How's her wieght looking?

[B_2_B]

Ok so she's always gonna be a "big" pony

After her winter off i said i'd get her fit before i left, and i know she's a hell of a lot fitter than she was 7 months ago, but does she look any slimmer?
The end of last summer

About December time

Today (excuse the squint headcollar, she'd just been itching lol, and she's in a huff coz i had a mint i wouldn't give her till i'd taken the photo

)

Couple of weeks ago

 

[Cahill]

not really

,but i do like her

 

[B_2_B]

lol! It's ok, i don't think there's much difference either

Bless her, i know there is some, her girth goes up about another 2 or 3 holes, it's just not that visible

 

[howengold]

she's not so much of a barrell and her bum has definately lost the flab! As you say she will be a big girlie anyway but you can see it has began coming off.

 

[B_2_B]

Thanks, yeah she's losing her gutter lol

 

[Forget_Me_Not]

I think shes starting to lose the flab, certainly less of the bum! It really will do her the world of good. Keep at it : )

 

[Kallibear]

She looks like she's got more abdominal muscles, making her belly look less obvious. I think she's looking a little slimmer over all but afraid she's still obese

sorry! She has a long way to go yet. But well done with the loss so far - it's really hard with good doers.

I would disagree that she will always be a 'big' girl - she doesn't look like she has a huge amount of bone - I'd say most of her bulk is fat! She does have short little legs though

Bit like Kalli

This is my mare, who has more bone (but longer legs) than you're girl.
In this picture, from about 6years ago, she is obese - she kept jumping the 5ft electric fencing out into the huge paddock. She's about the same condition your mare is now.

This is what she SHOULD look like - this is her a perfect weight

Any horse can loose weight and be slim and healthy, it just takes time. And lots more exercise and lots less grass!

 

[LankyDoodle]

Kallibear, that is amazing!!! Wowy! My boy has just been on a bit of a diet - a very short one as he wasn't that grossly overweight, but I wanted to bring him back into check. Kalli looks great. George is about the same size as your mare is now. I now need to concentrate on muscling him up more and getting him fit. Ihave just reintroduced the hifi lite as he lacks energy on hacks due to me cutting him right back, and he is still on a small amount of hay but I am soaking for 20 minutes instead of 20 hours. He still wears his muzzle in small paddock, but I think I may keep that through the start of Autumn for obvious reasons. This was him a few weeks ago (he'd had a few weeks of low key dieting, but has since hit boot camp - new pics to follow!).

OP, I would agree that your mare does look slightly slimmer but does have a long way to go. I would agree with work, work and more work, but don't neglect the diet side of things - soaked hay, lo-cal chaff if necessary, and limited grazing with a muzzle if necessary.

 

[Kallibear]

Thanks, but that's Pink, not Kalli

This is Kalli: 9only decent side on recent photo I have!)

:a lot bigger (but short legs

) and brown. And fatter (by my standards - everyone else would think she's perfect

). For a TBx (with Clydesdale admittedly) she is a stupidly good doer - even better than Pink. I think she tries harder!

I have it easy really, getting weight off them. They are out 24/7 all winter, unrugged (they grow their own super thick rug) and slowly drop weight over the winter, until they are lean in the spring. They then go into restricted scrubby grazing (big area, not much grass) all summer and slowly gain weight over the summer until they are 'plump' come autumn. They live in a herd of 6 horses, all good doers, so they are all treated the same. With very little effort they don't vary more than half a condition score on either side of 2.5.

Your lad looks good, but still slightly heavier than I'd ideal have him. Perfect for going into winter, too fat for going into spring. I try to use the seasons to naturally ward off laminitis - they should be ribby going into spring. If he's lost a little more since then, he'll be perfect. I like them to be lean and muscled. Cos I'm mean

 

[B_2_B]

thanks everyone, she's about 25 now, so her age doesn't help with the weight.
I hate leaving her, i know she probably won't get ridden as much but i'm trying to tell the younger ones to ride her as much as possible.
Being a rescue centre with over 100 animals, time is always against us, and it's not every day we get to ride anyway.
But we do our best

On the flip side, this is Connie when she arrived with us, after being abandoned in a field for 2 years.

And now

 

[LankyDoodle]

Thanks Kalli! Hehe.

If you've seen my thread on veterinary, you'll know I am absolutely hopping because I know he is fat but everyone else keeps telling me I am punishing him because he is the one that 'didn't die' (my mare died from stress-induced laminitis 3 weeks ago). I'm not at all. He's never been the fat one... until this summer when I have actually struggled more with his weight. People seem to think that loving your horse is providing it with an all you can eat menu and that's not the case at all. So I have continued despite their jibes and calls of 'punishment/abuse/whatever'. He has lost weight since then but I'm not stopping yet because the very rich grass is coming soon. It's more muscling up he needs now than anything else, and I can feel his ribs more easily, he's gone from 645 to 585 on the weight tape and yeh I think he does look good, but still fat! Just try telling the unknowledgeable people at my yard that!

The first month or so of his diet were really informal because I was still on my very intense course and we were dealing with a very sick mare. But then he entered boot camp being ridden at least once for at least 1 hour every day (2-4 hours at weekend) PLUS schooling/lunging. Restricted turnout on an eaten down small patch of grazing, wearing a grazing muzzle, soaked hay when he was in and his ration of formula4 feet pellets (he isn't lami but I give it for healthy feet cos I am paranoid like that!). That was it and to hear people at my crappy little yard talk, I was starving the poor thing!

He has been sooooo lacking in energy on rides so he is still on the same grazing pattern - restricted, small eaten down patch, muzzled (not going to demuzzle til October) - has soaked hay when he is in but it is only soaked for 20-30 minutes as he wasn't eating the hay I'd been soaking for longer (despite being a good doer he is picky, but I need him to eat hay). He still gets the formula for feet but he now also gets hifi lite split into 2 feeds (morning and night), as it provides slow release energy for those rides. I have never fed hard feed in spring, summer or autumn, but he is doing so much work and is being so restricted everywhere else. The rides become superfluous otherwise because he plods out like something I've never ridden before and that won't burn the fat!

Anyway, back to OP. Connie looks AMAZING! I hadn't realised you were a rescue centre? Do you rehome horses because that is another option for us when we come to get another mare due to losing our other one.

 

[B_2_B]

Good luck with him!

Thanks, she's a totally different horse to what we first got. She'd stand and stare into space, away from the rest of the herd. We had a few problems with her, she was impossible to catch, didn't know herd society at all and gave our newest mare a right kick in the forehead, she had a hole down to the bone and needed lots of stitches.
She's a really happy girl now though, has her place in the herd and loves hacking

Yeah we rehome most of the horses we get, although we have 6 at the moment that stay with us permanently. Sometimes we keep them, but a lot of them are rehomed.

 

[Kallibear]

The first month or so of his diet were really informal because I was still on my very intense course and we were dealing with a very sick mare. But then he entered boot camp being ridden at least once for at least 1 hour every day (2-4 hours at weekend) PLUS schooling/lunging. Restricted turnout on an eaten down small patch of grazing, wearing a grazing muzzle, soaked hay when he was in and his ration of formula4 feet pellets (he isn't lami but I give it for healthy feet cos I am paranoid like that!). That was it and to hear people at my crappy little yard talk, I was starving the poor thing!

He has been sooooo lacking in energy on rides so he is still on the same grazing pattern - restricted, small eaten down patch, muzzled (not going to demuzzle til October) - has soaked hay when he is in but it is only soaked for 20-30 minutes as he wasn't eating the hay I'd been soaking for longer (despite being a good doer he is picky, but I need him to eat hay). He still gets the formula for feet but he now also gets hifi lite split into 2 feeds (morning and night), as it provides slow release energy for those rides. I have never fed hard feed in spring, summer or autumn, but he is doing so much work and is being so restricted everywhere else. The rides become superfluous otherwise because he plods out like something I've never ridden before and that won't burn the fat!

That does sounds quite drastic, for a horse who's not laminitic, nor a 'laminitic type'

(I know all horses can get laminitis but some are much less likely than others)

He's probably letharic because he's not qetting enough to eat - he'll be getting next to nothing if he's got a muzzle on AND in restricted grazing. As he's not hugely overweight I would be doing one of the other - muzzle, out with his friend probably, and in his paddock at night, with some soaked hay.

You're aiming for him to be a healthy weight by the beginning of winter, then let him drop to verging on skinny coming into spring. You don't want him too loose weight too fast as that brings compliaction of it's own.

Ignore the other liveries. They truely are just showing their ignorance. Combat it by being extra specially snotty and knowledgeable and condecending when they make stupid comments. I'm really lucky. The 6horses have 4 owners and I control their grazing and weight. Everyone argrees about weight too - we all like them slim over summer and a bit skinny coming into spring. Plus all agree about never leaving a horse on it's own, so grazing is sorted with that in mind (6big horses all share a weedy, scrubby 4acres)