Over-Eater

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Brontegirl

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I have a 7 year old Irish Cob Gelding. He lives out all of the time but won't stop eating! He is fit and can do 4 classes of jumping without even breaking a sweat and trot for miles out on the roads but he just doesn't seem to loose any fat because of this over-eating. I had to resort to using a grazing muzzle out in the field to try and stop the amount he eats, but this seems to make him dive for the nearest bit of grass when im riding him out. He will always look in your hands for pieces of food even though we never feed him treats by hand. We had a spinotherapist out to see him to make sure he wasn't in any pain or anything and she said he was sore because of these fat pads he has! He goes on a walking machine whenever possible for an hour on the high setting and i trot him for hours to try and get the weight off him. He is wormed regularly, none of the other cobs in the field seem to have this problem even though they are of a similar build!
Any suggestions would be most appreciated!
 
Do you feed him any supplements??

Had an interesting chat as part of my UKNHCP course with a farrier - he said that he thinks a lot of these 'greedy' horses are just nutritionally starved, having to eat vast amounts, because they are being kept on crap, monoculture grazing and cannot get the minerals that they crave....
 
also, if he is that fat, and the weight is not coming off - I would seriously suggest having a chat to your vet about metabolic syndrome...especially if the fat pads are around the top of his tail, shoulders and he has a cresty neck...
 
He's not over eating - he's just doing what comes naturally.

Can you stable him during the day or evening and feed straw and last year's hay instead of allowing him to graze continually?
 
I have considered the fact that he's not getting enough suppliments, the grass he is on is quite sparse so he has some mineral licks and things like that, the fat pads are just around his shoulders. I have thought about stabling him at night but he will wolf down a haynet i give him in about half an hour and then have to stand with nothing for the night, which i've been told isn't great as when they have nothing to eat for a long time they go into starvation mode and try to conserve as much fat as possible,the opposite of what we want. We had him vet-checked not too long ago and he said that he is perfectly healthy. I suppose it might be what comes naturally to him but none of the other cobs of his build seem to be so desperate to eat as him.
Thanks
 
Hi just a thought as I too have a guzzler who eats twice as fast as my mare - I understood that for fat burning alot of fast walk and hill work in walk was good rather than trot

It also may be my imagination but my chap has started to lose his fat pads a bit since I put him on topspec low cal - this has hardly any calories but all the vits etc.

one other suggestion is to use a track system round the edge of the field (i know this is not always possible) - if he is kept of very small area he wont be getting enough exercise when grazing.

On the up side ! at least these types are cheap to feed through the winter ----- I am determined to use the winter to get the last of the fat off my chap ! no feeds apart from topspec - loads of exercise and not too heavy a rug !!! - I am a mean mommy !
 
I would definately start feeding him a balancer or a vit and min supplement - even better get your hay and grass analysed and get a mineral analysis! I really do believe with these fat greedy horses that they are nutritionally starved, so yes they will hold on to fat and eat and eat and eat, because what they are eating, just isn't giving them any nutritious value - calories, yes, but essential vits and mins no...I specifically thinking rye grass which is unfortuantely abundant in our horse pastures and is so so unsuitable!!

I would also vouch for the track system that meesha mentioned (also called 'paddock paradise, but that's a bit too American for me!). We have one going round our fields - the fatties go on that. It keeps them moving but also restricts their grass intake - whereas putting him in a small 'starvation' paddock won't encourage him to move.

You are perfectly right in what you say about not feeding him - under no circumstances should a horse be starved. Not only will he probably hold on to fat stores...but horses secrete gastic acid all the time, unlike humans who secrete in anticipation of a meal. Therefore if there is no saliva or food to buffer this acid, you can run in to problems with ulcers and even colic.

If you think about it logically - all these diets for humans, positively encourage fat people to eat little and often, not starve themselves....that's what you need to do with your horse :)
 
Hi I think its just the type of horse, my cob cross is the same, food obsessed :D She never stops eating in the field even if left out all the time and in the stable is never happy unless she has lots of food. This time of year is the hardest to keep her in trim I find. I have reduced the size of her grazing space with electric tape and now bring her in overnight. I soak her hay to remove the sugars so that she can have more volume and I break the hay down into 2 portions....1 at 7pm and the other at 10pm. she is then turned out again at 7am. She also has a mineral and vitamin supplement. This regime is working for her, she's not massive but she would be if she was out 24/7. Looking forward to the winter so I can stop worrying about her weight!
 
Apparently magnesium can help them to break down fat deposits. I feed mine blue chip lami-light which has all the vitamins and minerals in including magnesium especially for fatties. It might be worth shopping around to see if there is a cheaper balancer which does this though as blue chip is dear - personally I feed it because mine has had a bout of laminitis so I like to give her the hoof supplement as well as the vitamins in it.
I would also agree with the previous poster who suggested getting him tested for EMS and Insulin Resistance.
I know you said you muzzle him but they can eat a lot through a muzzle. Greenguard only reduces it by 33% I think - can you keep him in half the time and give him hay that's been soaked for 24 hours to take the calories out?
Well done on the exercise and good luck on figuring out a diet that works for your horse!
 
You could also try double netting his hay nets (and using small holed ones) so that it takes him longer to eat his hay.
 
annagain said:
You could also try double netting his hay nets (and using small holed ones) so that it takes him longer to eat his hay.
Click to expand...


All good suggestions. We are giving our fatties straw at the moment to keep their fibre intake up and tummies full. They are on a long thin bare starvation paddock. Straw is not so tasty as hay so doesnt get woolfed down as quickly. In the winter we turn out with no rugs to khelp use up those pesky calories.
 
A bit of an aside, but I am convinced there are some horses/ponies with an eating disorder in that, as the OP has observed, they simply can't stop eating. I also believe it is, at least, partly genetic. It may be that they tend to get obese so have been starved in the past and so become obsessive about eating in order to store up body fat against a possible food shortage in the future. So better to never let them get fat in the first place so drastic measures can be avoided.

Unfortunately, the tendency to put up fat ponies over lean ones in shows will exacerbate the problem, if it is indeed genetic, as it tends to be the show winners that are bred from.

I have at least one obsessive eater and another who never gets excessively fat whatever grazing he has, but isn't too lean either. I know which is easier to live with!

Just a passing thought!
 
Take a look at Dodson & Horrell's website and also at World Horse Welfare's website. Both do some great info/tips for fat scoring and helping fat horses/ponies achieve a healthier weight. Look up their info on managing laminitis too, because it'll all be relevent whether or not your cob has had lami.

I'm finding that feeding soaked oat straw is proving to be just about the only way I can get weight off my nonworking good doer, and it's helping the rest of the gang to trickle feed even if they've finished off their soaked hay quite quickly through double nets.

It's recognised that although horses/ponies have an average appetite of 2.5% body weight, it can vary widely with individuals, with some eating around 5% of body weight a day.......... so it's no surprise that we find it difficult to keep the weight off those ones.

There's one high fibre, low calory feed I'm trying at the moment: Allen and Page's Fast Fibre which has to be soaked. It's got a very low digestible energy so allows the ponies to top up on fibre but without the calories. I think it's going to be useful for my gang. It's significantly lower in DE than unmolassed sugar beet or alfalfa/sugarbeet.

But mainly I found the WHW and D&H sites most useful. Oh, those and trying to maintain work even in bad weather so we don't miss too many days of calory burning!

Sarah
 
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