How do you manage one good doer, one skinny young horse in same field?

[SC24]

Hi there
As grass is beginning to grow here I am looking for practical ways to ensure the young skinny horse is getting enough and my 10 year old slightly fat mare won't get too much. Previously I had my very old pony with her and so I'd restrict her and give him full field. Field is very mucky right now. Would it be good idea to keep mare on the grass and give the younger horse all the extra hay I had been giving both of them?I could restrict mare to smaller section either. I give both a balancer and the youngster gets some beet pulp also.

 

[HopOnTrot]

I section the field, skinnier horse moves into the new section first and grazes it down, then fattie moves in when it’s short. Move skinny to a new section and so on. Worked for us last year and stopped the field getting poached.

 

[coblets]

Muzzle the fat mare?

 

[ycbm]

No help to you but I sold the good doer. I sympathise, it's an almighty pain in the butt managing two horses with very different needs.
.

 

[meleeka]

Mine come in, either overnight or in the day and the poor doer gets a big fibre feed then.

 

[Pinkvboots]

Get them both in so you can feed the one that needs feeding and the good doer will benefit from being off the grass for a bit as well.

 

[ester]

I’ve always muzzled the fat one, then when most was eaten down/the TB didn’t eat round the edges the fat one was allowed to tidy up.

 

[Goldenstar]

A muzzle will help but I could not get to work with one Fatty who needed no forage and one that needed it all the time so I stabled at night .

 

[SC24]

I section the field, skinnier horse moves into the new section first and grazes it down, then fattie moves in when it’s short. Move skinny to a new section and so on. Worked for us last year and stopped the field getting poached.

Thanks, I could do that alright.

 

[Bellalily]

I’ve had this for years, although it’s now reversed and the fatty is in need of lots to eat. I sectioned off the eaten patch for the fatty and let skinny eat as much as he likes.

 

[Nicnac]

Muzzle the fatty. It's the only way to restrict grazing unless you separate them and put good doer on bare paddock.

 

[Fransurrey]

I used to muzzle the good doer and put hay/haylage down. Fatty could still eat hay through muzzle, just very slowly. Now, my good doer is much smaller, so I put haylage into a large slow feeder net (in shelter) that is open at the top and hung from two rings. Good doer eats from the small holes, cob stuffs himself through the open top. Works very well!

 

[Muddy unicorn]

We have an oldie, a youngster and a middle aged fatty in the same field - last summer I muzzled fatty and brought him into a bare corral at night but then he ended up with faecal water syndrome from not having enough fibre in his diet. At the moment the grass in their field is too short for the muzzle so I’m topping up the others at teatime with as much forage as possible (which fatty thinks is extremely unfair). I’m waiting for the ground in the summer fields to dry up enough to sort out fencing then when they go onto the longer old grass fatty will be back in his muzzle during the day.

 

[shanti]

With great difficulty lol.
My fat a$$ horse is also the paddock boss so he gets to kick the others off their feed when he is finished pigging his ration down and he certainly shouldn't be eating what the others are getting, so, I pretty much have to stand around and watch them eat so I can chase him off. I have no options for separating them at the moment as the property is a work in progress, but I do have a small separate paddock that I can chuck him in when needed, I just put the sheep in there for a few days first so they can eat the grass right down first. He does not do well on his own though, so it's only used intermittently when absolutely needed.

 

[meleeka]

With great difficulty lol.
My fat a$$ horse is also the paddock boss so he gets to kick the others off their feed when he is finished pigging his ration down and he certainly shouldn't be eating what the others are getting, so, I pretty much have to stand around and watch them eat so I can chase him off. I have no options for separating them at the moment as the property is a work in progress, but I do have a small separate paddock that I can chuck him in when needed, I just put the sheep in there for a few days first so they can eat the grass right down first. He does not do well on his own though, so it's only used intermittently when absolutely needed.

I appreciate you were reply not asking for advice, you tried something like Honeychop Lite and Lean in the fatty’s feed? When I had the very same problem, I worked out that two scoops meant he finished at the same time as the others. He was very happy with his bucket and didn’t seem to notice most of it was air

 

[SEL]

I track my fields as soon as it's dry enough. When I move the fencing the ones that need food go out and eat it down whilst the other one is being exercised - or she's muzzled.