I would double bag any haylage you give her to make it last longer, or hang plenty of smaller nets. Haylage contains a high content of water so you are meant to be able to feed 1/2 as much again as you would hay so you need to make sure you increase her forage content otherwise your horse has potential for developing stomach ulcers.

If you decide to switch to hay possibly think about soaking it for a few hours to reduce the sugars in the grass. You can also restrict her grazing by using electric fence as the problem will only get worse going into the spring. She would be better out at night as the sugars in the grass is increased in daylight.

Having previously had a WB that only had to sniff grass to put weight on, I feel your struggle.

The saddler said they are fat pockets on her shoulders.

The double netting is a good idea, the nets I use have small holes but double netting could help too. The haylage is provided by my livery yard, so no option to change to hay. It is good quality haylage.

Unfortunately I can't put electric fence up to restrict her grazing, I have to use the field provided at livery. The herd is large and the field isn't too big for the number of horses. The best way I can restrict grass is by bringing her in. I'll try switching to out at night in the summer, at the moment they have to come in at night and go out in the day. So there is a bit of a lack of flexibility due to being on a livery yard.

 

[Starzaan]

The best way to get the weight off is work. Keep building her up and add in some interval training to the mix to help.
The absolute best thing for weight loss is swimming. If she is the right type and doesn’t have any SI issues get her to a pool pronto. We average a loss of 35kg per five days of swimming for our fatty rehabs.

 

[Leandy]

Feed less. Calories in v calories out.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

When I got my Westphalian Kaltblut(draft) mare she was obese. So much so that her tack no longer fitted.
I fed her hay the first winter with long straw available but she got colic, so I gave her plain oat straw chaff instead. Then because a different horse had breathing issues we swapped to haylage, which, as has been said, has a higher water content. I loathe haynets so fed out of a haybar but split her winter ration into 3 servings, she had one portion when she came in at dusk, one portion about 7.00pm and the last portion at last checks, just before midnight, with chaff available at all times. She did learn to self-regulate and became, if not sylph-like a much better weight and shape.
However if you feed hay, you will get a certain amount of 'hay belly', it has to go somewhere, the best way to minimise it is to serve small regular portions of forage. Plenty of steady exercise up and down hills and over poles will help her to fitten up and develop stamina so that you can go further.

 

[stangs]

Congratulations on the horse!

There's nothing wrong with a hay belly per say - the roundness is evidence of eating lots of fibre, which is of course natural + important for horses. Regarding losing weight, the only thing I can add is using a hay ball or putting some of her chaff in a treat ball. Can be vey good for building up the core.

 

[AmyMay]

Drop the chaff, double net the haylage and start looking at muzzles. And then continue doing what you’re doing.
Have we had photos?? ??

 

[palo1]

If it is not wet I would leave her without a rug for as much as possible as that will help her to shed weight. Double net the haylage and if possible more work - especially if you can work on going good enough to trot as that will use far more calories than walking. Hills, swimming and generally getting out of puff (in a safe and healthy way) will help her to shed excess pounds. As you know, it is vital you do this as we head into spring as overweight horses have a serious and uphill battle to maintain a decent and safe quality of life over summer if they start out too fat. It is difficult but it can be done. You may have to muzzle your horse over summer whilst you reduce her weight but hopefully after another winter she can go into next Spring in great shape. Good luck with the new horse - great to hear you are enjoying her.

 

[black and brown]

I would certainly drop rug weight to either a no-fill or even better no rug at all if it is not raining. Also, could you feed one portion of chaff a day rather than morning and evening?

 

[I'm Dun]

Dropping rug weights never made a blind bit of difference to mine, neither did dropping tiny low calorie bucket feeds. She needs to be restricted or muzzled. In your case I'd muzzle her now anytime shes on grass. I'd soak hay and offer a small amount of chopped straw. I'd make sure she was on a very good quality balancer and add a small amount of linseed to her feed.

If you start today you should be ok. Leave this another couple of weeks ad your going to have a fat horse in the middle of the dangerous grass season. Deal with it now before its a huge issue.

 

[J&S]

Add a teaspoon of Mag Ox to the tiny feed.

 

[sbloom]

Some of that hay tummy may also be postural, so common with many horses but especially cobs and natives who are often built a little downhill and often also have saddle issues that cause them to not want to truly lift the thoracic sling. Have a look at some postural in hand work as well as fittening work.

 

[Miss_Millie]

Thank you for the advice everyone. I have her on a trickle net, limited turnout, have cut back the haylage, the tiniest amount of plain chaff just to mix in her balancer and am working her as much as possible. Her fitness is already improving so we're going for longer hacks with lots of hills. I'm also always turning out without a rug, even if it's cold. I'm going to start introducing interval training in the school as well.