How do I slim my good-doer down without surgery??!!!

Asimmons

Asimmons

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She is in the field from about 11am until 6pm. Very steep, 10 acres and not a huge amount of grass as the sheep have had a good munch.. For b'fast at 7.20 she has 3 carrots, a bowl scoop of badminton hifibre nuggets. some glucosamine, a splash of redcell, some mint and some garlic. Same in the evening, plus two flaps Devon haylage. She has a sprinkling of competition mix ahead of weekly lesson with trainer.
She is ridden 6 days out of 7. 1 hack 2 to 2.5 hrs,2 hacks of 1hr,two schooling sessions(40 mins plus) and 1 lesson (1 hr)which will include a fair bit of jumping, incl quite demanding grids. She looks fab, shiny etc but she is carrying more condition than one could expect at this stage of the year...I don't know what else to do. If I cut her feed out altogether, her metabolism seems to shut down really quickly to conserve energy and she becomes sluggish. Even hunting didn't take much off her. She is not, I wd hasten to add, obese. I think liposuction may be the only answer! She is 17 this year but low mileage...great legs.
 
dont take this the wrong way but has she been wormed reciently? just unlimited hay and to replace all vitamins just feed hifi light and get a vitamin supplement and watch his condition
 
Stop feeding it hard feed.

Turn it out at 6.00am and bring it in at 6.00pm and you'll soon notice a difference.
 
She is wormed regularly on a 13 wk cycle with equest/pramox/strongid b at appropriatetimes. Last wormed 5 weeks ago. Can't really call the nuggets hard feed..they are a forage replacer. She will not eat hay...and there isn't any decent stuff round here now anyway. I don't give her much haylage...just something to keep her occupied. Incidentally, her previous owners (5 years) had same prob and they hunted her hard!
 
Agree, cut down hard feed, why does she need 2 feeds a day?! and restrict forage but feed in a small holed haynet so she is never without, but just getting through less.
 
AmyMay...sorry to be difficult but if I turn her out at 6am I'll never rider her as she is FAR too clever to be caught. I mean that!!!She comes in willingly in the evening..and once I switch them over to out at night, in during the day, the whole prob goes away. Trouble is her mate, my son's pony, is the opposite. A worrier. Can't be left in the field on her own...jumps out. Can be left in stable while i ride...that's why they go out at around 11am, bythe time I've groomed, ridden etc.
 
i would just feed her light like hifi lite as there is nothing in that and haylage or what she eats
 
This is why this problem is so challenging...if I put her on hifi lite(which she blows around her stable in disgust!) she becomes very lack-lustre to ride and I hate going into fences feeling I am carrying her round. It's a real conundrum! Maybe I shd just try to do 3 2.5hr hacks a week...just a bit time consuming!
 
Ah, but that's different, your riding - and she's not standing there stuffing her face.

Personally in your shoes (and I have been there with my little Amy May). I would only feed a balancer to ensure that she gets' the right vits etc. I would feed hay (she will eat it - eventually), and if you do feel that she's lacking energy give her pony nuts - two mug fulls max, once a day.

It very difficult having a good doer - and even now with Thumper I find getting the balance quite a challenge.

Good luck - it's not easy.
 
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AmyMay...sorry to be difficult but if I turn her out at 6am I'll never rider her as she is FAR too clever to be caught.

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... At least she will burn calories and fat running around
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If I can track down some decent hay(not much of anything around) I'll swap to that..

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Perhaps not too decent, you want her to lose weight
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If she is such a good doer it's not lack of calories that make her lack-lustre but something else missing from her diet. Have you tried something like a balancer and then forage feed? In theory the balancer gives her all the nutrients she needs so she shouldn't go flat, without the spare calories to make her gain weight.

At least, that's the theory - I've got a good doer who's also basically rather lazy and I've never found the solution except to do things she enjoys
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I don't think there's anything wrong with what you're feeding her, like you say its just fibre. Why do people call high fibre feed hard feed?! But 10 acres ! My cob shares 3 acres with two other ponies and my 15.1h TB, there's not much grass, but enough for what they need. Can you section some off?
 
I would feed a balancer like baileys lo cal or similar. Also don't feed 3 carrots in each meal, they are high in sugar. Last year I looked after a laminitic and he was allowed the "one a day" succulent, but we fed turnip much to his disgust! Much lower in sugar.
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ets - You could try soaking the haylege for a few hours it will certainly help and they don't seem to notice!
 
Jakesmydog...I have sectioned off field..she hops wherever she wants. Aaaagh! There really isn't that much grass...amazing what 100 sheep can do in a fortnight , and she is obliged to climb a fair bit! She comes in "starving" ( in her opinion!...eats her fibre diet like a dog!)...
I did try a muzzle but she got herself in a real state and couldn't be convinced that she cd drink...
She is basically an eating machine and knows every trick in the book to fulfil her destiny!
 
high fibre nuts are hard feed - it is not just fibre - it has all sorts of other stuff in it. A fatty does not need hard feed. I evented and BSJA'd my fatty of fat paddock. He had no hard mix and only got a handful of hi fi light to give him his electrolytes just before and just after a competition. He was fighting fit and had endless energyI would often BSJA on a Saturday and event on a Sunday and go out one evening during the week dressaging. The fitter you get her the more energy she will have, the handful of competition mix before the lesson really won't have a huge impact on energy.

If she is going out at 11 having been ridden I would avoid breakfast - unless you want to give her feed balancer with the drugs but don't give a full scoop - give the absolute minimum to ensure she gets her vitamins. And at night just haylage - that has been soaked for about 12 hours in a very small holed hay net. If she turns her nose up at it ignore her, just keep giving her the same - eventually she will eat it. the reason they often turn their noses up at stuff is because they are used to the sugar in the other feed and if you can imagine offering a child sweets or veg - they would probably go for the sweets every time.

Also turn out in a lighter rug than you are - if you are already using a light rug then turn out in no rug - and don't rug up in the stable. Make her use up her fat reserve to keep herself warm.

Its hard but you need to be cruel to be kind, the slimmer she gets the more energy she will have so the easier it will be to keeo the weight off.
 
All very good advice. She is in a light turn out...mainly to save me scraping clay off her! Will cut down b/fast to just a way to deliver supplements. Absolutely get the weaning off sugar message, thank you. Very well-expressed.
Poor saff...she is going to be very p***** off!!! You shd see her face when annoyed...we call her the outraged aunt!
 
I have exactly the same problem. Sienna (out of interest) gets a small handful of HiFi, with her supplements in the evening. Couldn't possibly give her hard food she'd explode. I hate her not having enough forage and give her lots of hay at night, though when she was on a yard on restricted hay/lege, she did lose weight.
Haylage is the work of the devil for fatties imo tho' I would give twice as much hay, your horse will feel better for it. S is out on sparse grazing from 9am till about 5pm.
 
I have to disagree with a lot that has been said about cutting out the feed, give lots of good forage, I agree with carrots being full of sugar, so you could cut them out, but if you stop all hard feed, the ''good doers'' often put more fat on, as the body goes into ''overdrive'',they become sluggish, and the body tries to compensate. I have been involved with Highlands for over 40 years breeding and showing, mine are not overweight, and I feed them ''hard feed'', often using Symple Systems, as a great alternative to ''made up feeds'.
 
Change the haylage for old hay, or soak her hay overnight to get the nutrients out. The Badminton nuggets only have a DE of 8.5 so they are low in calories and are, as you quite rightly said, a fibre replacer, the trouble is, you would have to feed between 2 - 2.5 kg to get the correct level of vits etc. You really don't need to give her extra calories from the mix before your lessons, as she plainly does not need it, also the horse's digestive system is not designed to be fed like that and it could cause upsets in the hindgut. Her diet will be lacking in vits and mins so you should feed her a broad spectrum supplement, this could make her feel more energetic and therefore she would naturally burn off more calories. Personally, if she were mine, I would feed her either HiFi Lite or Applechaff (both low in sugars) and a supplement, you could give her quite a lot of the chaff and this would take her longer to eat.

The thing to remember is that calories = energy, some horse use the energy and others lay it down to fat, yours sounds like the latter (I have one of those myself
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I also have the same issue, my Mare could live off fresh air, this winter I have managed to slim her down ready for the summer, she has Hi Fi light for dinner and Breakfast a large scoop of each with a small scoop of Speedy Beat, I soak all her hay for half an hour but not longer as this is not good them. She has a good 3 sections for dinner a at the moment 4 sections during the day. She gets worked 6 days a week and I have to say is looking the best she has ever. This summer I am going to strip graze her in her field and hopefully not have the worry of the weight. You can substitute her Hay with Hi Fi lite as this is even better than soaked hay but the cost is a lot more.
 
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half an hour but not longer as this is not good them.

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You can, and indeed should, soak hay for 24 hours for a laminitic for instance, it is not bad for them as long as the water is changed every 12 hours. The trouble only begins if people do not refresh the water.
 
i have the same problem lives on air small amount of haylage, swap to hay and the pony goes on hay strike, hardly seems to eat it. well we have been cruel to be kind. just fed this pony hay, chaff and balancer. eventually after a few days pony realised that it was hay or nothing and started to eat it. still prefers haylage so she gets a small handful as a treat. still doesn't finish all her hay, but poos well and is still covered but we are not as covered as we use to be.
i bet your mare is getting enough from the grass, what breed is she? if there is warm blood or native cross then she could prob live on air!

the difference in feeding haylage and hay is the same as a fry up for breakfast or wheatabix, which would you eat the most of?
 
This has proved to be a very interesting post with masses of divergent opinions. It is patently a very challenging area for lots of people. Natives do have a knack of going into survival/calorie retention mode at the drop of a hat.Perhaps H and H wd like to do a proper feature on nutrition for the good doer?
Anyway,I think I will a) soak her haylage, changing water.
b)Cut carrots to one treat.
c) Keep giving her the hifi nuggets. She likes them and they really aren't doing any harm. I use them as the vehicle for the supplements...forgot to mention that she also has lamin-shield.
Switch to out at night, in during day. paradoxically, I think she will lose more being out on grass more. As soon as proper spring stuff comes through, I will ration. We do have two 'starvation' paddocks...it's just a bit mean on the hyper po who needs as much as she can get!! And of course, eeven tho' the two ginger girls loathe each other, they cannot bear to be apart!
I've put more hi fi lite on the muck heap than you can shake a stick at so I am not buying that again.
Her exercise regime will go up again. I also forgot to mention that I also take her up the banks once a week several times...controlled trot up twice, walk straight down, briskly, then three canters up finishing with a blast if she seems to want to..which she often does. She takes a while to get going, but once she is going she really is! Could be tiredness as well, bizarrely.
 
That would be an excellent idea for a H & H feature. You're right it is a real challenge to get the condition/energy mix right. I had a good doer who is the laziest so-and-so ever. Racehorse mix probably wouldn't have perked him up. In fact, being clipped was the only thing that ever worked on him!!!
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