My horse is fat! Suggestions please?

tabithakat64

tabithakat64

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Fudge managed to maintain a healthy weight through the summer (470kg), in the last two months he has put on nearly 30kg.

He is not wearing a muzzle at the moment as he was trashing one a night and it just became too expensive (think £60 plus a week
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). We don't have isn't much goodness left in the grass but the horses are still finding enough to eat and we are not allowed to strip graze.

He is out over night as this seems to suit him and it suits my routine.
He is in for between 8 and 12 hours a day with two slices of hay and is only fed Baileys Lo-cal, a mug of Black Sunflower seeds and a tablespoon of salt.

He is worked between two and five times a week, with two hacks and also three schooling sessions (he usually sweats after these), this depends on my work commitments.

He is un-clipped and just turned out in a rainsheet no matter how cold and wet it is.

I will be trying to increase the length of our hacks and the amount of trotting and cantering and am going to half his ration of Lo-cal. He's not great to clip so I will only be doing this as a last resort. His hair is so thick you cannot find skin
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.

Can anyone suggest any other ways I can get him to lose this extra weight?

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This is Fudge a couple of weeks ago and yes, his front legs are standing in a hole.

*Cookies if you get this far
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The only thing you can do is up the level of worrk...make sure he is walking out at a good pace and using himself and increase the trotting work that you do. Could he go out 24/7 so that he gets more exercise that way?
I have the same problem with mine, only I can only ride at weekends. Although he is managing to loose some weight by being fed year old hay, being on a bare paddock and out 24/7.
 
George put on a bit of weight at the beginning of winter. His diet didn't really change and he was getting less grazing, but he was laying it down for winter.

I didn't clip until November and even then he only had a LW on.

He gets a uple of teeny soops of hifi lite and F4F each day (plus half a small cup of BOSS) and is on ad lib good quality hay from this year (we make our own). He has never looked so fit and trim and he doesn't get ridden as much as yours.

I would say he's layed down stores ready for the winter. Also, when he is out at night, is he out by himself or with just one or two other horses? As you keep your horse in a herd on a large field, your horse has access to a lot of grass when he is in there overnight and most of the others are in their stables.
 
I would give him a trace clip and keep rugging him as you are now. I would also stop feeding him salt and give him a salt lick (it's not good to force salt into their diet) I would cut out the seeds as they are very high in natural fats.

Obviously keep up the hard work as best you can, he looks like he needs to lose more than 30 kg
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but it's so difficult when they are bred to live on fresh air!
 
I would cut out the seeds & cut out the bailey's in favour of a different balancer - maybe top spec leisure or something. I found bailey's lo cal made my bailey fat & fizzy.

other than that just ride him more - can you leave him out 24/7?
 
good grief....saying he's fat is an understatement...

he's obese.

cut down to one flap, soaked to remove anything that may still be there.

and get a bag of happy hoof..1/2 scoop a day and add a multi vit supp...

and get the rug off him...he's enough fat on him to keep half a dozen ponies warm!!
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Check out the new Topspec Lite feed balancer - it states that it is the lowest calorie feed balancer on the market, and I have read (probably on here!) that the Baileys lo cal isn't as lo cal as you would expect!

I know how you feel though, our traditional is fat, lives out no rug, shares one bale of hay at night with another cob (all our grass has gone), and if he's fed it's Hifi lite and a bit of speedibeet. The vet said to give him a low trace clip and leave him unrugged (I've done this before, and he was fine) as he's too unfit to ride unclipped - he turns so sweaty it's revolting.
 
He is not obese - he is a native! Although to a TB person they all natives seem obese
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Anyway to make him lose weight you can either work him harder, make him use more energy to keep warm (clip), or cut out of food.

A mug of BOSS is not going to make too much difference, and I wouldn't cut down his hay (although if you could find some of last years, it would be poorer hay).

So being a lazy sod, I'd try the trace / belly clip and continue to rug him as you do. Also means you might be more inclined to work him harder as he won't become a sweaty betty!
 
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He is not obese - he is a native!

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i stand corrected!

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As a native owner myself, he does look very overweight but I will not be nasty about it as his owner is obviously wanting to do something about it!

As these native types do pile on the pounds so easily i think that the BSS could make a difference
 
I personally would drop the low cal balancer, and the sun flower seeds. I would replace it with something like HiFi Lite and a vitamin suppliment.

Don't rug him, although I appreciate that this can be difficult if you want to ride. And try and give him as much work as possible.

It's also important to try and eek out the small amount of hay he has through the day - so for instance a slice in the morning an hour or so after he comes in - and then another slice around lunch time. That can help with balancing the not much food intake, with enough food to not shut his system down.
 
I'd take him off lo-cal and use either topspec anti-lam or top spec lite. Take him off the sunflower seeds as well. soaking the hay is also a good idea but don't reduce his hay too much. Dont forget that a horse has a need to chew so could you get some straw to put in a hay net to keep him occupied. Failing that what about using a treat ball of some sort that he has to push around to get some fibre nuggets from.

Its always difficult with fatties but a balance can be achieved
Good luck
 
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He is not obese - he is a native

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Sorry, I disagree. He is very, very fat - native or not. And having owned one for 15 years feel very qualified to comment.

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A mug of BOSS is not going to make too much difference

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Again, I have to disagree. Native breeds like this live virtually on fresh air. Start feeding them something as high in fat and protein and BSS and the weight will pile on, and not come off.

Everything fed to this type of horse should low in fat and high in fibre. A diet this horse currently lacks.
 
Do you live anywhere near Fine_and_dandy? Just wondering if the mad woman on her yard had been feeding him when you're not looking!
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I would say increasing his exercise is your best bet, but it is tricky at this time of year. I would keep the rainsheet on though, you'll be spending more time grooming than riding otherwise. I think one section of hay whilst he's in will be ample for him.
 
Thanks for the advice, we already do lots of hill work and don't slop along whilst hacking. I've always thought stabling and getting him off the grass would be better than leaving him on it 24/7
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(he's out at night with three others).

I will also start soaking his hay and remove the BSS from his diet. His hay is from last years crop.

Unfortunately he wont eat a powdered vitamin and mineral supplement which is why he is on the lo-cal (I did lots of research before giving him this), he wont use a lick either.
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I guess I'm going to have to clip him as well.
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This is what he looked like a few months ago, the vet, farrier and saddler were all happy with his weight and this is what I would like to get back too or maybe a little thinner but with more topline.
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He has lost over 100kg since this photo was taken a couple of years ago.
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For those that have said he's fat, I know! Which is why I'm asking for advice
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He is far too fat enough though he is a native/cob type
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How big is he, tabithakat?

We had this constant battle with the mare in my sig. She wasn't as overweight as yours is now, but I do understand the struggle. She got absolutely s*d all to eat, except soaked hay, and it was still a battle. We always joked she was the equine version of me
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You'll get there.

It is such a nightmare this feeding lark; and it gets no easier when you've got a poor doer whose weight you can't seem to stabilise!

Grrrr.
 
soak hay for 8-12hours and feed it half half with straw.you can feed the same amount as you do now, but its calorific content will be much reduced.
cut out the sunflower seeds.feed just the miminum amount of braod spec mineral and vit suppliment-dont forget esp in summer he will get them from the grass.
what is the grass like?can you use a paddock with less or move somewhere the grass is poorer or fields are smaller?
good luck!
 
Personally I wouldn't want to cut his hay down anymore, they are grazer by nature so leaving him stood in for hours with nothing won't help. As some have suggested soak his hay for anything from 10-24 hours to remove all nutrients. Be sure to wash through before feeding it.

Perhaps re-evaluate your choice of balancers too...I must admit I didn't find baliey's lo-cal helped my fatty to lose the weight, we switched to top spec anti lami and it soon came off!

From this:
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From

To this:
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Keep fighting the flab!!
 
The hay soaking and splitting into two small hayledge nets and cutting out the BSS seeds started this morning
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I'm looking at either swapping to TopSpec Anti-lam or Equibites and have spoken to Baileys and have also reduced his Lo-cal to one mug a day for the moment.

I'm also going to try and squeeze in some lunging as well as increasing the duration of our hacks and schooling sessions.

Thank you everyone for your advice
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BTW I love your cob.
 
What lovely show condition
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There seems to be a lot of this about at present - loads of horses I know have actually put weight ON this winter!

All the balancers have calories in them, which a good doer will make the most off. You might be better swapping to a powdered supplement (NAF general supplement or similar) with a handful of HiFi Lite. Def get rid of the BSS.

I would also aim for a slimmer horse overall: The summer photos's you've posted still show an overweight horse. Not horrific, but plumper than I like to see for such a good doer.

Either taking the rug off, or clipping parts of him and leaving him in just a lightweight would be a good option.

The extra lunging will do him the world of good. It's a very good way to work them hard in a short time. Just make sure he's working correctly (try a pessoa or similar) as 10mins of correct work is much more hard work (and less damaging) than 20mins of apparently-going-fast-but-not-really-doing-anything-constructive work.
 
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