Ideas for weight management

GrassChop

GrassChop

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I'm hoping to get some ideas with how to manage my 4 year old native pony's weight.

He's in approx 1 acre at the moment, it's green but sparse, low quality and extremely short.

He gets a small handful of chaff with his balancer in the evening and a handful of wrapped hay/haylage in a small holed net so his stomach doesn't get completely empty. I can't get in hay due to storage and my mare also has to have wrapped hay or haylage due to previous asthma so changing this wouldn't be an option.

However, he is still too porky for my liking. He was alright during summer when the grass had dried out and it didn't make him put on weight having a lot more hay so I'm aware that he is getting more out there than it seems but I worry that it's not enough to stop him being hungry or potentially getting ulcers if his stomach is getting too empty!

I might be able to locate a small amount of straw to mix with a smaller portion of hay instead which he'll stuff just as quickly but might help with reducing weight gain.

The field isn't the best draining and where it is already sparse, it'll get churned up very quickly with a track system or splitting into much smaller sections but I could get away with cutting off half while it's dry but then he'll probably balloon the moment I start strip grazing it. It's also rented so I don't want to totally poach it. There's no way for me to get machinery on it either to cut the grass if I sectioned it off.

The grass currently is too short for a muzzle.

Am I over thinking and he would actually be okay without the hay? It really doesn't seem like there is enough out there!

Any ideas welcome, please 🙏
 
GrassChop said:
I'm hoping to get some ideas with how to manage my 4 year old native pony's weight.

He's in approx 1 acre at the moment, it's green but sparse, low quality and extremely short.

He gets a small handful of chaff with his balancer in the evening and a handful of wrapped hay/haylage in a small holed net so his stomach doesn't get completely empty. I can't get in hay due to storage and my mare also has to have wrapped hay or haylage due to previous asthma so changing this wouldn't be an option.

However, he is still too porky for my liking. He was alright during summer when the grass had dried out and it didn't make him put on weight having a lot more hay so I'm aware that he is getting more out there than it seems but I worry that it's not enough to stop him being hungry or potentially getting ulcers if his stomach is getting too empty!

I might be able to locate a small amount of straw to mix with a smaller portion of hay instead which he'll stuff just as quickly but might help with reducing weight gain.

The field isn't the best draining and where it is already sparse, it'll get churned up very quickly with a track system or splitting into much smaller sections but I could get away with cutting off half while it's dry but then he'll probably balloon the moment I start strip grazing it. It's also rented so I don't want to totally poach it. There's no way for me to get machinery on it either to cut the grass if I sectioned it off.

The grass currently is too short for a muzzle.

Am I over thinking and he would actually be okay without the hay? It really doesn't seem like there is enough out there!

Any ideas welcome, please 🙏
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Is he enthusiastic about the hay that you currently do give him? If so, evidently thinks he does need the extra dry matter, because natives usually head straight for the grass! If your grass is too short for a muzzle, that’s pretty short, and ultra short grass going into winter likely to produce churned up damage to your seed bed.
In extremity, can you get your domestic lawnmower onto strips of the lusher stuff, first? Bearing in mind that stressed and recently mown grass tends to be more lively.
Personally, I’d give him some hay and straw to keep ticking over, and ‘safer’ to be consuming than additional new grass, if laminitis is the concern. Is he doing any exercise at all? Even leading him out from your mare? The obvious thing would be increase that, burn off a few calories and firm his muscles through activity. Good luck.
 
Exasperated said:
Is he enthusiastic about the hay that you currently do give him? If so, evidently thinks he does need the extra dry matter, because natives usually head straight for the grass! If your grass is too short for a muzzle, that’s pretty short, and ultra short grass going into winter likely to produce churned up damage to your seed bed.
In extremity, can you get your domestic lawnmower onto strips of the lusher stuff, first? Bearing in mind that stressed and recently mown grass tends to be more lively.
Personally, I’d give him some hay and straw to keep ticking over, and ‘safer’ to be consuming than additional new grass, if laminitis is the concern. Is he doing any exercise at all? Even leading him out from your mare? The obvious thing would be increase that, burn off a few calories and firm his muscles through activity. Good luck.
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Thank you. Yes, he's enthusiastic about the hay but he's like that for any food, even if he was in a field full of long lush grass, he'd be exactly the same! He doesn't tend to choose nice grass over longer "sour" areas, he'll just eat everything available so it's hard to tell in that sense. My mare won't bother with her hay if she's got grass but he's just as enthusiastic and acts desperate for it regardless of how much grass there is.

I must admit, he's not been doing much exercise due to time and my aim to leave him now until spring, we've also been battling a couple of abscesses too. Tried leading him from my mare once, won't be trying that again for a while 🫣 my mare wasn't a fan and it was far too exciting for him! Need someone a bit more experienced with ponying to help me possibly with that one.

If I could, I would dot some smaller haynets around the field to encourage more movement but it's surrounded by electric fencing so I have nowhere to tie them other than on his shelter. I suppose even with a track system, his water is next to the shelter too so he wouldn't really need to move much for that either. It's really tricky to work out what I can do. I'm not used to having a good doer!
 
If he's put on weight with only a handful of hay I'd say he doesn't need it. He's eating the grass as it comes through, which is why it looks sparse!

You can try one of three things:

1) cut out hay only
2) half the field and still feed hay to supplement, strip grazing it through the winter as foggage (this is what I do, feeding hay all year round)
3) muzzle and put hay down on the floor. My old pony ate hay through the muzzle when the grass was too short and it worked really well. That was my emergency strategy for when his pulses were raised or he got puffy legs - I wasn't allowed to fence off the shelter at that time.
 
I have one good doer on 1/2 acre right now. She does not need any hay at all. She's maintaining her weight very nicely on just 1/2 acre of sparse grazing. In fact, it's growing back all around her, having been eaten down to dust last summer. I also have two medium doers on the other half of that acre. They are getting hay (because too much rich grass = tummy upsets) but only two slices a day. They too are maintaining weight fine.

So if your grass is like mine (short but green), halve the acreage and stop feeding hay?
 
Fransurrey said:
If he's put on weight with only a handful of hay I'd say he doesn't need it. He's eating the grass as it comes through, which is why it looks sparse!

You can try one of three things:

1) cut out hay only
2) half the field and still feed hay to supplement, strip grazing it through the winter as foggage (this is what I do, feeding hay all year round)
3) muzzle and put hay down on the floor. My old pony ate hay through the muzzle when the grass was too short and it worked really well. That was my emergency strategy for when his pulses were raised or he got puffy legs - I wasn't allowed to fence off the shelter at that time.
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Thank you, this is helpful!

I'm tempted to half the field and feed hay as then I know he is getting enough to fill his belly without the extra sugar. The benefits of that is that it'll save the ground a bit, at least where it's halved but then might have the opposite effect on the half he is on and strip grazing might be a fine balance of giving him enough to fill him up but not too much to pile the weight straight back on so not sure if I'll end up in the same situation again!

Then again, if I cut out the hay completely, I'd feel really guilty that he's going to be hungry because there's not enough out there to actually fill him up or I suppose there might be but it just doesn't look like it.

I think I could even just leave a net of straw for him and if he's really that hungry, he would eat it but I think he may just eat it anyway...
 
Have you tried him in a muzzle to see if he can still eat grass through it? Mine had to go back into a muzzle after the rain a few weeks ago gave the grass a kick start. Although its short he is still nibbling it. It also slows down his consumption of hay, which is fed on the ground in the paddock. He wears a Thinline muzzle with a 3.5 cm hole which seems to slow him down but not frustrate him. I'll know when he can't get any grass because he can give an Oscar winning performance as a starved pony. He also has a tub of oat straw chaff at night to eat when he's finished his hay. I hate to add to your worries but mine did get ulcers when he was on very, very short grass and wasn't getting enough hay. He still looked to be a 'good' weight.
 
It’s so hard with natives. Mine will enthusiastically eat hay while in seven acres of long grass as he can stand still and scoff! He’s all about the impending famine which never comes! I feed a handful of fast fibre to carry vitamins. He really needs far less. Rest of liveries want to feed hay!
 
pistolpete said:
It’s so hard with natives. Mine will enthusiastically eat hay while in seven acres of long grass as he can stand still and scoff! He’s all about the impending famine which never comes! I feed a handful of fast fibre to carry vitamins. He really needs far less. Rest of liveries want to feed hay!
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Yep, pretty much the same as mine then!
How do we make sure they always have enough food without them getting fat? 🤦‍♀️
 
GrassChop said:
Yep, pretty much the same as mine then!
How do we make sure they always have enough food without them getting fat? 🤦‍♀️
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I know! Find a gorse hill for them to forage on! Somewhere with very poor soil lots of weeds and some woodland so they can eat leaves and bark! Imagine that catching on as a livery option!
 
He may not need the hay - I have a cob and a native youngster out on 1.5 acres; it's what they've been on all summer so it's well covered but very short. Old, unfertilised grass. I do feed them a couple of slices of small bale barley straw each every night so they have full tummies, but that's it, apart from their chaff and balancer. Neither of them are hangry at teatime yet (when that happens the hay appears!) so the grass is obviously growing through and they're nipping it off. So yours might be similar, and getting more to eat off the field than you think.

I would do as @Sanversera says and leave the option of good quality straw always available. That way you don't have to worry about weight or empty tummies. Just introduce it slowly so he can't gorge on loads of it at once and give himself colic!
 
Sanversera said:
I leave a net of straw tied to a tree. They'll only eat it if quite hungry and it's low calorie.
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Widgeon said:
He may not need the hay - I have a cob and a native youngster out on 1.5 acres; it's what they've been on all summer so it's well covered but very short. Old, unfertilised grass. I do feed them a couple of slices of small bale barley straw each every night so they have full tummies, but that's it, apart from their chaff and balancer. Neither of them are hangry at teatime yet (when that happens the hay appears!) so the grass is obviously growing through and they're nipping it off. So yours might be similar, and getting more to eat off the field than you think.

I would do as @Sanversera says and leave the option of good quality straw always available. That way you don't have to worry about weight or empty tummies. Just introduce it slowly so he can't gorge on loads of it at once and give himself colic!
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Thank you both! I am conducting an experiment! I put two small haynets out last night, one with some straw and one with the hay. He looked at the straw one and picked at a bit before returning to the hay so I know that he wouldn't eat it out of choice (I think :rolleyes:) it'll be interesting to see later if he has eaten it. Although, if he has, does that mean he's hungry or just a pig? 🤣🤦‍♀️

Having said that, switching to straw might be worthwhile anyway if it means he has something to fill his belly without the extra weight.
 
Neither of my natives are getting anything other than balancer. One is medicated for EMS and the other is a bit porkier than I’d like but they will naturally drop over winter.
 
My plan didn't work, he ate the straw too. 🤦‍♀️
The fact he's trotting over every day for his dinner and all I can see is a ballooned belly makes me more sure he's definitely getting what he needs already!
 
I would be doubling the exercise - just because they are 4 doesn't mean you have to do nothing. I would be doing slow steady work consistently. Stuff that's no pressure - long and slow. Water treadmill, long hacks etc. It will keep their bodies moving and avoid long term issues while putting minimal pressure on their musculoskeletal system. Horses are designed to move and being on a 1 acre rich paddock means yours isn't.
 
LEC said:
I would be doubling the exercise - just because they are 4 doesn't mean you have to do nothing. I would be doing slow steady work consistently. Stuff that's no pressure - long and slow. Water treadmill, long hacks etc. It will keep their bodies moving and avoid long term issues while putting minimal pressure on their musculoskeletal system. Horses are designed to move and being on a 1 acre rich paddock means yours isn't.
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Unfortunately, he is not getting any exercise at the moment which I know doesn't help but I just don't have time now with the evenings getting darker, regrettably. He's not fully backed yet so riding for exercise isn't an option at the moment, I was going to give him more time to mature. I could long rein on the weekends but I'm not sure how much good that will do to his weight but I am fully aware that this set up isn't ideal, it's unfortunately just the current situation I am in.

When he is backed, it'll be a little easier but my plan was to essentially move over to him once my mare slows down but that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon. I need to think about things really.
 
My lighweight cob has just started to lose weight over the last few weeks (finally). He is in at night on a straw bed with a sensible ration of hay and his food ration, same in morning then in a small, grazed down field all day. He works five days a week. He has no rug because he isn't clipped and it isn't wet or very cold yet. He eats his hay then picks bits from his bed, which keeps him full and occupied. He doesn't wolf it down though or else I would be worried. Until the beginning of the month he was out 24/7 and the grass was very short, but he was fat without any additonal hay. So for me, despite the fact it looked like there was no grass, there was obviously more than enough because I can see the difference now that he is only out eating it during the day.
 
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