It's January, and fatty's still not losing any weight?

He would be a 4 for me CobsGalore :)

As my vet sister reminded me recently, a healthy weight horse - healthy for their internal organs - is just shadowy just visible ribs and no cresty necks. She also pointed out my mare looks like she has DD boobs, which is better than the double Gs she arrived with ;)

Get 'show condition' and breed stereotyping out of your mind and just work for lean fit machine :)
 
TigerTail said:
He would be a 4 for me CobsGalore :)

As my vet sister reminded me recently, a healthy weight horse - healthy for their internal organs - is just shadowy just visible ribs and no cresty necks. She also pointed out my mare looks like she has DD boobs, which is better than the double Gs she arrived with ;)

Get 'show condition' and breed stereotyping out of your mind and just work for lean fit machine :)
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Thank you. Glad your mare has had a breast reduction!!

When the vet came out to him just before Christmas she said he was perfect weight for this time of year but could drop a little more if I wanted him to. It saddens me that vets are telling people this - no wonder people have the wrong perception of what a healthy weight horse should look like.
 
Okay, okay. I get it - I have a morbidly obese pony :rolleyes:

I could muzzle, but I doubt he would get anything through one with the grazing they're on. As I said, there's a little grass, but not an awful lot. Most of it has just disappeared into the mud with all the rain we've had. Oh, and I can't afford to be going through a bag of hifi every few days tbh.

Someone tell me where there's some scraggy grazing in the Midlands that I can stick on him on 24/7, we'd be home free! As it is, majority of livery yards seem to insist on lush grazing, stabling, and no restricted grazing. Wish I'd gone with a scrawny TB some days :o

This was weekend before last, he doesn't look quite so bad.

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You could do 3kg a day of chaff and a bag would last you almost a week. You may find it takes him longer to eat but its worth a go if u are struggling with weight I think it's meant to be half the calories as the same weight of hay and saves work of soaking if you don't want to do it.
 
so he has a dipped back, get a riser pad, also saddle looks a tad far forward could go back a couple of inches and would sit better.

During this really cold snap please dont go starving your horses and ripping off rugs, it is bloody freezing out there, let us get over this really cold snap and then from mid of feb you have at least 6 weeks to be really hard on them before spring comes, but honestly being a cob owner myself, only exercise is what makes them get rid of that belly, i also think they hang on to their fat to keep them warm during this weather, since stopping using a haynet with my cob and giving him a haybar which is the equivalent of 2 haynets which he would normally get a day one in the morning and one at night, he has actually stopped gorging it and is eating it as i would expect a horse to eat their hay.

he is lovely by the way
 
TigerTail said:
Straw has actually shown to be higher in sugar than some hay! Obviously depends on your hay. It is also treated at least 4 times with nasty pesticides so Id rather not.
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I have a fatty too. I supplement her haylage with Honeychop oat straw chaff, which has no added molasses/oil/alfalfa, which is more than can be said for most chaffs. It's a long slow job, with a few blips but she is losing weight.
 
I was thinking just the same about my two yesterday,rather round for my liking:rolleyes:

You seem to have tried all the usual things with your lad TBH,only things that spring to mind would not rugging him at all and reducing his hay intake??

I found that exercise alongside reducing intake is the key with one of mine who is a very good doer.I appreciate that's difficult this time of year,but it might be something you can address as we get into better weather,more light etc.

Good luck and hope he trims down a bit for you soon:)
 
TigerTail said:
Um not trying to be a cowbag or pick on u SF but your saddle isnt level, its tipping backwards :o Il shurrup now:eek:
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Christ, I can't do anything right can I? :rolleyes: FYI, it's a treeless saddle. It's been fitted up by a rep, it's level once you get on. In that pic it's plonked on his back and girthed up very loosely. He doesn't have a dipped back, he doesn't need a riser pad, and I'm asking about weight, not saddle advice.

Back on topic, that's interesting about the straw chaff - do you not find they gorge it at all? Do you just feed in a feedbucket? His work will also be upped as soon as I can, it's difficult when the only hours I'm there during the week is before / after dark. Thanks, I'm hoping he'll slim down soon, if not maybe I need to look into other yard options... ours refuses to provide any restriction on grazing.

Y'know, it's fair enough if he is genuinely a 5, but am I right in thinking there is no score higher than a 5? In which case, what about the horses I see that are bigger than him? Are they just lumped into the same category? As an example, there's a cob on our yard, same size as my boy but a little less bone. His owner claims she can't physically get a weight tape around him he's that large. Would he simply be considered a 5 aswell?
 
I feed chaff from floor in a big solid tub and I think the short chop can take longer to eat but it depends on the horse! I've put basketball in tub so he has to move it to get to the chaff I've heard of putting big stones in so they have to move them about but not so sure about that!
 
I got the weight off mine by not clipping or rugging, rain sheet if wet. Feeding him 1.5% bodyweight in forage which is hay supplemented with plenty of fast fibre. He does finish his net but then starts snacking on his straw bed. If he's out he was muzzled til November. He's only ridden twice a week. Now his weight is right down and fat pads gone he has ad lib hay, a light chaff, and a handful of high fibre cubes. He's in a medium rug now in the freeziness
 
My thing is currently fat due to an arthritis diagnosis/lost my sharer/box rest blah blah. The only things I did for his slim gorgeousness in my sig pic was to underrug and up the exercise. Lots!

Very fat pic:
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Still gorgeous in the very fat pic tho!

My coloured cob has been living out, unrugged, no hay, and with a tiny amount of hifi lite (so he doesn't feel let out) and he looks like he's due to foal any day! keep thinking he's bound to start losing weight soon! I think I may have to make him a starvation paddock already!
 
eatmyshorts said:
Still gorgeous in the very fat pic tho!

My coloured cob has been living out, unrugged, no hay, and with a tiny amount of hifi lite (so he doesn't feel let out) and he looks like he's due to foal any day! keep thinking he's bound to start losing weight soon! I think I may have to make him a starvation paddock already!
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Thanks, but I thought that was awful! A starvation paddock would be perfect! If I was worried, I'd keep mine in off the grass and soak his hay.
 
Honeychop chopped oat straw was a key part of getting my fatty down two hundred kilos I feed it in a big bowl in the stable on the ground in the field in summer.
But the thing that shifted the weight was lots of exercise.
 
I think a cob like yours should be living on the same sort of sparse grazing as my Shetland has spent most of his life on.

It's difficult when you're at a yard and have to bring in at night as your cob could probably do with living out 24/7 completely unrugged, not fed at all and then ridden pretty often, on long rides over hill and dale.

Instead, as he's not having to move around to forage for half of the day (night) he's hanging on to his weight!

When you ride him, what do you do??

If I had the time etc I'd take him on long slow hacks (3hrs +) or shorter fast ones. Nothing shifts weight like 1hr of trotting and cantering!

If you can't ride in the week, have you got a friend who could ride and lead him??

(I don't know how old he is..... you probably said!!)
 
To get weight off my mare I did half soaked hay and half plain hay chop.

After weighing her I worked out 1.5% body weight and this was spilt in two. The hay was soaked and in small holes nets (she didn't eat it for first few days but soon did when she realised it was all she was getting!!)

A went to the local feed merchant who sourced me a completely 'non-branded' hay chop. It is literally chopped hay and nothing else added. She had this ins tub trug and I made sure it was well wetted. She loved this and always ate this first but it took her quite a while to eat. Plus, as it was quite bulky it meat she left her Haynet alone for an hour or so meaning her food lasted a lot longer.

I supplemented this with the recommended amount of a low calorie balancer.

I found this highly effective to get her to lose weight. Now she is at a good weight, to maintain, she has just under 2% of body weight in hay.
 
I wouldn't support trying to make him shiver the weight off. The diet sounds fine so the key has to be more exercise- he needs to get his heart rate up and working. If he's green that's fine, do several short chunks within a session but you need to sustain a proper canter for a 3 mins, 4 times and build up his stamina like that.
 
I have a 5yo fatty welsh a - I have basically completely roughed him off this winter and not so much as a rainsheet has touched his back to date (and will carry on through everything this winter has to throw at us, I will not feel sorry for him - through gritted teeth!!), he has no hay, no feed .... nothing (well perhaps a carrot if he is looking particularly cute!). Field has a good covering of grass and is currently covered in snow. There is good natural shelter in the form of a tree lined hedge at the bottom of a slight valley. Oh and a mineral lick.

I checked him this morning and broke the ice in his trough and he is absolutely fine. Lovely big ball of bright and perky furryness. If he does shiver (very unlikely) then sorry that is normal and will encourage weight loss!

OP, more exercise and less calories = weight loss. Personally, I would clip him out again, up the exercise and add no more rugs.
 
I feed my 15hh heavy cob 4kg of haylage plus 3kg of chaff, plus supplements, no grass at the moment, but in a small, bare pen when we did have grass. He has lost about 60kg even though he's not working much due to other health issues, so I'm really pleased. He is probably a 3 to 3.5 now, down from a good 4!!
 
I'm finding it really interesting how many people supplement hay for chaff - I didn't realise it was that widely used!

Conniemara1 said:
I feed chaff from floor in a big solid tub and I think the short chop can take longer to eat but it depends on the horse! I've put basketball in tub so he has to move it to get to the chaff I've heard of putting big stones in so they have to move them about but not so sure about that!
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I'll try that - I've got a large tubtrug I can use, will see if I can find any stones / balls (knowing him he'll have a blast throwing them round!)/ Do you wet the chaff or leave dry?

eatmyshorts said:
My coloured cob has been living out, unrugged, no hay, and with a tiny amount of hifi lite (so he doesn't feel let out) and he looks like he's due to foal any day! keep thinking he's bound to start losing weight soon! I think I may have to make him a starvation paddock already!
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This is what I had him on last winter, along with no grass at all (they did get hay out every few days). It suited him down to the ground, but we ended up moving due to needing more facilities as he was broken to ride. Current yard won't do starvation / restricted paddocks, which is a real pain.

SpruceRI said:
I think a cob like yours should be living on the same sort of sparse grazing as my Shetland has spent most of his life on.

It's difficult when you're at a yard and have to bring in at night as your cob could probably do with living out 24/7 completely unrugged, not fed at all and then ridden pretty often, on long rides over hill and dale.

Instead, as he's not having to move around to forage for half of the day (night) he's hanging on to his weight!

When you ride him, what do you do??

If I had the time etc I'd take him on long slow hacks (3hrs +) or shorter fast ones. Nothing shifts weight like 1hr of trotting and cantering!

If you can't ride in the week, have you got a friend who could ride and lead him??

(I don't know how old he is..... you probably said!!)
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He's 5, but he's only done around 6mths of work under saddle. He's back to basics at the mo as he's had issues with rushing during trot / canter, and he became a bit of a wimp after a bad fall out hacking. We're schooling for 30mins - 1hr in walk with some trot, poles, raised poles, etc. Hacks are usually an hour (sometimes 1hr30), mainly walk, but inclusive of a rather steep hill. I'm trying to up the work, but not many people hack on our yard and although he's improving on schooling, I don't want to push him too fast.

I do ride in the week as schools are floodlit, I just can't right now as they're all frozen over.

TheMule said:
I wouldn't support trying to make him shiver the weight off. The diet sounds fine so the key has to be more exercise- he needs to get his heart rate up and working. If he's green that's fine, do several short chunks within a session but you need to sustain a proper canter for a 3 mins, 4 times and build up his stamina like that.
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He can't sustain a canter at the minute with motorbiking like a looney toon. He's getting a lot better with his balance and we're working on it, but he's not at a stage where I can canter him round and round to burn the weight off. As mentioned above, I was recommended to take him back down to basics for a while as his balance just went out the window.
 
I appreciate just how difficult it is, there are obviously slight adjustments you can make to feeding but I doubt they will make a huge difference to be honest.

The key is exercise.

He is a lovely chap, but with the best will in the world he is not really bred/built for schoolwork, so his type combined with his age and the weight he is carrying mean that you aren't going to shift weight by walking for an hour.

I'd stick to hacking, up the pace gradually and get him fit that way - you need to be doing 3 or 4 spells of 10 mins trot between the walk, with as many hills and canter stretches as you can find.

You kind of need to be doing 90 mins a day for a horse of his type, and if you can't for practical reasons is there a yard you could move to with a horse walker?

If he were mine, I'd get the base fitness up and drag hunt him!! But appreciate that isn't a solution for everyone ;)
 
We keep our ponies, who would be that fat given chance, out 24/7 on a strip grazed field through most of the winter, getting a couple of feet new grass a day plus a small amount of chop with minerals in. When the fence reaches the other end of the field, usually in February, they then get a little hay twice a day. This has them always finishing winter at a reasonable weight.
 
I have had the same problem. When I got my cob he was obese - probably a 5 but am not sure.

He went from 24/7 on good grazing to out at night, stabled in the day on ok grazing. Handful of chaff when others were fed.

The key for me was exercise, exercise and exercise. He was worked twice a day, longlining first, then ridden. Gradually the weight came off but it was the hacking and hill work that really got him slim and fit. He has now been at a good weight for about 2 years and it has been easy to keep it off as long as he worked hard - ALL the time. He now gets about 400 grams of Pure Easy a day in two feeds and he does endurance, cross country, jumping, trec, 2 lessons a week on it.

I would do lots of hacking and if you can do it, longline once a day, then hack later. I know you can't with the weather now, but once the weather improves.

Here he is while still at the rescue where I took him on loan from

FatBoy-2.jpg


Now - don't have better shot

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IHW - I appreciate the fact he's not really doing enough to burn the lbs. The only people that hack want to walk, I won't hack alone (after our last attempt alone, which ended in A&E), and we don't have anywhere off road bar the school (and a couple of bridleways, which resemble bogs atm). Horse walker might be an idea... perhaps the yard thing is worth looking into. It's a shame though as current one is the nicest and best run we've been on.

Gloi - the problem I have is that few to no yards offer this around me. Majority are lush grazing, big fields, and stables :(

tiga - wow, what a transformation! I guess I best get him sorted and back in proper work.
 
as a 5yo, having been in work 6 months, he should be well able to do enough trot and canter to get him to break a sweat, puff, and lose weight.

even if you arent happy to canter much in the school, get him out in a field and canter round the edge until he's puffing, walk, do it again, rinse and repeat other direction.build it up.

loose school or lunge him in canter. loose jump him or lunge over poles.

even if you stick to walk and trot you can get him slimmed down and muscled up but it needs to be proper work, forward, engaged, bending, not just tootling round.

appreciate you cant do much at the min due to snow, but he hasnt gotten this fat since last weekend, this is a long term problem.
 
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