overweight & retired

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Dizzydancer

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Hi all,

I have a 16.2 IDxTB (in my avatar and pics in my album) he retired 3 years ago. He has arthritis in his fetlocks and he is overweight slightly...more a case of loss of muscle around his withers making his shoulders look fat!

He is out 24/7 on average grazing, due to his arthritis i would like him to loose some weight to maybe help his joints abit. although it is hard ground i think making him stiffer! He is currently fed a handful of happy hoof daily to have his bute in, and pollen supplement in. I cant reduce this and as its lami proof i figured best thing for him.

I ideally dont want him in throughout the day as he will get stiff. Any suggestions of how to make him loose weight?

Thanks :D
 
thats what i thought. that would be fine. the YO would be able to put it on when she checks in the morning and i could take it off when i go up about 4ish, so he would have it on about 9hrs during the day. Thanks x
 
Anyone able to reccomend a grazing muzzle?
I have seen the shires but that looks like it wont give access to much if any grass and also seen the greengaurd which looks good.
 
The only problem with that is he will probably spend the remaining hours catching up on his eating. Could you set up some tracks around the outside of his field so he moves around more to find grass?
 
he isnt thre greedy type but that is probably true and seeing his reaction to the nose net yesterday i think a muzzle will be v v stressful for him. I spoke to my YO yesterday and we have agreed to move him and his companion into the field with the friendly sheep who have eaten most of the grass! His companion is bing put into an area that is fenced off for a couple of hours for hay as she needs extra food and he doesnt. Hopefully the lack of grass will help, and even when it starts to shoot the sheepies tend to munch it quicker than the horses!! Fingers crossed that will work otherwise he will be having the perimeter that is a good idea!!
 
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