Horse over eating?

[Luci07]

Just read the thread on the mare and did not want to hijack. Will try the Elim a net as well but would be interested to see what people think.

Mare is 24 years old 16.3 tb x cob. Ex int event and had a foal. Still in light work (3-4 hacks a week, she dictates what she does ) out for only 1/2 a day as really wants to come in at lunchtime. This is the same all year round. Fed on soaked hay, H&P nuts and chaff plus various supplements (multivitamin etc) mare is an incredibly good doer. I have had her for 12 years.

She will literally stuff her face. She temporarily went out on loan as a brood mare and came back quickly. They had put her on straw, though I had said not to and the mare cleaned out her new bed 3 nights on the trot.

Yard manages this currently by soaked hay, in a Haylage net, tend to give her 2 smaller nets in the pm and hold back for the evening one. Not a chance in hell of there being a strand left in the morning! She is on shavings. Weight is really good and mare looks very well but I always worry about restricting her. Thoughts? Greedy? Nothing else can get through a net in the time my mare does..and that includes the ones fed on the floor! Tried small nets tied around the stable, 2 nets inside each other, tried unrestricted access and current way. Mare does not seem to know when to stop...

 

[Maesfen]

She reminds me of our dogs when our vet suggested ad-lib feeding! I mean to say, bassets, lurchers and terriers being able to restrict themselves, come on?! We bit the bullet and tried it. We have a huge bowl, used to be an egg poaching dish from a school, held about fifty eggs at a time so you can imagine how big. Filled it up with dry food for them; it lasted half hour (there were 8 at that time!) filled up again, gone. Got through a 15kg bag the first day and almost through another bag the next day! After that, none of them ate for nearly three days; they'd look at the full bowl, shudder and hurry past it. Since then they have never gorged, they eat separately at different times and they've never had a problem of putting weight on; it's almost as if they self restrict themselves and they look and feel very well on it; I'd never go back to fixed feeding times again; even my horses know not to worry, they get their meals when I'm ready - but - they always have ad-lib haylage, their boxes are never empty of that.
Unless there is a medical reason for not to then I'd be very unhappy at restricting forage intake at all because those that are restricted do seem to cram as much in as possible in the shortest time which can't be good for their health, far better to trickle feed I feel.
For your mare I would be very tempted to try ad-lib again and really fill her up until she leaves some (she will at some point, believe me!) Once they realise there is always some there they tend to pace themselves and not gorge as much at one sitting. Just my experience anyway.

 

[MrsNorris]

I keep my cob on restricted hay/feed as he will eat till he bursts and gains weight fast and I think the dangers of a horse being obese outweigh the problems associated with restricted feeding.
My lad would be huge if fed ad lib forage, and as I've just managed to get 50kg off him, I have no intention of letting him put it back on! He gets lots of small meals a day so he doesn't go for ages with nothing, and he gets his hay as late as I can manage at night so I hope he doesn't go too long with nothing overnight.

 

[Lotty]

My mare eats & eats. At the yard I see other horses resting with their haynet full, not mine she has to eat even if thats her bed. I have always given her ad lib hay until 3years ago when she got lami. Since then I feed her 1.5% of her bodyweight, she hasb2 cups of fast fibre with half a scoop of happy hoof, her hay I'd weighed & soaked, she has 3 pony size elim-a-nets as the holes are smaller, each with 5lb of hay - this has to last her overnight. She has 5lb of hay in a morning whilst I'm mucking out, I then ride her then she gets turned out till 5 with a muzzle on. I've also kept her on shavings so she can't start eating that when she's finished her hay.

I've kept her on the above management for the last 3 years and she looks great, it's not easy but all horses are different.

 

[Luci07]

Thanks guys. YO moved my mare onto soaked hay so she could have more but will try the proper trickle net. At least the yard are really good about popping in Haylage nets of hay at frequent intervals but hate seeing her stand with nothing.

Interestingly, the " feed masses" approach works on the youngster. He was the same as the mare so they ended up giving him the biggest net I have ever seen. Couple of nights on that and now he is back to what he should be eating and not wolfing it down.