Overwieght Youngster

madhector

madhector

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I am really stuck as to what to do about my 3yr olds waistline. He is a welsh A, and seems to survive off thin air. He has a wolf tooth that we are getting taken out in the spring and then serious work begins. In the mean time I really need to get a bit more weight off him!

He is in at night, has 2 slices of soaked hay, is out all day on a starvation paddock, has a handful of chaff with his vitamins in, and is still putting on weight. The only thing I could think of was to lunge him, but I really don't want to do too much of this as he is still very young and I don't think it does their legs any good at this age.

So any ideas? maybe he should join weight watchers
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2 slices of soaked hay? Our 17hh boy only gets 2 slices at night. Can you not cut the hay down a bit? Other than that more exercise. Can you loose school rather then lunge?
 
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2 slices of soaked hay? Our 17hh boy only gets 2 slices at night. Can you not cut the hay down a bit? Other than that more exercise. Can you loose school rather then lunge?

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Mine only gets two sections aswell. 3 if he is going to a comp the next day!He is 15.3hh.
I would cut the hay down to 1 section and perhaps replace it with a low weight gaining food! Im not sure which though.
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I feed ad lib hay - except with my Section A. Like yours she puts on weight just by looking at the food and I felt awfully mean giving her a tiny armful of hay (big bales so can't measure in slices). Any more though and she just ballooned. I used to split it and give one half when the others had their haynets first put in and the rest when I went out later to check them so that she at least had two goes at it.
 
LOL - we have 4 shetlands and they are out on very, very short, but green grass during the day and come in to shavings beds and a water bucket (full of.... water
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) overnight and that's it!! We were giving them a handful of hay, but the FAT pads on them were scary!! This is on the advice of the vet!! They are now healthy, fluffy ponies! It goes against the grain a little, for me to leave horses/ponies overnight with nothing, but they really are better for it!
 
How do you feed the hay, is there anyway of slowing him down eating it so you can then cut down to 2 slices, maybe double or triple netting it in haylage nets? That way it would then hopefully last.
 
Is it oat staw you can feed for bulk but that has not much value in it? Perhaps that and his 1 piece of hay? (If it isn't oat straw its some other type of straw so don't all jump on me!!) I had a little riding school years ago and I used to feed oat (?) straw to the ponies to keep them munching in the winter but to keep the weight off.
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Really? I have always fed adlib hay, so its very hard for me to just give him 2 slices! Jerry has 3 and there is always a bit left in the morning, Hector used to have 5
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Given that the hay is soaked I really don't see what's wrong with giving him 2 slices as most of the nutritional value will have been taken out of it
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Therefore can't see the point in replacing it even if you fed something like Good Doer you'd just be swapping like for like, plus it'd be way more expensive
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SWUO gets 2 slices a night if in, Lukey gets 4!!
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Loose schooling and walking in hand(we used to power walk Jelly which made us puff harder than her
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) would be how I'd manage his weight.
SWUO gets 2 slices a night, Lukey gets 4
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SWUO gets 2 slices a night, Lukey gets 4
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Blimey! I wish I could get some of the TB's I'm prepping atm to eat even 2 slices of hay a night, let alone FOUR!!!
 
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SWUO gets 2 slices a night, Lukey gets 4
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Blimey! I wish I could get some of the TB's I'm prepping atm to eat even 2 slices of hay a night, let alone FOUR!!!

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Hector used to eat 2 slices of haylege (the huge big square bales) a night and still ask for more
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He still never got much wieght on him though
 
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SWUO gets 2 slices a night, Lukey gets 4
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Blimey! I wish I could get some of the TB's I'm prepping atm to eat even 2 slices of hay a night, let alone FOUR!!!

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PMSL! If you want video evidence of Greedy Guts Lukey in action I'm sure I can sort something out
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he has it on the floor as trying to build his neck up correctly (he was getting quite a big muscle under his neck when he has a net)

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I split Jelly's, half on the floor, and half in a haylage net....not sure if that would be a reasonable compromise?
 
Is he bedded on straw? In which case, that will explain the weight gain (I've been there, done it with a NF pony lol). Unfortunately there will be no option but to put him on shavings and be prepared for a few messy days as he sulks...
 
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