Pony weight loss timeline

st_marks

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Just vetted a lovely pony who the vet had nothing but good things to say about except... they reported pony at an 8 BCS. They saw no indicator of laminitis, IR, or metabolic concerns. (We did radiograph hooves and those looked fine, I will run blood panels for metabolic issues when she arrives if we purchase).

I'm waiting to hear back from my vet who is reviewing the report, but thought this forum would have some ideas on the potential timeline to get her down to a healthy weight if I do go forward.

She's currently in very light work (20 - 30 min twice a week was reported, I assume this is a bit exaggerated) and seller says she drops weight quickly when in more work.

I have no grass or pasture (desert climate!) and already keep all ponies on the "pony diet" - teff hay in slow feed nets, no hard feed, no sugar. I do have the bandwidth to keep her in work 5 to 6 days per week when she is fit enough to handle it.

Should I be thinking 6 months here? A year? Usually mine arrive skinny, not fat, so this is not my area of expertise.
 

Midlifecrisis

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The Body condition score index only goes to 5 ??? or has it been updated and I’ve missed the memo?…which is entirely possible.
 

rabatsa

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The Body condition score index only goes to 5 ??? or has it been updated and I’ve missed the memo?…which is entirely possible.
There are two tables the one you know which goes to 5 and the one I use which goes to 9. The one to 9 gives a more accurate reading to my mind.
 

st_marks

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Depends on how much she has to lose. Pony at my yard has had to lose weight fast due to lami. So she gets 6 kg per day in small double netted nets. She has lost 20kgs in a month.

Thank you! She's 325 kg at 13hh if I got the conversion right so... she's got some weight to drop. But 20 kg in a month sounds more promising than what I was envisioning!
 

MiJodsR2BlinkinTite

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TBH I think your vet is the best person to talk to right now if you decide to go ahead with this pony.

My then vet was very concerned about my old gal a couple of years back as she was morbidly obese. We were Strip-grazing at the time and that wasn't sufficient to control her weight. She couldn't be ridden due to trigeminal nerve headshaking and we couldn't use exercise to control her weight. So he put her on a 1% of bodyweight over 24hrs diet. This was radical, and what we did was to divvy up her hay portion into little "hay-balls" and fed them to her over the period, spaced out so she was never more than 4hrs max without food (to protect against ulcers). She was also later on allowed a pocket-sized portion of turnout (and I mean pocket-sized: i.e. about the space of two loose-boxes, that is all). I sent her away to a friend's yard who has experience of dealing with this sort of weight-loss issue as knew I'd find it very hard to do it myself. It is always difficult when it is "your" horse, right..........

After this we converted our paddocks to a Track system which we still have in place; my current cob is a good doer and this is the only way we can keep her weight at the correct level. Currently we are also feeding ad-lib hay in nets - at multi-levels. In the winter months we find we feed less hay as the grass is not so rich - unlike everyone else who actually feeds MORE hay in the winter months, we don't!! You have to get your head around the Track system...... but once you do, you do find it is excellent at managing weight issues.

My pony has been coughing on-and-off this year and a recent scoping indicating asthma. She hadn't had much exercise at all, and we were concerned about her weight, so for this last month of July on vet's advice and also from an endurance friend who is used to conditioning horses, we have been working in walk only; and by "walk" I mean a good swinging forward walk, not dawdling on a loose rein. You need to really FEEL the horse moving from behind and fully engaging; ask a friend to go behind and watch you is the best thing as you really need to see and feel the "hip swing". We have been aiming to do about an hour a day of pure walk. Horse should have a gentle warmth on return from exercise, not necessarily sweating at such, but almost breaking-out, if that makes sense. We have done very very little trot, if at all. This is for a month.

Our plan was to have done a little more fast work for August however the ground is like rock at the moment so we will need to be very careful as even if we were to box out anywhere, it is the same everywhere, so we will probably introduce a little trot - say 10 paces of trot and 10 paces of trot - really working into the transitions. Also apparently downhill work is MORE advantageous for fittening for humans than uphill work is...... so that is something to bear in mind.

A good idea might be to perhaps get onto one of the Endurance-riding groups and lurk and/or ask a question: as these are people who are experts at getting horses in condition and they'd be able to advise you.

Hope this helps.
 
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rabatsa

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Going back 50 years a local butcher bought a morbidly obese pony for his daughter. The vet gave them a rollcking and an exercise plan which started with 100yd in hand walks, 10 days later the pony was taken for a 200yd walk and died from a heart attack.
 

Goldenstar

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Blue my big cob so a horse not a pony has lost 180 kilos since he arrived it’s taken nearly two years . I will have had him two years by the end of September.
 

Peregrine Falcon

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When my son's first pony, 11.2hh, arrived in August she was nearly 300kg, looked like she'd swallowed another pony. We stripped 70kg off her over the winter.
 

holeymoley

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I think the main thing is for it not to be too sudden. By a fortnight I would expect there to be a loss in the right direction and in the next fortnight another loss and so forth. I wouldn't expect a dramatic loss by x date unless you are months down the line and there's clearly no change. Mine lost 40 or 50kg( i can't remember) when he had laminitis but that was done gradually over 6 months as he couldn't be ridden. If they can be ridden in which case yours can, you may see the effects quicker but again I would take that slowly too and build up.
 
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