How do you manage your good doers?

Slave2Magic

Slave2Magic

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It's coming round to summer grazing time again and I would like to hear how you manage your good doers. My mare has to be kept in a sectioned off part of the main field as the grass is too rich. She can see the other horses but I still worry that it isn't the same as being with them. She seemed fine with it last year. If I could find a livery yard with poor grazing I would but there isn't any around. She is out during the day and in at night with hay. I don't want to muzzle her. How do you guys control the grass intake?
 
ive started now with my cob, he lives out, gets no hay, and a hand full of chaff after work, and have upped his work load, even if its 15 mins on the lunge, theres 4 natives that all live out, betwwen us we keep rotating the fields so we dont get major grass growth!

if needed he will get put in a paddock, or we have pens that are hard grit standing he will have a few hours a day in one of those with soaked hay.

i think the key is start early, weight of end of winter allowing for a bit of gain to get back to an ideal weight with the spring grass.
 
One of ours is strip grazed, token handful of no molasses chaff for supps, plenty of exercise. The other one is muzzled rather than stip grazed as she needs a larger field to wonder around to help keep her hocks free of stiffness and comfortable. She gets the same token feed.
I think strip grazing or muzzling (along with plenty of exercise!) is pretty much the only way of managing things. Movement plus less calories is the only way to keep the weight off, sadly no magic options I have come across yet!
 
I have kept her in a lower weight rug all winter. She had a 200g in the freezing weather and is now in a rain sheet. I wish we had a grass free turnout but sadly not. She hangs onto her weight like you wouldn't believe! She gets a small feed of Safe and Sound to mix mag ox in. I'm only happy with her exercise if she actually sweats and with an arab it is bloomin hard!
 
We have a Paddock Paradise track system for our good doers in Summer and part of Winter. Then it gets too muddy so it comes down. This way we can eke out the grazing and have lots of winter foggage for them to eat which fills their bellies without piling on the calories.

Our youngster is the one I'm watching like a hawk at the moment as he puts on weight sniffing at grass I think. Lots of hill walking in hand and long lining for him coming up I feel. Which will help my waistline too hopefully!
 
I wish we could use the paddock paradise system but on a livery yard with one big summer field it won't happen. What I am going to do this year though is make my mare's paddock in a U shape so that she has to move around more to eat. It will take more fence posts but then I can add or remove bits of grass as needed.
 
My two boys are both good doers so they live out together during the summer. One of them is Laminitic so I have to be extremely careful to watch his weight. When they first go out 24/7 they are turned out in a small paddock which has already been eaten down quite a bit by our other two little ponies. The two ponies then eat down another small area which my boys will move into when their field needs resting, and so on! Depending on how much grass we get, I might also keep my Laminitic in for a couple of horse per day completely off the grass.
 
We have a 27 year old that has been a good doer and lami all his life, we rescued him, and now out in huge paddock all year round no problems....answer to the problem NO TEETH!!!!:D
So I believe if you have problems with them then have all thier teeth taken out, takes them a lot longer and they use more energy when eatting!!!!

(Before someone thinks we took them out...we didn't they fell out due to his age and neglect he had before we got him)!!!!!:p
 
My mare is a good doer and laminitic prone. I have her fully clipped apart from head and legs and she's only been in a 150gram rug, from this weekend she's going into a rain sheet. I try my best to exercise her every day, her hay is weighed and soaked and she gets turned out for 5 hours max with her greenguard muzzle. Last year I started to feed her 1.5% of her bodyweight and she has lost a little weight. I never seem to stop worrying :)
 
I really struggle with my good do-er and weight management is a year long battle. I started my preparation for the summer a few weeks ago. I'm cutting him down from the normal 2% calculation of total food to 1.75% so can get some weight off him ahead of the summer. It's also amazing watching how even the tiny shoots of grass that are coming through now it's milder are greening up! As they're on a very poor winter pasture for only about 5-6 hours a day but are stabled overnight on good quality haylage (we're not allowed hay on the yard in the winter), mine can put on weight at this time of year which is what I don't want. At beginning of May he gets turned out in 2 very large fields with all the other geldings as that's all the summer grazing the yard has and they don't do restricted paddocks - it's too much for him and due to being out of sight all day across the road from the yard and fields have some interesting features shall we say I won't have him in a muzzle. So from May, until those fields start to be grazed down a bit I have him in at night on soaked hay. Some people say out at night and in during the day is a better option but I think it depends on the horse as mine just eats nonstop regardless of time of day or night! Don't like keeping him in like that when he's had such restricted turnout in the winter but by usually July/August I can start leaving him out for the odd night and I monitor it closely from there.
 
I'm reading this thread with interest, as I've recently bought a new horse and he is definitely a good doer. I'm finding it hard to adjust, as my previous 3 horses have all been poor doers (2 very stressy TBs, and my hunter), and I prided myself and being able to keep the poorest of doers in tip top condition.
It seems to be much easier putting weight on a stress head, than keeping it off a fatty!
 
my horse has been out with a 40 gram rug on most of the winter and our winters here are very harsh and very long just now its -3 and snowing , i keep her in overnight with hay , no hard feed , and when the weather picks up will be ridden as much as . when march arrives she will be muzzled in fields for from 7am , till 6pm then brought in overnight .
 
My fattie Haffie has been going out during the day with a grazing muzzle (greenguard) for the last couple of weeks. Once they are out 24/7, in April, then I let her out in a big paddock with the greenguard on during the day then put her in a 1 acre starvie paddock with one other horse at night. That seems to keep her under 500kg which is about right. Shockingly, she is currently 585 on the weigh tape, but she gets fat on nothing.

Oh - and no rugs. Ever. However cold it gets.
 
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Echo the work thing and them him/her shiver some off as well as restricting grazing, muzzling if he/she will keep it on. Mine is in during the day in hot periods and out at night-he tends to sleep more at night (obviously!:rolleyes:) so eats less.:)
 
Bruce is muzzled all throughout summer. I would rather he not become laminitic (esp since he's barefoot...). He is put out to graze on just under 1 acre with an accompanying (also muzzled) shetland from around 6.30am to 3/4pm. Our grass it mown at least once a week throughout summer to keep it as short as possibly. And exercised as much as possible.
 
My boy is out 24/7 unclipped and un-rugged and muzzled.....he is still overweight but moving in the right direction but hopefully once the light nights come in I will be able to up his workload to get him down to nearer 400kg.....Frankie can eat anything through his muzzle so it gets left on 24/7, I found when I took it off at night he 1. scoffed himself silly, 2. bloated like a balloon and 3. refused to be caught!
 
Mine have muzzles and/or are kept in during the day (when there is more sugar in the grass) and go out at night (when there is less sugar in the grass).
 
I need help with this!. FH lives the whole summer 24/7 on our "starvation" paddocks, yet somehow he gets fatter and fatter :rolleyes: by August he tends to look like a stomach on legs rather than a horse :p
 
My good doer's barefoot this year so I'm being extra cautious. Hay's being soaked now and I'm about to either cut the field in half or do a Paddock Paradise type track and will be upping the riding too now it's getting light enough for me to ride before and after work.

The best system for her has seemed to be in during the day and out at night before now but my youngster isn't such a good doer and I'd like to keep them out as much as possible this year. Finally at a yard where I can divide the field so keeping fingers crossed this plus increased riding will work. She gets fed a token amount for some supplements she needs, currently using Fast Fibre but will switch to an unmollassed chaff soon too
 
THis thread has got me thinking, when is it time to muzzle? Mine is on bare minimum hay and a token chaff for supplements, out during the day. Unrugged at all times unless he wears a rainsheet in bad weather. Our pasture unfortunately is cow pasture and so rather too rich for him so he wears his Greenguard once grass comes through.
However I think the fields have started 'greening' up already. Has anyone else dug their muzzles out yet?
 
I keep Seren in an individual paddock and she will stay in half of that paddock shortly right up until October/November, she gets hay every day of the year and lives on a bald paddock for the more dangerous months, it has always seemed to keep her safe so I stick with it. She did used to have a muzzle when I kept her at a place that did not do individual or restricted grazing but now its much better. I am back at my old yard and its the best place to manage her out of all the places we have been
 
the funny thing is the short grazed grass is full of sugar as its the new growth which contains the sugars, so actually keeping them on 'grazed' down grass is not the best! to actualy leave the grass untill it grows calf length is better to graze on than short grass, I keep three very good doers like this, have 24/7 turn out, and will be moving them into the top field in two weeks, and leaving the rest to grow through, work load is deffinatly important, as is feed, they get no mollased feed at all (yes I feed my good doers! lol!), and they are in rugs!
 
pillion said:
the funny thing is the short grazed grass is full of sugar as its the new growth which contains the sugars, so actually keeping them on 'grazed' down grass is not the best!
Click to expand...

Yes, this is a well known fact but keeping my mare on minimal grazing keeps her sound and laminitis free so I wont risk changing it for her. Her laminitis was brought on by very poor foot care and concussion in her loan home so she is not necessarily that affected by grass sugars as some others might be. Anyway, point is it works for her! Every horse is individual after all and if it works why would one change it?
 
Lottie comes in as soon as someone gets to the yard (in the summer) and stands with no food, I give her a net when I go home about 7 then she goes out about 7:30 next morning. She's normally quite thin after winter so as she gets fat she puts on weight she needs initially. This year though she's got quite fat over the winter as I was worried she wouldn;t make it, so god knows what I do now!! as much work as she can handle with the artritis and hard feed cut right down now.
 
I keep our laminitic prone on a track system. I also turn out on longer grass muzzled for company now and again.

Personally for mine I've found that she is better on shorter well grazed grass, even though it is supposed to be full of sugars. Any grazing of longer grass brings up pulses/laminitis unless she is very well muzzled.
 
If you don't want to muzzle her then probably less hay and hard feed at night and more exercise is the answer. Restricting turnout time is a possibility too.

I rode or lunged twice a day when trying to get weight off my mare and it soon dropped off!
 
In the summer I bring him in during the day for 4 hours with soaked hay to give him a break from the heat / muzzle... last year I strip grazed but still not enough and the muzzle came back out. This year he will be his muzzle from the moment we switch fields until July when I will strip the field again and then back in his muzzle from around the end of August until they are in for the winter again.

I have spent hours working out the calories in everything and if I remember rightly a horse can eat 330g of grass per 100kg of bodyweight per hour for the first 3 hours and then 100g per 100kg of bodyweight thereafter, the muzzle reduces this by 75% (remembering that 100g of grass = approx 242 calories)

A horse in light work needs 39 calories per kg of body weight a day, i.e. my boy is 355kg = 13,845 calories needed each day. If he was out unrestricted for 24 (with 2 hours of rest) hours he could eat the equivalent of 24,882 calories... 79% more than he needs!

By being in for 4 hours and giving him 3.2kg of soaked hay (3,895 cal), 200g of HiFi with his supplements (406 cal) and turnout for 20 hours, of which the first 14 are in the muzzle (9,665 cal) = 13,966 cal which is just over what this keeps food trickling through his digestive system... cruel to be kind.
 
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