Mare with a big belly

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Cor

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Hi there,

My senior TB mare (i have had her for 2 years) has a very big belly. Unfortunately, I do not know her past as she was brought to the yard from where I bought her with not a lot of info on her background, medical history etc. I am not sure if she gave birth or not, but it seems she has...
She has hay 3 times a day, and twice a day feed consisting of nuts, chaff and sugar beet, with added joint supplement, vitamins and salt.
She is in a really good condition, shiny coat, teeth checked twice per year by a qualified dentist, dewormed every six months, she is exercised five times a week (including hack).
Can you please explain what causes or has caused this ? (tbh she was like this from the beginning... ) Anything i can add to her feeding plan, should I reduce her feed, any products on the market specifically used to tackle this....

Please offer your thoughts...
 
Some horses, like people, will carry their weight in the tummy especially after having a foal or two.
Diet will not really make much difference if she is not generally too fat everywhere else, it will be down to how she uses herself, does she work correctly lifting her back and so her abdomen when ridden. If not, which is more than likely, try and encourage her to do so, working long and low will encourage her to lift the back, plenty of steady work to increase her overall fitness and cantering actively, not fast but powerfully, will all help.
If she is older it may be that you cannot change her completely, a check by a physio may help get her back more loose and make things easier for her, feeding on the ground is helpful.
 
look up forage belly on google...does it look like that?

does the belly go down quite a bit after exercise?

there are various exercises you can do to work on tightening the tummy muscles but as someone else said...get a physio to assess first.

pre-cushing can make a tummy look worse...many horses have this and can be helped with agnus castus....total guess by the way...not suggesting your mare has this....again google it.
 
She does use her back correctly most of the time when being ridden.....

Some people suggested it could be worms?? Or sand???
 
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