Poor doer vs Good doer...which wld u prefer?

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Sophstar

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As the owner of two very good doers, I dream of the day where I have to feed rather than worry about growing waistlines on fresh air. One pony is already sulking in a muzzle for over half the day and the other gets some time out in their stable to stop him from over indulging on what little spring grass there is.

I'm sure if I had a poor doer I would be dreaming of owning a good doer...catch 22. :rolleyes:

Preferences?
 
I have had some poor doers come onto the yard, one pony was supposed to need huge feeds to keep his weight on in the winter, this winter he lived out on haylage and no extra feed, so my view is that often poor doers can become good doers with a change of regime.

It often depends on the environment they are in, quality of grazing and them being relaxed and happy. A really poor eater that stresses and does not do well is far worse than a content greedy horse in my view.
 
I have always had the good doers, at the moment a I/D x Hippo. She spends the summer in during the day and out at night, we tried a muzzle but Madam does not let you put one on, I end up wearing it lol not a good look :eek::eek: Her hay is soaked for 24 hours and put in a double haynet to try and slow her down :confused: :confused:but she just seems to look at a blade of grass and piles the pounds on :mad:
We do have an older TB on the yard and her poor owner is always has a struggle to put weight on and keep it on, and it costs her a fortune in food. So think really which ever one you have they all present different issues and problems. But I do kniw where you are coming from :D Just about to mover to summer field in the next couple of weeks :eek: :eek:
 
It depends on what facilities you have, either can be hard on a livery yard. As it is mines a good doer but not to the point where he has to be on starvtion I just keep on top of it by working him and he is kept competition fit and will be eventing this year so I'm not expecting a problem. When I got him he was obese as he hadnt been worked and was left out 24/7 all summer so the work really makes a diffrence to him.

ETA if hes looking a bit rounder and the weigh tape agrees we do more fast work which really drops the weight off :D
 
I like an in-betweeny!
I would class my mare as a good doer but not to the extent where i have to muzzle or ristrict her grazing.
She gets a token feed in winter but she could live on just haylage & grass.

I'm lucky i guess :D
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I think it depends on your regime & where you keep them.

The yard where I am has very rich grazing (perfect for fattening up beef cattle not so great for horses). I bought a skinny thoroughbred about 18 months ago, one of the things that attracted me to her was the fact that she was ribby, which I thought would make her low maintenance for where I am.

I was so wrong, she put on weight over the winter on just hi fi light, she now has to have her grazing restricted (although it's not just for her weight, as the rich grass makes her behave like a child with ADHD that's been to a party & is having a sugar rush!)

So I'd love a poor doer; I'd probably change my tune if I had one though!
 
Good doers are cheap to keep thats for sure! Mine has the oldest boring hay in the winter that I can give usually 2/3 years old and he is best on this. But I am the electric fence queen at the moment, he is happy with all this grass and is getting the fence moved inches as he just does not come up for air and will eat and eat.

The worse thing was when he was kept with a bag of bones old horse and that one needed all the food it could have and I had to give feeds and bring one out so good doer didnt nick his food which he would given the chance. I found it hard work especially in the winter etc.

Purely on cost I would prefer good doer. I can only imagine having to give all the supplements extra feeds etc to help poor doer keep condition etc.
 
I have one of each and, trust me, the good doer is so much easier to deal with. My poor doer TB is simply not interested in food unless it is grass, which makes getting his suppliments into him and any medication he needs an absolute nightmare, especially as he is probably the most accident prone horse on the planet. He will sometimes eat his feed and other times he'll not....I have tried everything under the sun - all the feed merchants within 30 miles know me and are unable to help - he just isn't interested. My best bet is to not over face him, so as a 17.2 TB currently on box rest (again) he gets approx 1kg hard feed / day split into 3 feeds, ad lib hay, ad lib haylege, ready grass and hay replacement nuts and he grazes between all of them - any more hard feed and he won't touch it at all and if I just offer him only one type of forage he'll only eat about 2 kg a day - this way he will eat 2kg of each! I have to either syringe any medication into him, or inject it as he won't touch his feed if i put Anti biotics or anything else into it.

My good doer WB simply gets limited turnout, minimal feed and will be wearing a muzzle very soon!
 
Poor doer! I'm fed up of stressing over laminitis, sunshine, weighing haynets, strip grazing, weigh taping ..... it ruins summer! I actually look forward to winter..... oh but then I have to worry about frost! Arg!
 
I suppose a good doer purely because of economics!!

I have 2 extremes on my yard, and are both equally hard to manage.

Horse 1 is an exceptionally good doer, who has also suffered form laminitis in the past. He spends his life having all food restricted. Because of this he is totally food obsessed and his whole life revolves around it - he has to be kept on a bare paddock with soaked hay, and as there are no other horses on the yard needing the same restrictions, is denied company too. He spends the whole day staring at the yard, calling to anyone available to feed him, and fence walks too. I feel really sorry for him as don't think he has a very nice life!

Horse 2 is my son's aged pony who drops weight at the drop of a hat - he needs more hay than my 2 cobs put together, and just when I think I have got his weight perfect, he drops it again. Because he is quite fizzy too ride it is always hard to get the balance right as can't give conditioning hard feed as risk heating him up more.

Fortunately my two cobs are neither - as long as I feed according to work and grazing available, they maintain a nice even weight throughout the year.
 
I have never had a really poor doer. I have had them arrive at my yard skinny, but never had trouble putting weight on them, even the box walking TB. But they do cost a lot in haylage to feed. I never mess with fancy feeds, they just get Pure feeds easy and good quality haylage. But the two really good doers on the yard cause me real problems. I actually find summer much easier because I put them on a bare paddock and they usually drop weight by the end of summer. But the winters are a nightmare because I don't like horses stood in and not eating. Though these to have to be left for some of the time without haylage and even then, pile on the weight! They seem to be able to maintain their weight on lessthan 1.5% of their bodyweight and so I always feel I am starving them. So I would choose poor doers, for ease of managing them, but good doers for economic reasons.
 
Actually I don't think my good doer works out much cheaper than a poor doer! I have to buy expensive haylage (horsehage) year round while I can only watch with envy the fat 'poor doers' munching on the spring/summer grass. :mad:

I find I worry more about overweight horses than underweight ones though so I'm sure that is a factor psychologically. Having said that I'd really hate to have a finicky poor doer.
 
Rather a good does any day, my girl is fairly good at keeping weight on but i have to be careful as if she starts to drop off, it takes a lot to put it back on, so good doesr, its easier to get them to loose weight than to get a poor doer to put weight on :)
 
I think I'd prefer a poor doer because I would hate to have to keep a horse in all the time because grass and fresh air alone makes it tip over the barrel. Atleast with a poor doer you can feed more to make sure they maintain. I have a poor doer but I'm sure she wouldn't be if she was in a place where she could be out 24/7 all year around (she's stabled overnight in the winter which she hates) with plenty of grazing but then I'd be worrying that her feet would become far too sensitive with all that grass. Lol! It's all swings and aroundabouts!
 
I used to think I would prefer a good doer when I had a poor doer, that poor doer then turned into a good doer over night (not too sure how as it was such a dramatic transformation in such a short amount of time???? :confused:) But she is probably more difficult to manage now I recon with the restricted grazing, token feed for supplements, limited weighed hay which is also soaked and doudble bagged etc

But then again, she is a LOT cheaper as good doer...

So it is obviously a choice between time and effort or cost.... catch 22!!! :o
 
be positive said:
I have had some poor doers come onto the yard, one pony was supposed to need huge feeds to keep his weight on in the winter, this winter he lived out on haylage and no extra feed, so my view is that often poor doers can become good doers with a change of regime.

It often depends on the environment they are in, quality of grazing and them being relaxed and happy. A really poor eater that stresses and does not do well is far worse than a content greedy horse in my view.
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This! Kal stressed when not happy and truly resembles a poor doer, but when happy piles on the pounds like there's no tomorrow.

For example?

- we had him on 24/7 turnout at a perfectly nice DIY yard - but Kal hated it - not the turnout, the yard . . . despite having decent grazing and two feeds a day he dropped all sorts of weight . . . mostly down to stress

- his previous yard and where he is now, we actually have to watch his weight . . . in both places he is happy, calm, in a good solid routine and very, very chilled :) . . . previous yard he was out for a good 15 hours at night with hay in the field and not particularly good grazing . . . current yard he is out during the day and in at night - again, not great grazing - but in both places he was/is content (and has always been greedy). Tbh, I'd rather be trying to keep his weight under control than constantly trying to keep condition on him . . . but if he were also prone to laminitis/cushings, I might be singing a different song.

P
 
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