New horse overweight - advice please

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CobsGalore

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So I picked up my new horse on Saturday and he is settling in nicely.

Only problem is that he is pretty overweight and I'm not sure how drastically I should be acting on this.

He is turned out 24/7 on good grazing but I will be upping his workload from what he was doing at his previous home. I will also be under rugging him as the weather gets cooler.

He was, however only out in the field during the day at his previous home, and came in at night with a haynet.

Should I be rushing out to get a grazing muzzle or fencing off a smaller part of the field for him, or can I expect him to lose the weight gradually as I up his work load?
 
I would say that having him out 24 hours and upping his workload may enable him to maintain his weight as he is now and you obviously want him to lose some. Fence him off and muzzle him? Muzzle him 24 hours a day until you see his weight begin to come off and then rethink his management? Have him in at night with chooped straw and soaked hay?

In my experience my good doer loses with a combination of muzzle, work and being in at night.
 
Miss L Toe said:
I would stable him with a soaked haynet, daytime or overnight, add mins and vits to support his system, feed only Fast fibre as a short feed. no pony nuts or molasses.
Plenty of walking roadwork.
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Unfortunately I don't have access to a stable, so if I need to limit his feed intake then it would need to be a muzzle or fencing off a smaller area for him.
 
It is said that you aren't supposed to leave a muzzle on for 24 hours but I know that many people do. They do break fairly easily if a horse should get it caught but I would think about hazards carefully. Lots of people have no problems at all. I would say as long as the horse gets at least two or three hours with it off per day and you look for rubs then he should be ok. Nice for them to have a break while you are grooming riding etc.
 
24/7 on good grazing will make pretty much ANY horse fat, even with plenty of exercise! So either reduce the grass or reduce the time. He'll still need friends though (and socalising burns off calories) so fencing him off by himself won't help much.
 
Thanks, will definitely be getting him a muzzle tomorrow and seeing how he gets on with that. If that doesn't work then I will fence off an area for him and another good doer.

When you muzzle/increase exercise how soon do you see a difference on the weight tape?
 
I take Shy to the vet for proper weigh ins every six month, and go from there. I would diet him quite slowly, the best advice I can give is to switch to a barefoot diet (soaked hay, ad lib - grazing muzzle). if you feel he has to have feed, I am using Top Spec Light on my good doer, and it is fantastic - can't recommend it highly enough. :)
 
You will be amazed what a horse can get down it's gullet when the muzzle's off :eek: May as well not put one on, to keep the grazing intake even. As he's out, you may be better to leave the muzzle on full time, with a few hours off for work, etc when you are there. Shy's muzzle has been rubbing a bit atm (just bought a new Dinky one to replace it), but there is no way I would let him out without one on - I'd rather keep him in, poor lad. But he will just gorge, and all that grass intake so quickly, god only knows what it'd do..........urgh.

The other idea is to strip graze ? :)
 
Word of warning- while you may not want an unhappy horse, it is FAR better to be ultra cautious. Your new horse has had a change of home/environment/owner/field companions/exercise/routine etc. Coupled with lush grass and 24 hour turnout, be ALERT as the changes can trigger laminitis. Don't starve him,obviously, but I would be looking to reduce the time at grass,or get the muzzle asap.
I say this with experience as, sadly I was caught out. My new mare-who came to me very overweight- inspite of restricting grass,and being careful, went down with stress induced laminitis,due to the upheaval.She is a stressy type Welsh D which probably didn;t help, but having had horses over 35 years, it still caught me out.
 
Spottyappy said:
Word of warning- while you may not want an unhappy horse, it is FAR better to be ultra cautious. Your new horse has had a change of home/environment/owner/field companions/exercise/routine etc. Coupled with lush grass and 24 hour turnout, be ALERT as the changes can trigger laminitis. Don't starve him,obviously, but I would be looking to reduce the time at grass,or get the muzzle asap.
I say this with experience as, sadly I was caught out. My new mare-who came to me very overweight- inspite of restricting grass,and being careful, went down with stress induced laminitis,due to the upheaval.She is a stressy type Welsh D which probably didn;t help, but having had horses over 35 years, it still caught me out.
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Yes, this is at the fore front of my mind. I just want him to be a healthy weight and lower risk for lami.
 
This is him, taken today -
1bb66f696130ed02c76e9172dde6f812.jpg
 
If you've got the option of restricted grazing with another horse he likes, I'd choose that over a muzzle. They find it hard to socialise with a muzzle on (can't groom properly) and if you do take it off for a couple of hours they usually gorge themselves and undo it all. With restricted grazing (in a track round the outside if poss so they can walk about) they can stay there 24/7,socialise and play and you could supplement straw/hay easily
 
He looks lovely. Not as overweight as mine was,however- I have never been able to post photos here, so can't do that.
Your grass also looks less lush than mine,but there is alot of it,and with the changeable weather over the past few days, the sugars in the grass are likely to change.
 
He doesn't look too bad and I'd be happy if he stayed at that (although loosing a bit won't hurt ). But if that pic representative of the grass he's on 24/7 he's going to be whale like in no time :eek:
 
Kallibear said:
If you've got the option of restricted grazing with another horse he likes, I'd choose that over a muzzle. They find it hard to socialise with a muzzle on (can't groom properly) and if you do take it off for a couple of hours they usually gorge themselves and undo it all. With restricted grazing (in a track round the outside if poss so they can walk about) they can stay there 24/7,socialise and play and you could supplement straw/hay easily
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I also strip graze- but still got caught out. Like you, Kallibear, prefer it to a muzzle where possible.
 
At the moment, he has a shires muzzle (cob size). At first it rubbed behind his chin, so I used cut up pieces of vet bed (or any thick fleece material will do), super glued some velcro in place, and put that on - voila !

But the muzzle (a year later) is at the end of it's life, and is starting to crack at the front, and rub his nose. Whoever invents a non rubbing muzzle will be a millionaire ! Anyway, just ordered one of these ;

http://www.tackandturnout.co.uk/epa...xscu/Categories/10_Grazing_Muzzle/Muzzle_Info

and going to try that. Shy had a minor lami scare last year, happened in a matter of 12 hours, and luckily I got him to the vet in time to confirm it. He will never go out without a muzzle now, the poor boy, but he's stabled at night so it's different.
 
I think it depends on the quality of your grass. Long doesn't necessarily mean lush. I doubt if that grass has been fertilised in years, so it shouldn't really be dangerous for him, there is a good variety of grasses and other plants for him to graze selectively. Yes he is a bit overweight but not obese imo.

My mare came to us obese in January last year. She has been on a diet ever since and is steadily losing weight - we monitor her weight with a tape weekly, as although they do not give an accurate weight, they do allow you to see weight gain/loss.

This summer she has been out 24/7 with no muzzle, unrugged in all weathers, on old pasture, which is cross-grazed with sheep. Unfortunately she hasn't had much exercise as I was advised not to ride for sevearl weeks by a physio. However she has maintained her steady weight-loss - about 1 cm each week (she's so big we haven't got her down to the weights on the tape yet).
I'd be very wary of leaving a muzzle on 24/7 but can't see the point of taking it off, as he WILL gorge when given the chance. Could you organise a track system to limit his access to grass?
 
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