Obese pony - will we ever get rid of the fat?!

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Frans

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We have a fat Welsh sec A on loan who was obese when she arrived and, after nine months, is still far fatter than she should be. I’m feeling totally disheartened, wondering whether we will ever get the weight off her and, if we do, will there ever be a time when we will be able to relax the regime and let her live a more normal life with the other ponies.
Upping her exercise any more is tricky, muzzles and starvation paddocks keep her from re-gaining the weight but haven’t helped much in getting it off. I could be more extreme ie even less food and, consequently, no company, but then we can forget the kids riding her as she is too hungry and bad tempered for them to handle happily (I tried it!). She is normally very nice natured. Alternatively we could accept her as she is now (BCS 4 maintained using a muzzle and restricted grazing) and hope that the winter will get rid of the rest.
She has never had obvious laminitis (we monitor her hooves and digital pulse constantly), though she has recently been quite footy when we had had a lot of rain.
Should we be testing for underlying health issue and would the results affect our treatment of her?
She is only six, lives out and has Lami-light as her only supplement. Our other ponies (smaller and larger) loose weight quickly if kept in the same conditions.
Help!
 
My fat Welsh sec B is having trouble losing his fat too. He lives off fresh air, and even though he's in a starvation paddock, what little grass there is is keeping him in good condition. He has no hard feed, and only get hay when he's in his box.
 
Why can you not give more exercise?
If you could incorporate some faster work , cantering on the lunge would do, this, if she is fit enough,would increase her metabolic rate and should aid weight loss.
Most small ponies, because they have less able riders, do not do enough faster work.It tends to be short trot/canters which does not really help with weight loss.
My vet has said that a good canter regularly would make all the difference for most ponies.
 
You will get there, but actually 9 months isnt that long, my friends connemara pony was huge, its taken about 2 years in all to get him down to a good weight (we had Spillers out who scored him at a perfect 5 recently - using the 1-9 scale)

His workload was up'ed big time, he's muzzled whenever turned out, and gets top spec top chop lite and only a very small haylage net (3kilos max) when stabled (currently in during the day)

Keep going, you can get there.
 
Why can't you increase the work load? Even if you could ride and lead her maybe when you ride your own horse, if the kids can't do anymore work with her, that would help.

Would it be possible to bring her in off the grass for a while each day? I always struggle with my horse's weight and getting him in each day does help. I'd bring her in with some soaked hay each day. Also if she is on a starvation paddock, the new grass coming through will be new shoots and I think will contain more sugar than you'd expect. If she can't come in then how about turnout during the day in, say, the arena with just soaked hay?
 
My pony who normally weigh 350- 380kg came back off loan with laminitis weighing 450kg.
First of all weigh every thing if not already, soak all hay or buy hay thats so old it has very little nutrition and feed a feed balancer. My top tip is to replace half the hay with straw and if you can not bare that replace with something like HiFi lite,which is basically chopped straw. The straw has very little energy in it much will stop her from feeling hungrey and getting crabby.
The weather is so warm and as they use most of their energy to keep warm its very difficult this time of year. When the colder weather comes do not increase her feed and if she still not losing weight I would be tempted to clip off her chest.
It took my mare 8 months of dieting and winter to lose hers, she spent most of the winter eating straw and a balancer, unrugged. She now lives out 24/7, no muzzle and is not over weight, gains a little over the summer and then lives out unrugged over the winter.
If you can get a small older rider to hack her out, I had a couple of girls when my kids were young ride in return I would take them to shows etc.
 
honetpot said:
My pony who normally weigh 350- 380kg came back off loan with laminitis weighing 450kg.
First of all weigh every thing if not already, soak all hay or buy hay thats so old it has very little nutrition and feed a feed balancer. My top tip is to replace half the hay with straw and if you can not bare that replace with something like HiFi lite,which is basically chopped straw. The straw has very little energy in it much will stop her from feeling hungrey and getting crabby.
The weather is so warm and as they use most of their energy to keep warm its very difficult this time of year. When the colder weather comes do not increase her feed and if she still not losing weight I would be tempted to clip off her chest.
It took my mare 8 months of dieting and winter to lose hers, she spent most of the winter eating straw and a balancer, unrugged. She now lives out 24/7, no muzzle and is not over weight, gains a little over the summer and then lives out unrugged over the winter.
If you can get a small older rider to hack her out, I had a couple of girls when my kids were young ride in return I would take them to shows etc.
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Good advice - my fatties were 1/2 and 1/2 hay and straw last winter, this summer they are on a starvation paddock with a straw net morning and evening - keeps tummies full without the calories - also its cheaper and easier than soaking hay!
 
I think the others have come up with some good sugestions..

Upping her exercise would be beneficial - can you add a few lunging sessions to her workload - or ride and lead if one of your others are being ridden?

Leaving unrugged in winter and on relatively poor grazing will also help - remember these ponies are bred to survive really harsh winters on the welsh mountains with very little quality forrage.
 
Could you do some hill work? My children's pony luckily doesn't get too fat but when he gets on the porky side I either ride and lead or put my trainers on and take a few gulps of the inhaler and stick the kids on and go walking up and down some big hills in the woods.

Good luck its great that he's stabilising I'm sure he'll start to shift some more soon
 
Thanks for the replies!
The problem with increasing excercise is time and facilities. She is taken out regularly but as ridden by a child its not intensive enough.
I lunge her irregularly - we lack a large enough flat area except in one field that is too far from home to take her to daily. If we graze the ponies there I lunge her but worry even more about the grazing which is predominantly rye grass - current solution muzzle her day and night until the others have cleared the section we use for schooling then leave her in there when its bare. The others then spend the day on the rest of the field and the night in with her. She gets the new shoots but comparitively few of them.
Closer to home we have to do very small circles on very uneven ground so worry about effect on joints if we work her too hard opn the lunge there. However we have better facilities for bringing her in off the grass and a better choice of grazing when she is out.
Taking her out myself is limited as I can't leave my kids alone and OH is working flat out. We also cut back recently because of the footiness.
Feel I'm going in circles with constant reasons why no solutions work. I could get up super early and work her before everyone else is up but feeling somewhat demotivated at the moment. Do not have my own ride at the moment so either have to take her in hand, lunge or borrow oldest daughters 13.2hh fore ride and lead.
If we get wieght off will it get any easier or will we be doing this for the rest of our lives?!

Ps- just rechecked the forum before submitting and saw the last two replies, thanks. Will go on a straw hunt!
 
You don't need to work her hard - walking her in hand for an hour every day will do wonders for you and her.

And I completely agree about the straw as a replacement for hay - brilliant idea.
 
Oops - thought I'd posted my last reply when I left my computer and now realise its only just gone up when I came back again.
Good news - we are in very hilly country so at least when she does go out its constantly hill work!
Me also very fit now as since I have no ride I accompany the kids everywhere on foot.
She is probably doing about an hour at least 5 days a week with a fair bit of trotting - sometimes more, occaisionally less.
The best news is that you are all giving me hope that if we keep going it will go eventually!
 
I ditto what others have said about weighing everything. If you don't, you have no idea what you are feeding. 1 leaf of hay can weigh anywhere from .5kg to 3kg.

You do get some ponies that are persistantly fatter and more difficult to keep than others. Our fell is the same. Did all of the above and she wasn't loosing weight. In these situations the vets have advised it is acceptable to drop hay rationing from 1.5% to 1% of their body weight. For a 400kg pony thats's only 4kg of hay across a 24 hour period. This should only be done for ponies that really are not losing weight on 1.5% though, so make sure you've tried this first.

Summer is always tough. We have two m&m ponies, a good doer connie and an obscenely good doer fell.

The connie is currently, I would say, about 3.5 on the weight scale. He has a good shoulder, but has a slight apple bum and a small crest. Considering it's the height of the summer I'm pretty pleased with this. His routine is as follows:

Ridden 6 times a week for 45mins to an hour.
Comes in around 8.30am to a feed of low cal balancer, chaff and a higher energy competition mix (which I have only just reluctantly started as his lack of energy was destroying both his and my enthusiasm for work), and a 1kg net of hay that has been soaked for at least 12 hours.
Goes back out around 6.30pm. He doesn't wear a grass mask as all the makes rub him terribly, preventing me from riding as he can't wear a bridle.

The fell pony injured her ligament this year. She had to be on box rest for 3 months. On this routine she had 4kg of soaked hay across a 24 hour period, three tiny feeds of chaff and balancer in order to get her joint supplement and was thoroughly miserable and grumpy. But, for the first time ever, she was the right weight.

She is now out in a paddock 24 hours a day as part of her treatment, and despite the fact it is small, she is gaining weight again. But we can't take her out, and the vet isn't overly concerned about it. Again we're talking about 3.5 on the scale so not terribly fat.

In winter both ponies will come in at night to small haynets, again that have been soaked overnight. They are fully clipped with minimal rugging - I look for them to be cool/lukewarm under their rugs - so that they burn their own fat to keep warm. Some people might consider this cruel, but that is what the fat is stored for in the first place and neither have shown any ill effects from this routine for the last 4 years.

Winter will be your friend for this pony I suspect. If you can up the exercise that would be helpful. If not, soldier onwards and wait for the colder months.

A final tip. Take weekly photos. She may be losing more than you think; it's very easy not to notice minute changes when you see them every day. A weekly comparison shot will allow you to notice changes to her shape.

It's also worth baring in mind that as she works more she may be gaining muscle, which will throw a reading on the scales off as it weighs more than fat, so compensates weight wise for the fat lost.

good lcuk! It's not an easy task!
 
And I'm afraid this is it for the rest of your lives together. My vet uses the phrase 'it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle choice'. I also find thinking of it this way helps, as it doesn't have the negative connotations of diet; you don't feel like you're denying the pony things.

What I can promise you is that as you get your yearly routines in place, it does get easier.

Also, try not to beat yourself up too much! There's so much bad press at the moment aboutfat horses it makes those of us who are trying but not completely suceeeding feel like the worst owners in the world, when the very fact we're trying so hard argues against that.
 
MissSBird said:
And I'm afraid this is it for the rest of your lives together. My vet uses the phrase 'it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle choice'. I also find thinking of it this way helps, as it doesn't have the negative connotations of diet; you don't feel like you're denying the pony things.

What I can promise you is that as you get your yearly routines in place, it does get easier.

Also, try not to beat yourself up too much! There's so much bad press at the moment aboutfat horses it makes those of us who are trying but not completely suceeeding feel like the worst owners in the world, when the very fact we're trying so hard argues against that.
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Thank you!
 
have you tried a track system, very easy to put up, and you can do it in a small area i do it on a 2/3rd acre paddock. all you need is to put a run of electric tape pref round the edge of the paddock or just one or two sides, you then leave the pony there. water at one end and soaked hay at the other if needed. and then they walk more, it is far better than a small diet square. mine stay on the edge and then i take the tape down in the winter and they have the whole bit if the ground goes wet.

oh and i agree about clipping at not rugging, mine even in the snow had a chase clip and no rug, was warm as toast and the weight stayed off
 
horses/ponies retain their weight if they are starved, or not given enough to sustain a healthy balance, so any horse/pony that is out 24/7 is going to put on weight and/or maintain its weight what you need to do is turn it out during the night without a muzzle and bring it in during the day with just a h/ful of hay to chomp on. Lots of walking exercise will also get the weight off but it needs to be a good walk not a stroll. How many people do you know that are on diet and they say they have eaten nothing but cant shift the weight then there are those that eats quantities of the right stuff and exercise and lose weight.
 
Thank you to everyone who replied. I’m mainly a lurker who has learnt a tremendous amount from reading other peoples’ posts but who rarely feels qualified to post responses myself. Now that I fully appreciate how helpful it is to have your problems acknowledged and supported and to have people who take the time to pass on their experience, I’ll make more of an effort in future.

Meantime your support has given me the boost I need to keep working on all the possible solutions and to focus on the long-term. I had really underestimated how difficult it would be to slim her down and expected results much more quickly. By next year we should have put various things in place that will make this easier to manage and for now we are at least headed in the right direction. In fact this evening someone commented on how our fatty is looking much better so I guess we’re not doing as badly as I felt!

Thanks again!
 
The hardest part is always getting the weight off. Once it's at a more ideal weight it should be easy to keep it there. I know you've mentioned lack of facilities, but finding somewhere to do faster work will really help. Remember canter burns calories, whereas trot defines muscle!
 
Ad lib barley straw and 10 - 20 minutes a day hard exercise in the round pen worked for one of my fatties. Since I have this year's problem mares on very restricted grass and no work, I don't think progress has been nearly as good.
 
Hedwards said:
You will get there, but actually 9 months isnt that long, my friends connemara pony was huge, its taken about 2 years in all to get him down to a good weight (we had Spillers out who scored him at a perfect 5 recently - using the 1-9 scale)

His workload was up'ed big time, he's muzzled whenever turned out, and gets top spec top chop lite and only a very small haylage net (3kilos max) when stabled (currently in during the day)

Keep going, you can get there.
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I agree 9 months is not very long. It has taken us 2 years to get Fany's weight to an acceptable state.Fany was very obese when we bought her( ex- show horse and brood mare and a draught, so she was a very big girl! When she was vetted the only issue raised was her weight)

She is back in work now, but previously she has been turned away due to ill health, mine not hers.

Fany is fed no hard feed,very little haylage when she is in, although at present she is out 24/7 in a fairly sparse paddock. She is unrugged at all times, even when she was turned out in the snow.And it has still taken us 2 years to get the ok from the vet. The only thing we did not try was a muzzle, they don't make them big enough.

So you will get there, but just like humans weight doesn't just fall off plus it is as unhealthy for a horse to lose it too quickly as it is for humans. Slowly but safely is the way, in my opinion.

FDC
 
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