Horse losing weight

[Trisha M]

I have just had my Thoroughbred Mare a year. When she arrived she had been out all winter and was quite thin. During her year at livery she put on weight and muscle and looked better. She tends to get rather strong and excitable and I asked the livery yard to cut down on her hard feed about 7 weeks ago, she is not given anything hot, & has plenty of hay. I noticed about three weeks ago she had started to lose weight she is eating well, had he teeth checked in Oct and was wormed in Jan. I am not sure if she just loses weight this time of year, have just started to give her Eostress as I have been told they tend to come into season in the Spring. The yard is giving her more hard feed but she is so much stronger again and I find I am pulling on her when she canters and is not so easy to stop, so not enjoying riding her so much.

Any suggestions or has this happened to other TB mares?

 

[claribella]

What exactly is she is being fed? Its surprising how many feeds have sugar in them and sometimes alfafa can heat some horses up. It sounds to me like there is something in her feed that is heating her up so it may be worth looking into that.

The other thing I would say is I wouldn't worry too much about weight loss at this time of year because the grass is starting to come through and most horses will balloon a bit in the coming weeks. Id much rather have a lean horse this time of year unlike my mare who has come out of winter looking a little too good so we are riding every day to try to get some weight off her as I am a little worried.

 

[Buddy'sMum]

Difficut to answer without more info. What does your mare weigh? How many kgs hay is she having? What are you feeding her and how many kgs? What's her workload? Has she been wormed for encysted redworm?

 

[Arizahn]

Wouldn't hurt to get her teeth checked again. Hope she is well.

 

[Trisha M]

thanks for your reassurance, she has one scoop twice a day consisting of Conditioning mix, Hi Fi, and Sugar beet. Spoke to her previous owner who says she is a lean horse and she fed her 3 times a day & even tried double quantity but never put on weight so will not worry too much as hopefully she will be out at grass in about 2 weeks can't wait.

 

[Trisha M]

Thanks for your reply in answer to your question not sure what she wighs, she has about 20K hay at night and around 15Kg during the day. Re feed she has 1 scoop of hard feed morning and afternoon consisting of conditioning mix, Hi Fi and sugar beet. The scoop is about 4 pts volume.

I tend to ride her 4-5 times a week consisting mostly hacking out for around 2 hrs plus a flat lesson once a week for 45 mins she has a rest day and when I am not riding her she is supposed to be either on the horse walker for 30 mins of having about 5 mins on the lunge. Re worming they change the brand so the worms do not get resistant last done with brand Equestrian Paramox which I believe also cover the encysted redworm. Does the above help? As mentioned in the above reply her last owner who I contacted told me not to worry as she is a lean mare.....