How are you managing?

No rain in my part of Devon, ponies on bare earth and weeds but still have their heads down finding a bite. Eating off neighbours hedge and scrounging from next doors building site.
Poor souls, its a hard life, but luckily the hay fairy drops in each morning and evening.
 
Huge amounts of rain over the last few days.

Previously brown track is beginning to flush green again. I have finished strip grazing them round it now, so they’re going to have a few days without any additional grass to see how they do.

If they need a bit more then I plan to strip graze the bottom fence out very slowly. Which’ll take another two weeks.

The fatties are still coming in to limited hay during the day and are still muzzled at night.
 
Raining here now. The bit we had on Sunday has greened everything up. This will really get the grass growing again. I'm relatively lucky in that my 2 boys are tb and wb so I don't overly panic about a bit of grass. Of course they could still come down with laminitis so I'm always watching.
 
Great thread!

Mine are on a part track/part field type set up that I can adjust really easily. I basically block off a large section from the middle of the field, and they have an area at the bottom of the field to get shelter, and their water is right at the top - they have to go up a narrow corridor to get there.

The middle bit is just growing and they go on there as a treat while i'm poo picking. They get a small amount of hay morning and night.

The bit they're on all the time looks very very bare and my horse that's in work seems hungry but it works well for his field mate who is retired and needs less.

They both look alright - the retired one is maybe a little porky, but not concerningly so. Not the ground has softend with the rain his arthritis will ease up which means he'll move more and I'll be able to long rein him again so not too concerned.

We have some lami ponies at the yard who are just reacting to any slight change in the grass, it's really scary!
 
Mines gone from one paddock with long grass to the other with shorter grass and has had greener poos as a result.
 

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Finally sourced a gullet that should be wide enough for the fat pony. So we are planning to do a bit more 'backing' with him at the weekends (only time I have an extra pair of hands around to hold said fat pony). track is working a treat - its a race track!

Unfortuantely it rained last night. It seemed like a lot but I'm hoping that as my field is mostly brown now that its to late for the grass.
 
I literally moved the fence a foot last night - between 3 of them.

Appy in this morning with a neck a stallion would be proud of. I cannot work out how to manage this. We haven't had rain and I moved fencing 4 weeks ago so I can see there hasn't been any grass growth, but she can't be strip grazed into the long grass at all it seems.

What's the maximum amount of magnesium I could feed? Her target weight is 620kg but she's probably around 650 at the moment (crest massively out of proportion)
 
Mine are on a pretty bare field - roughly a third of an acre between 3 (now 4) horses. In during day (12ish hours - they hate the heat and flies anyway) with hay rationed (and fed in fat nets), some nets are soaked and a bucket of top chop zero on the side so they always have something. They are left with no hay for periods - something that just feels alien to me. They have been like this for weeks and only just seeing a tiny drop in weight. It’s a lot of work for very little impact - though I’m telling myself that they are at least not gaining weight. I ideally want to track another field so they can move more but need sheep to graze it down first. I would muzzle but seen comments re issues it can cause with flies, which we have plenty of!
 
Ceriann said:
Mine are on a pretty bare field - roughly a third of an acre between 3 (now 4) horses. In during day (12ish hours - they hate the heat and flies anyway) with hay rationed (and fed in fat nets), some nets are soaked and a bucket of top chop zero on the side so they always have something. They are left with no hay for periods - something that just feels alien to me. They have been like this for weeks and only just seeing a tiny drop in weight. It’s a lot of work for very little impact - though I’m telling myself that they are at least not gaining weight. I ideally want to track another field so they can move more but need sheep to graze it down first. I would muzzle but seen comments re issues it can cause with flies, which we have plenty of!
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What's the deal with muzzles and flies?
I've had muzzle headcollars rubbing and teeth worn down after years of muzzle use, but wasn't aware of anything with flies
 
cauda equina said:
What's the deal with muzzles and flies?
I've had muzzle headcollars rubbing and teeth worn down after years of muzzle use, but wasn't aware of anything with flies
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Mine was working herself up not being able to get at the flies with her teeth. It seems to be a bad year with the really nasty ones. I felt a sharp pain in my knee yesterday out riding and whacked a horse fly - it had drawn blood through my leggings and the bite is itching like mad this morning. I guess having itchies and not being able to get at them with your teeth is really frustrating.

Although anything apart from the newly opened strip grazing bits are too short now for the muzzle anyway.
 
SEL said:
Mine was working herself up not being able to get at the flies with her teeth. It seems to be a bad year with the really nasty ones. I felt a sharp pain in my knee yesterday out riding and whacked a horse fly - it had drawn blood through my leggings and the bite is itching like mad this morning. I guess having itchies and not being able to get at them with your teeth is really frustrating.

Although anything apart from the newly opened strip grazing bits are too short now for the muzzle anyway.
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Thanks for the explanation
As with so many things, by solving one problem we create another
 
cauda equina said:
Thanks for the explanation
As with so many things, by solving one problem we create another
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Tbh if she hadn't scratched herself raw on the fence and given my OH an emergency repair job (underwhelmed at banging in posts in a heatwave) I'd have probably kept with the muzzle because she's piled on so much weight - but I'd also like to avoid a vet bill. The flies are at least sending them into the shelter for part of the day and there's no food in the shelter.

I'm feeling like a real failure with her this year. Not helped by FB memories popping up where she is definitely slimmer.
 
I know that in the UK the received wisdom is that horses should never, ever be without something to eat, but the fact is that for some horses this will result in them being permanently overweight. I had extremely good doers, and the only way to keep them at a correct weight is to feed restricted amounts (hay, straw, no hard feed at all and strict strip grazing or bare lot in summer), and work. This means that they will be without for periods of time, and do you know what? I have NEVER had gastric issues with any of my own horses (some clients horses have arrived with ulcers), they always looked well and were happy horses without stress behaviours. I'm not doing anything special, just not stuffing horses all the time. I've also never used muzzles.
 
I built 'fat camp' over the weekend. Its a small (12ft x 25ft ish) bald electric fenced pen infront of a 12x12 shelter. Put Robin in there this morning with a net of hay that was soaked over night. Just checked the camera's and he's escaped. So by giving him a hay net (altho soaked) I've actually incased his intake of food today.
 
cauda equina said:
What's the deal with muzzles and flies?
I've had muzzle headcollars rubbing and teeth worn down after years of muzzle use, but wasn't aware of anything with flies
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The reply that SEL gave - mine really struggle with flies as is so muzzles are a no until we get different weather. One to consider for autumn I think!
 
Cortez said:
I know that in the UK the received wisdom is that horses should never, ever be without something to eat, but the fact is that for some horses this will result in them being permanently overweight. I had extremely good doers, and the only way to keep them at a correct weight is to feed restricted amounts (hay, straw, no hard feed at all and strict strip grazing or bare lot in summer), and work. This means that they will be without for periods of time, and do you know what? I have NEVER had gastric issues with any of my own horses (some clients horses have arrived with ulcers), they always looked well and were happy horses without stress behaviours. I'm not doing anything special, just not stuffing horses all the time. I've also never used muzzles.
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I think this is absolutely the way to go, mine now have empty nets for periods of time, at which point they pick at the straw chaff or choose to go without. Their natural state is to move and forage, not have easy access to good quality hay/haylage so it makes some sense they can go without. It has to be assessed on a horse by horse basis but mine are still too heavy so more of the same regime I’m afraid!
 
Daytime muzzled turnout, a tiny net of hay, a standard sized haynet of barley straw and then a very small-holed net of straw 'just in case' seems to be doing the trick! Pony looks and feels to have lost some flab. Would love to get a weighbridge out but the independent one I used can't justify the cost/time for one and everyone else had theirs weighed by Topspec a few months ago (Literally a week before I moved here!).
Maybe the 'just in case' net is OTT, but it makes me feel better and quite frankly she's far too lazy to meticulously pick out slivers of straw from it unless she's really hungry, so it doesn't need refilling very often! Having a stomach ulcer myself, I'm perhaps a little too sympathetic towards empty tummies!

Riding-wise, I'm doing what I can amidst my own health issues and intolerance to the heat. Even if I can only ride for a short time, I'm making it count with lots of hill work, we're in no short supply of those here! 😂
 
Cortez said:
I know that in the UK the received wisdom is that horses should never, ever be without something to eat, but the fact is that for some horses this will result in them being permanently overweight. I had extremely good doers, and the only way to keep them at a correct weight is to feed restricted amounts (hay, straw, no hard feed at all and strict strip grazing or bare lot in summer), and work. This means that they will be without for periods of time, and do you know what? I have NEVER had gastric issues with any of my own horses (some clients horses have arrived with ulcers), they always looked well and were happy horses without stress behaviours. I'm not doing anything special, just not stuffing horses all the time. I've also never used muzzles.
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I agree - I wish for the fat Appy it was as simple as that, but there's no hay out so she's just on a paddock that I know isn't growing (I fenced 1/2 of it off 4 weeks) ago and I'm now about to give up strip grazing because she obviously can't cope with that. I can move the fence while she's out doing her walkies or muzzle while I'm there and then take it off when the ponies have had something to eat.

I suspect its exercise that always kept her the right side of obese until this year. Walking just isn't enough but that flipping ligament flares up whenever I try to build up the work.

I've often wondered how she'd be on a track system with ad lib hay. I just can't see her doing anything other than standing at one of those big bales they put out and eating and eating and eating. At least at the moment she's moving to get her grass nibbles, hedgerow etc.

Needs to be ploughing fields.
 
Mine come in by nine and are going out in muzzles if they can between nine and ten at night .
Muzzles I hate them, but they certainly restrict intake considerably however nothing I have tried gets me a muzzle that H can wear without terrible rubbing and Fatty can’t wear one because he has no front teeth bit Sky and Blue wear them five nights a week if the horse flys are not too awful .
They work five or six days a week and I agree with SEL I can see the difference when we up the trotting and cantering walking actively just does not make a big enough difference .
 
In Norfolk we had 10mm of rain about ten days ago (iirc) but not enough to alter the boys' management. Still on a pretty bare track with a bit of hay (section each) at night. My boy, the fatty, has lost a little bit in the last month. The other one is maintaining his weight with supplementary feeding. The only exercise they get is what they give themselves on the track. They are both looking good atm and both the vet and my go-to-for-an-opinion friend, who's worked in welfare for years, are happy with them, so I am too.
 
I have a very good doer welsh sec D, he just has to look at the grass and looks like he is going to drop a foal.
He is out through the day for around 8-12 hours wearing a greenguard muzzle, he comes in to 3kg of soaked hay tripple netted with greedy feeder haynets which he gets around 7pm.
His hay is soaked for 1 hour to take out the sugar but leave the nutrients.

He is ridden 6 days a week and one of them is usually competing, either XC or showjumping. He is looking very well this year with this routine and that allows me to feed extra hard feed for energy wise, we were finding with a 'sprinkle' of chaff he was running out of steam very quickly but now he gets a full scoop and no unwanted weight gain.
 
I'm a bit stuck with my two. I was feeding them a handful of hay in the evening along with their usual dinners just to use up what I had left and they've been polishing the lot off straight away. Their fields are sort of green but completely dry and looks like there's nothing out there, we haven't had any rain, and they'd usually leave the hay if there was grass. They could do with losing some weight now as their bellies are looking a bit round but I worry that they are hungry! Obviously they're getting it from somewhere though?!
 
Ours are on restricted grazing which is still green but very short. They have a thin slice of hay night and morning and are looking nice and slim. They are all retired so no exercise.
 
GrassChop said:
I'm a bit stuck with my two. I was feeding them a handful of hay in the evening along with their usual dinners just to use up what I had left and they've been polishing the lot off straight away. Their fields are sort of green but completely dry and looks like there's nothing out there, we haven't had any rain, and they'd usually leave the hay if there was grass. They could do with losing some weight now as their bellies are looking a bit round but I worry that they are hungry! Obviously they're getting it from somewhere though?!
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It is a fallacy to assume that because a field looks bare there is nothing to eat - it's bare BECAUSE they are eating. I don't feed fat horses, if they are a bit hungry it is because they are losing weight: needs must.
 
GrassChop said:
I'm a bit stuck with my two. I was feeding them a handful of hay in the evening along with their usual dinners just to use up what I had left and they've been polishing the lot off straight away. Their fields are sort of green but completely dry and looks like there's nothing out there, we haven't had any rain, and they'd usually leave the hay if there was grass. They could do with losing some weight now as their bellies are looking a bit round but I worry that they are hungry! Obviously they're getting it from somewhere though?!
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One of the vet pages recently said a "bald" area the size of a 20 x 40 arena can provide 5kg of forage at dry weight (so broadly equivalent to 5kg of hay).

That was actually quite eye opening for me. Mine are on a track with a few wider areas and I actually paced it out to find out the approx area. More than 2 x arenas it turns out.
 
I look at the surrounding grass and verges next to my bald field to get an idea of how much my horses are eating to keep it that bald. That’s quite an eye opener!
I’m afraid mine do stand without food for a portion of the day. They come in to a handful of chaff at 8.30am and a tiny amount of hay that lasts them til probably 10am. I’m afraid they have to wait til I get back at 5pm. They seem to be surviving and have no sign of ulcers. If I gave them ad lib they would just eat themselves to death.

Same overnight in winter. They finish their night hay by midnight.
 
scats said:
I look at the surrounding grass and verges next to my bald field to get an idea of how much my horses are eating to keep it that bald. That’s quite an eye opener!
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That's what I keep reminding others on the yard when they fret about there being too little/no grass. Look at the other, empty paddocks, and you can see the growth. Your horses have just been eating it as it pops out!
 
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