Keeping weight down

[Vikki89]

or getting it off to start with, how do you do it?
There really isn't much grass in the fields at the moment (he isn't starving there just isn't as much grass as usual) but my cob is overweight. I have tried a grazing muzzle but he just snorts in it and doesn't try to eat and i think the grass is too short for him to get anything through it at the moment. I think i am going to have to start bringing him in either at night or during the day, which i don't really want to do.

 

[K27]

to get weight down it's a bit like us- exercise more and eat less! to burn it off- you may see a difference as well if he was say, stabled at night or in the daytime?

Also long steady hacks at a good walk, and hillwork will help too, with mine i tend to keep their work constant, and then judge by eye on a weekly basis as to how they are looking 0- if they look like they have put on a bit i cut feed back and up the work a tad and if they have dropped too much (hardly unlikely at the mo lol!) i up the feed.

 

[pottamus]

To keep the weight off my lad he is on a bare paddock during the day - so he literally is nibbling at bits all day and having to move around to find more nibbly bits - this looks harsh but there is sufficient to 'find' and he always does enough in the poo department each day! He is then in at night all year round on year old hay that is weighed out and put in a small holed net. I do not want to be mucking out all year but this is the compromise to avoid weight gain.
He is given a couple of handfuls of dengie twice per day for his supplement and that is it..no treats, mints, lickits, carrots or anything else. He is hacked out in the Derbyshire hills (steep) 6 days a week in the summer and this routine keeps his weight right throughout the year. He may sometimes put a bit on in winter as I strip graze him onto a bit of grass when it has stopped growing, but this comes off quickly in the spring when I am back riding 6 days a week.
To get weight off in the first place you may have to up the ridden work and stable for some of the time on weighed hay or soaked hay.