Horse put on a diet gains weight

[[100855]]

Hi, I’m sure this has been done to death but just incase anyone has any great ideas..

The area rep came today from Baileys with her weigh bridge and my mare has put on 10kg after being put on a diet.

She is a 21 year old cob mare and weighed 545kg on weighbridge in July. Today she weighed in at 555kg. Baileys feed rep recommended 1 cup of lo-cal balancer a day and soaked hay. This is what she has been getting. She is out for 10/12 hours a day and stabled at night on shavings, not yet clipped. Ridden 3 times a week roughly sometimes more, in walk 1-2 hours hacking. Can’t do fast work due to her knee arthritis. On 1 Danilon a day. Barefoot.

Her diet is 1 handful of hi-fi and 1 handful of bran for breakfast and dinner is the same plus 1 cup of Baileys lo-Cal balancer and Danilon. She has a double net of 24 hour soaked hay overnight, roughly 6-8kg a night.

Do I just exercise her more in walk? Or does anyone else have any other ideas? Many thanks

 

[be positive]

I am not surprised she has put weight on since July as the grass has improved considerably in that time due to the rain and unless you can increase the exercise in some way or reduce her intake she is not likely to drop weight until the grass loses its goodness, all of mine have put some weight on in the past month and from experience it doesn't bother me as I know it will drop off as soon as the grass goes so I accept they are looking a bit tubbier than ideal.
If she were mine I would probably make her grazing area smaller but try and keep it so she has to move as much as possible during the day, mine are still out 24/7 which keeps them moving, I would stop the am feed, it may only be a token but she doesn't need it and weigh the hay so you know exactly how much she gets, roughly 6-8kgs could be nearer 10 if you are feeling generous and the extra 4kgs may make a big difference, some could be replaced with straw if she is running out. Any extra exercise you can give her will also help.

 

[scats]

How big is she and what is her recommended weight?

 

[[100855]]

14.3 and ideally about 480kg

 

[ester]

Your description does miss out the most important info, notably how much grass you have and whether the horse has had free access?
Hopefully that will be less of an issue over winter but also depends how much control you have of your grazing, for instance I have put mine on a grass track round the perimeter of his paddocks on livery and at home, but I have also muzzled when this hasn't been possible. The track in particular makes a big difference especially when he hasn't been able to do intense exercise (also aged).

lo cal wouldn't be my choice of balancer FWIW but I suspect you want to stick with that if it means you get weighing? Mostly because of the iron - there's a lot of talk about iron effects on horses' metabolism currently http://forageplustalk.co.uk/iron-overload-in-horses-by-dr-kellon/

Does yours have any metabolic issue indicators?

 

[[100855]]

She has access to grazing, around 3 acres and shares it with 3 other ponies so the grass doesn’t have a chance to get long. No option to section any off or make a track unfortunately as were on livery. I am not against switching balancer.
Tested negative for Cushings recently.

 

[ester]

On our grass (on low lying clay) access to 3 acres with 3 others would be too much. On livery we were on chalk and the grass was much less intense which helped!
Mine tests negative for cushings (now 25) but I have treated him as metabolic for the last couple of years as he has been more inclined to be cresty and at one point had some tail head fat too. Both improved with more grass restriction and magnesium supplementation - I had always supplemented but due to a liver scare had cut out everything, n hindsight not my best plan

I didn't want to give you info you didn't want/ask for without checking
I feed equimins advanced complete which also comes in pellets but the quantity fed is much less than the other pelleted big brand balancers and doesn't have any of the rather dubious ingredients. It is a little low in magnesium hence the extra, ours will eat it out of hand if needed so no need for any extray grub. Other good optons (all powders) would be forageplus/pro_hoof (pro_earth)/equivita - all no iron because UK grazing is usually high in iron.

I'd certainly make the most of the winter, consider maybe having part of the ration of straw, more walking never a bad thing (fwiw as barefoot I also really like nibbleeze floor nets for slower feeding.)

 

[Shay]

Any small changes will help. I'd switch out the HiFi to a molasses free chaff. Even Hi Fi Molasses free has only 2.5% sugar as opposed to the 9% sugar in the standard - although the MjKg is the same. You can get chaff down to 5MjKg. As BP says - skip the morning feed or reduce to token only and switch out some hay to straw.

 

[[100855]]

Thanks,
Her chaff is hi-fi lite. I will change breakfast to a tiny token and try and put as much of the hay/straw ration in a Haynet on the floor. She has a tiny holed net anyway.

 

[ester]

the thing with floor nets is that they can't tug at them, which usually slows them down but is also better for necks etc .

 

[scats]

Can you reduce the night hay a bit? My two 15hh mares are both on diets (permanent, they are good doers) and come in to 1kg hay at 5pm and then at 7pm they get their night net which is 3.5kg (soaked for 12 hours). I put a tub of chopped oat straw in the stable too, so they have something to nibble on when they finish their hay.

If you are giving her up to 8kg hay a night, plus even token feeds and then grazing in the day, there’s a good chance she is still getting fed over the recommended percentage of her body weight needed to lose weight.

 

[Casey76]

8 kg hay is far too much, if she is on grazing (my 550kg, 16.1 gelding only gets 8kg) My mare gets 4kg soaked hay split across two slow feeding nets, plus 1kg of oat hay chaff in a bucket.

Remember when you are calculating amount of forage, you need to take into account the amount of grass she can potentially be eating during the day. You are aiming for 2% of desired weight or 1.5% of current weight - which ever is greater (dry weight). It needs some calculation to start with, and an estimation of how much grass can be consumed during turnout time, but it is really important, especially if she can’t do strenuous exercise (raise the heart rate and get sweaty for at least 30 mins per session).

 

[Morgan123]

In case this helps, there's a new weight management guide here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/equine/documents/Equine,Weight,Management.pdf which aims to help people work out weight strategies no matter the circumstance (e.g. if like you you can't exercise them much and can't restrict grazing), just in case that's any use.

 

[[100855]]

Update...
Thankyou all for your helpful advice.
I have upped the hacking frequency and length of time and also taken her for lots of long walks in hand. I say walks, we really march the whole way which is doing me good to.

I have reduced her hay to 5kg a night, soaked for 24 hours and I have given her a small bucket of straw too. She has had the straw for the last 3 nights and each night there has been a bit left at the bottom of the bucket, haynet has been empty. AM feed is now literally a dusting and PM is a handful of hi-fi, balanced and small bit of bran.

Thanks for all the help I will keep the exercise up, clip soon and lightly rug. Hopefully the cooler weather will help.