Managing a good doer (with pics)

Casey76

Casey76

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I need to get my thinking cap on about how to manage my mare this summer. This wil be the first full summer I have had her.

Last year, she was very podgy, so I swapped her bed from straw to wood pellets, and she has netted hay (4kg in a Greedy Feeder net) overnight.

Currently she gets loose hay on a morning (between 5am and 7am), and I've already asked the YO not to give her so much. Then she is either out in a winter pen with ad lib hay from 8 til 5, or out in a winter grazed paddock with no grass for same amount of time. "hard feed" consists of 1/2 stubbs scoop of soaked grass nuts, 100ml micronised linseed, 1 measure of Pro Hoof, plus magnesium and brewers yeast.

She is currently worked Wednesday to Monday (lunging, schooling, hacking, schooling, schooling/hacking, schooling) mainly in walk and trot, but with faster work including some jumping twice a week. She has just turned 7.

Pics are from yesterday after a shower (poor girlie was sweating buckets after a hard schooling session)

She is 13.3, and weighs (on a tape) 420kg, which is up from 400kg in Jan. You can feel her ribs with the flat of your hand, but not see any.

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I'm not sure how I could fit more exercise in tbh. The only thing I could think of is to change one of the schooling sessions (where we mainly focus on correct bend and accepting the bit, 10,15m circles, serpentines, LY and SI in walk) to trotting for exercise rather than schooling.

I'm a bit concerned about muzzling her when she is in a paddock, as we have automatic waterers, and I don't know if she could drink with a muzzle on (and the whole point of having automatic waterers is that we don't have to take buckets to the fields).

I have a couple of options with the fields I think. She could be in an individual paddock, and I could divide it in half with tape, but this wouldn't giver mer much room at all to run around. Or she could possible go into the bigger paddock with my youngster. As the bigger paddock has been used over winter there is no grass in there, and there is enough space to run around a little. I need to speak with my YM about what I could do about putting temporary fencing up to divide paddocks etc.

I think I must be the yard nutter, as I am so paranoid about my ponies getting too fat/ the state of their (unshod) feet etc. It's driving me barmy, never mind anyone else!
 
Muzzle, soaked hay through a very small holed haynet (1 "), so you can reduce the amount if need be, strip grazing with leccy fence, cut all hard feed to one scoop of Lo Cal balancer, and lots of hacking and fast work.

ps, don't mean to be funny, but your sig is very large x
 
Take out the grass nuts - pointless taking her off the grass, to then give in back in nut form! Use a non-molasses chop, or failing that (as not sure what options available to you) dampen the linseed with water and dried mint and the supplements.

She wasn't as bad as I was imagining from your first part of the post!

Make sure each session she is properly exercised, she should still be getting damp with exertion for most of your sessions.

Try soaking the hay for at least part of the daily rations if all of it can't be done.

How long have you had her?
 
Unfortunately we don't get chop or chaff of any kind - unmollassed anything is a miracle. Could I swap the grass nuts to sugar beet if it was rinced? It really is just to damp the supplements, but the supplements outweigh the linseed.

TBH, I'm not sure if the YM will let me have soaked hay, T is the only pony on the yard to have a hay net as it is (she is also the only pony to have wood pellet bedding, which I pay for on top of my normal livery fee)

Trying to compensate for the lack of choice and flexibility in France is often an exercise in frustration as it is, but when you are wanting to manage your horses in one way, which is slighly divergent from the rest of the yard, it really does become a matter of compromise. And I'm on the most flexible yard I know of, because it is "English" run.

And to answer your question, I bought Tartine in May last year, from the field, and she was well over 450kg.
 
The excess weight is almost all on her tummy, she couldn't be in foal could she??? had to ask, I think you need to concentrate on getting her working through so she lifts her back and tummy more then you should see a difference, as well as cutting back the feed.
Lots of hill work and proper schooling rather than just exercise should help as until she lifts up she will remain with the rotund outline she has, it takes time to get the tummy up but she will look much better once she gets there.
 
The other option is to utilise the straw - if she eats it, let her and maybe substitute some of the the hay for it if soaking of hay isn't allowed. Could you reach a compromise with the YO/YM to soak the netted hay only?

Rinsed sugarbeet in small amounts is an option for feed :)
 
I would check she is not in foal for peace of mind before changing management then I would o the following...

a handful of speedi beet rinse to give supplements is plenty, carry a bucket and put her out with your youngster, stop doing all schooling in walk besides doing little for weight loss you must both be so bored-increase length and speed of hacks-if increasing speed is not your thing look for a local teenager that would like to hack or jump her twice a week. adlib hay from 8 till 5 is a lot of hay-my 15hh mare would eat a bale of hay in that time easy.
 
If not in foal:

speedibeet/fastfibre if you can get them over there instead of the grass nuts? I'd think even a small amount of rinsed molassed beet might be better

and your schooling sessions sound quite easy? so if your lungeing and hacking is similar I am guessing she isn't getting much canter work?

No option of having her on a track round the outside of the field (worked very well for us).

I'd also wonder where her ribs are in the pics - mine is always going to appear to have a belly in pics because he has rather wide ribs - He does always look better when fit and schooling properly as he gets more topline and holds himself more properly but condition scoring works better for him than photos for definite.
 
Oh stop it!!! ;) I'm not going to say it is impossible for her to be in foal, because there are breeding stallions at the stud where she came from (I think they have 3 Friesians) but any mating would certainly have been accidental, as breeding is generally a very organised thing in France. Even if she had been covered just before I bought her, she would be coming up 11 months now, surely her teats would be showing some change?

I'm going to go with saggy tummy unfit-nes. (she does show quite a significant ab line when she does tighten her muscles, but it doesn't lift her tummy any.)

OK, just for comparison, a phot from last May when she was heavier and vastly more unfit than she is today:
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Sorry didn't see your reply ester:

She gets ridden twice a week by someone other than me. So on a Monday she does 40 mins schooling in mainly trot and canter (nearly all canter most recently), and on a Friday she gets hacked which there is a lot of cantering and jumping whatever there is to jump in the forest.

Me, I'm in the middle of a crisis of confidence, so I'm not cantering at the moment, but I can certainly up the trot work. We've mainly been concentrating on walk work and keeping her on a contact and working properly, rather than inverting and rushing.

Just three months ago she could hardly canter in the school at all, and now she is doing figure 8s with a simple change. But she still finds it really difficult to canter on the lunge, so I'm wondering if something like an EquiAmi might help (normally I work pretty gadget free, not even a flash or a martingale).
 
She actually looks more soft than fat which suggests her stomach muscles need tightening so more work using her back and more fast work- things like trotting pole; pole corridors where each corridor requires 1,2 or three pace changes (these really help with impulsion and collection) and some hill work.
 
Sure imagine a 20x40 arena down the centre line set up a corridor of poles - about 1.5 metres wide - in total you'll need 6 poles. As you come round the corner past k or m or h or f turn body ready to come down the corridor. I aim to build up to 3 pace changes within the corridor so canter down, transition to walk half way down the corridor and back up to trot or canter by the time you've left. Or trot, down to walk then a square halt (the poles help you judge how straight the horse is- mine like to stand with his quaters slung to the left so the poles show this up) then walk to trot out. You can also use them as trotting poles if you come accross b -e. It's really good for balance on turns, straightness and impulsion hence all the tummy tightening :)
 
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