Independant equine obesity consultant

Independant equine obesity consultant

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kittykatcat

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Hi all,

As we all know equine (and human and canine!) obesity is on the rise dramatically.

I was wondering if any one knew of a specialist that tackled obese horses (not literally - although it could make them run around!!)

Or whether any one thinks that this would be a good idea/would use this sort of service?

The 'service' I am thinking of is a complete diet analysis including forage, diet recommendations, excercise regime, weight charts, etc etc.

Any thoughts or opinions please.

I would have put a poll on but i dont know how to do it :S

Thanks
 
I have had something like this for my pony, but I didn't (and wouldn't - not a luxury I could afford) pay for it, although it was brilliant and my pony has lost 180kg as a result. I would imagine it is something that the charities, particularly WHW, can provide to an extent, and something the feed companies really should get involved in.

Dr. Teresa Hollands at D&H is always the expert I would go to for this, she writes for magazines and is an equine weightloss guru :)
 
I can't see it being viable to be honest.

The main problem is that people fall into 2 main catagories - those that do not acknowlege their horses are obese therefore would never use that sort of service, and those that do acknowlege. The latter are probably addressing the issue themselves, after all it's not rocket science, just hard work and there is a lot of help/info available for free!
 
Basic horse management and understanding of how the horse functions. Far too many horse owners think they can learn to ride and thats it. There are manuals about horse health and many feed companies offer nutritional service and riding schools offer stable management courses. The feed companies services are free.
Many dont understand the concept of work, feed, work, feed. Whether your horse is skinny or fat, exercise helps the feed work, its all part of the digestive process. What people think is medium to heavy work is often actually light work for a horse.

So you could offer some educational advice. Depends if its tied to a feed company.
 
good in theory - not sure it would work in practice tbh....
maybe an independant nutritional advisor - because the feed companies always say their own feed - understandably!
 
posie_honey said:
maybe an independant nutritional advisor - because the feed companies always say their own feed - understandably!
Click to expand...

I second that idea. I would pay for an independent one over a free visit from 1 working for a particular company.

Not sure how much work there is out there though as if people are cutting back on farriers (going longer between visits), lessons, competing, insurance (reducing or cancelling cover), etc., its not the best time to start a job that is optional to horse owners.
 
Well, it seems many are careless enough to let thier equines get obese, so I can only assume they would be careless enough to pay someone to get thier equines thin.

Why not throw in exercise service aswell and charge owners for the privelegde?
 
I don't think it would be viable because most people are subject to the whims of yard owners regarding grazing, turnout and regimes.

Not much use having everything else micromanaged if the YO won't allow you strip grazing, bare/dirt/sand paddocks, paddock paradise systems etc. and I can just see an obesity specialist and yard owners clashing at every turn.
 
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