Overweight pony

[lucyannhuxter]

I am literally at my wits end! I don't know what else to do, please help. I have a 6 year old, 14.3hh Connemara Mare, that I have had since she was 2 years old. When I bought her, she was on the round side, and I thought this was due to her having been out with unlimited grazing. However, having now had her for 4 years, I now realise that she has a serious problem!
She goes out for approx 8 hours a day, with a grazing muzzle on at all times, she is exercised every day (either ridden or lunged, perhaps one day off a week), she has 6kg of hay a day, SOAKED, and one small handful of happy hoof a day, just to make her feel as though she has had something when the others are fed. I only use Baileys high fibre nuggets for treats, and she is not unfit. She is still massive! I am almost embarrassed to take her anywhere public as I am sure people are judging me for over feeding her. Even had someone I know stop me in the road when I was riding commenting how fat she is.
What else can I do?

 

[be positive]

I would turn her out for longer so she is moving about more and reduce the hay, if she went out overnight she could be in during the day with far less hay and being out in the cooler nights may also help with the weight loss, you have missed the chance to get her weight down over the winter so you need to get really tough now, increase her exercise, if you can do twice a day that is useful, lunging is probably not the best way to exercise her except as an addition to ridden work, unless she is really active she just won't do enough to burn the calories that she will doing an hour or two hacking or in a good schooling session although if you are limited for time it is better than nothing.
If she was out more you will have less mucking out to do so that time can be spent riding her, she doesn't need treats and if she does get a handful of feed make sure it is just that not a double handful because she looks longingly at you, you need to be tough for her own sake.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would turn her out for longer, muzzled and bring her in to oat straw chaff rather than hay. I wouldn't give her Happy Hoof, it is molassed. I would be extremely sparing with treats.

Next winter, I would give her a small amount of hay (no need to soak) and let her fill up on oat straw chaff, my Draft mare lost loads of weight on this regime.

 

[JFTDWS]

Variations on the above, really - out more, less hay - I cut hay with straw, but unmolassed straw chaff is the other option - and work her as much as you can. Honestly, I find work is the best way to do it, for a horse which can take it - a combination of fast work and long, slow fitness work.

 

[Shay]

Like humans - less feed , more exercise. There is no such thing as "fat" genes. (I wish!) The only thing I would add to what the others have said is let her get cold. Difficult at the moment of course but be sure not to rug at night or for summer rain. Horses burn calories to keep warm so allowing them to be naturally chill can really help. One reason why weight loss is easier in the winter.

 

[MeloveHoofLongTime]

All sound advice, the more moving the better

 

[Honey'sMum]

I had a similar problem to you with my old Sec D. He would only have to look at grass and he would put weight on! I clipped him out during the winter months and didn't over-rug him and he was still on a restricted diet during the winter. He was lean and mean by the end of the winter lol. When he did put a bit of weight on in the spring I wasn't overly concerned but as soon has he got a little round, he was in by day out by night on poor grazing. I found this was better than muzzling him as he would get any muzzle off in the hedgerow. I also found by working him faster (not galloping) he slimmed down. We would do lots of slow canter work where possible then periods of walk/trot then canter again. Having a good doer is really difficult - I'm having horrendous problems with my daughter's pony at the moment who is too small for me to ride but he's not getting enough work so he's looking rather chubby Best of luck and I feel your pain.

 

[scats]

I feel your pain, I’m in a similar situation but limited as mine cannot work much more than a short walking hack.

What is your grazing like? Even through a muzzle, they can consume a lot, particularly the greedier types. So if your grazing is good, the pony could still be consuming a fair amount. Can you move to a balder field or even pen yours into an area that has been grazed down further but still has enough to get through the muzzle hole?

Mine was out for 8 hours unmuzzled (removes them in record time) in a small area and in to 3kg of hay the rest of the time and as much chopped straw as she wanted to fill up on. Unfortunately she’s still not losing weight as our grazing is justtoo good, so she’s now being penned into a smaller area and will be out overnight and in during day with 1kg of hay and chopped straw.

 

[supsup]

I think you need to come up with a system where you have more nearly full control over her feed intake. I suspect she's still getting quite a lot of grass through the muzzle. I would try to turn her out in a small, as bare as possible paddock by herself (without muzzle), instead of muzzled in the big field. If they get along, you could put one of the other horses in with her on a rota to keep her company, or else tape her muzzle shut (or nearly shut) and turn her out for an hour or two with the herd for company, before putting her back into her own paddock.

I also suspect that the 6kg soaked hay are still too much on top of grass. Soaking reduces the sugars somewhat, but much of the calories actually come in the form of fibre in the hay, which isn't affected by soaking. So, soaking is only moderately effective for reducing overall calories (though it does reduce sugars). For reference, my 14.1h/380kg pony kept his weight on 6kg (unsoaked) hay, no other feed or grass. I'm guessing the 6kg soaked hay would be just about right for your mare on a weight loss programme if she didn't have any additional feed or grass, but she does. (I'm guessing, since I don't know her weight. I wouldn't go under 1.5% current body weight, or 2% or target bodyweight to start with.)

If you put her in her own, bare paddock (keeping in mind, there will still be some grass growing through), you also have the opportunity to keep track of the number of droppings she produces per day. I find this is a very good way of keeping track of fibre intake when you can't fully control how much grass they eat. Via trial and error, I have found that my gelding keeps his weight ok in the spring if I reduce is grazing to a point where he is down to about 8 droppings/day. Any more, and he puts on weight. If he produces less, I know he needs more fibre going through. It's also possible to tell by texture/colour whether intake is mostly from hay, or whether fresh green grass is playing much of a role!
I'd probably start her on 1.5% of current bodyweight in soaked hay, split between bare paddock and stable, and monitor her weight and poos for two weeks. If she's not losing, reduce the hay a bit further.

 

[MillionDollar]

I have 3 out 24/7 in Greenguard grazing muzzles and it works a treat. Just make sure the grass is a few inches long. They are moving and grazing constantly, but the muzzles reduce intake by 75%. Only thing I've found to really work!