Problem with horse

ATrueClassAct

ATrueClassAct

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Hey,
I've had my horse for 7 years now and I've always noticed that she is always hungry. She is fed a very large amount for her size since shes only 14.2hh and probably eats the same as a 15.2hh. She can be turned out all day and come in and finish her haynet in about an hour. Then she has her morning net aobut 8 o clock in the morning and by 10 is all gone and shes hunting for more food. Its like she is never full and i find it quite concerning/weird. She doesnt seem greedy though since she'll never bite for food or eat any food left on the side by accident, she'll just wait til its given to her.
Does anyone else have a horse like this/ is it quite normal? Since none of the horses in my barn are like her.
 
Horses are designed to eat pretty much all day - so no, I wouldn't say it's strange!! It's much stranger in my eyes to see horses stood in bare fields all day where there is so little grass they don't bother trying, which unfortunately seems quite common at the min :( I expect my horse to be eating if he isn't sleeping (what else is he supposed to do, really?)

If you're worried that she's eating her net too fast though, why not use 2 very small holed nets one inside the other??
 
My share girl is 14.2hh also and 17 y/o, a Sect D X and she is such a food orientated girl. She is ALWAYS foraging through her bed and people's pockets for food - failing that she will shout at anyone coming on the yard! If she finishes her net she will happily eat her bed :rolleyes:
She has a small Happy Hoof feed in the morning, 2 and a half nets a day (2 leaves morning and night and one leaf to keep her occupied during day), but we now double net and soak them and it seems to last her longer?
You could try that :)
K x
 
Sol said:
Horses are designed to eat pretty much all day - so no, I wouldn't say it's strange!! It's much stranger in my eyes to see horses stood in bare fields all day where there is so little grass they don't bother trying, which unfortunately seems quite common at the min :( I expect my horse to be eating if he isn't sleeping (what else is he supposed to do, really?)

If you're worried that she's eating her net too fast though, why not use 2 very small holed nets one inside the other??
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Yeah, its not the amount shes eating im that bothered about. Its just the fact that she always seems like shes starving which is quite strange. We've done the two nets thing and it did work so yeah ill restart that i think. T

My share girl is 14.2hh also and 17 y/o, a Sect D X and she is such a food orientated girl. She is ALWAYS foraging through her bed and people's pockets for food - failing that she will shout at anyone coming on the yard! If she finishes her net she will happily eat her bed
She has a small Happy Hoof feed in the morning, 2 and a half nets a day (2 leaves morning and night and one leaf to keep her occupied during day), but we now double net and soak them and it seems to last her longer?
You could try that
K x
Click to expand...

Haha, they sound like they'd love each other! Mine has three nets a day which consist of soaked hay in the night and day then haylage on the floor in the day. I've got the problem that my whole barn is quite happy to feed her aswell if shes not got any hay.

thanks for the advice/reassurance my horse isnt strange haha
 
Your horse has a key symptom of insulin resistance. Google it and find out more. If she does have it and you do not get her under control she could develop health issues from excess insulin in her bloodstream.

If she has it, she is literally feeling hungry even though she has just eaten. She eats, she produces a mass of insulin, too much, in response to the food, her blood sugar level plummets and then she feels starving even though she is not.

The cure is to only let her have exactly what a horse of her size and work should have, and divide it up into as many feeds as you can and do whatever you have to do to stop her bolting it. In my case this included working my fingers until they bled threading wire into a hayrack to make the holes smaller.

Of course she may just be a greedy pony. But if she is fat, has any appearance of cellulite on her bum, fat pads either side of her tail, or a crest on her neck then you should suspect insulin resistance and have her tested.
 
cptrayes said:
Your horse has a key symptom of insulin resistance. Google it and find out more. If she does have it and you do not get her under control she could develop health issues from excess insulin in her bloodstream.

If she has it, she is literally feeling hungry even though she has just eaten. She eats, she produces a mass of insulin, too much, in response to the food, her blood sugar level plummets and then she feels starving even though she is not.

The cure is to only let her have exactly what a horse of her size and work should have, and divide it up into as many feeds as you can and do whatever you have to do to stop her bolting it. In my case this included working my fingers until they bled threading wire into a hayrack to make the holes smaller.

Of course she may just be a greedy pony. But if she is fat, has any appearance of cellulite on her bum, fat pads either side of her tail, or a crest on her neck then you should suspect insulin resistance and have her tested.
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I looked up the symptoms and the only one she has is the large appetite, shes always had one though. Could there be something wrong with her metabolism since shes so skinny aswell which doesnt help people wanting to feed her. Or is it possible that shes just learnt that even if she eats it all she'll still get more?
 
Skinny and a big appetite.... interesting. Any vets out on the forum tonight?????

If she is skinny have you actually tried letting her have all the feed she'll eat? What happens then????

I'm assuming you have her on a good worming program, by the way.
 
She's on our yard worming and dentist programme and they are very cautious about all that so everything is completely upto date. I feed her quite a lot anyway and she'll keep eating. If theres food there ive never seen her not eat it. Her feeds used to massive to try and get her to put on some weight but it didnt end up working so now her feeds are slightly smaller since she was costing me a fortune in feed!
2wd22ko.jpg
added photo for reference, Also was wondering is it possible her age is a factor in this? Shes 22.
 
for the past week none since shes on boxrest due to a suspected tendon injury. but before that she was out from about 10am til 5pm due to my college.
 
Worms?

My good doer will eat for England.........just never stops! He is always starving hungry.

I would double the hay nets small hole etc.
 
How do you mean free choice hay? Shes such a poor doer, she can breathe and she looses weight, shes thankfully at her heaviest now of 412kg, but thats due to not being ridden.
 
I mean that if I understand your description correctly, she is currently given a set amount of hay per day, and if she finishes it, she has to wait until she's due some more. What happens to her if she has access to as much hay as she'll eat?
 
thereaper said:
How do you mean free choice hay? Shes such a poor doer, she can breathe and she looses weight, shes thankfully at her heaviest now of 412kg, but thats due to not being ridden.
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Why not just give her ad lib hay? She is probably hungry if she is a poor doer, and if she's hungry its natural for her to eat what is in front of her at the time. Its what horses are designed to do. Give her unlimited access to ad lib hay when shes finished box rest and she will probably self regulate. If she is turned out then is there actually any grass for her to eat of nutrional value?
 
you should have seen what my 14 hand arab ate and he was never fat. we did alot of work but still he used to have a huge scoop of dengie, a huge scoop of cool mix, and a scoop of sugar beet in the morning, he was out at good grass from about 7 am to 9pm, he would have a huge scoop of dengie, a huge scoop of cool mix and a scoop and a half of sugar beet in the evening! and he would be on roughly half a small bale of hay at night! the he never stopped eating! and he was always lean!! some just need to eat all the time! if the horse has been always like it then i shouldnt think there is any cause for concern!
My mum eats for england all day long and is thin as a rake.....i look at an apple and go up about 4 dress sizes!! its just the way we are made!
 
I don't get it.... ?????
The pony is THIN, she gets three nets a day and some hard feed.....

Did anyone tell you she might need MORE?? Have you tried turning her out on some pasture maybe all summer??
 
Where I keep her there isnt anywhere for her to live out over summer and due to some problems with her back legs she is advised not to live out incase anything happens. Though our grass is in good condition and its dairy grass so its quite rich aswell. She basically gets more hay everytime she has finished the lot shes just eaten, I'd never let her go hungry. Though I spoke to a lady with a 36 year old arab yesterday and shes given me advice on maybe trying some alfa beet with her?
2wd22ko.jpg

2my1zqw.jpg
Condition she is in now.
 
I agree with the others - give her as much hay as she'll eat. Put two haynets up instead of one if needs be.

Looking at her, I would want to give her ad-lib hay.


Also, when feeding hard feed, because of the horse's small stomach, be carreful of how much you give in each meal. More than 2 kg (I think) and it will essentially run through them without them getting the goodness from it so rather than 2 big meals try to give 3-4 smaller meals.
 
Change your hard feed to Readymash Extra by Rowen and Barbary. My 16.1hh TB mare was weighed at 483kg at hospital (going in to hospital for an op - so not ill already) - I took her to my vet last week and put her on the weighbridge there and she was 538kg. she has put on over 10% of bodyweight and it is definitely this feed as before she didn't put any weight on on any of the other foods. I can highly recommend it.
I would also feed haylage and not hay - haylage has more nutritional value.
 
oh wow thats quite a good difference! I'll definatly look into that, thanks. She used to have haylage but the stuff at our yard has gone abit weird looking so for now most of us have gone to hay.
 
Have experience of this!!

I would recommend sugar beet, oils, conditioning mix and if she's thin, could you not feed ad lib haylage? Of course the best thing is grass, I used to have a poor doer and if he was out 24/7 on good grass he looked like a different horse.
 
I think im gonna go for ab lib haylage yeah. She has soya oil in her feed now with old horse mix. Grass doesnt seem to help her much, before i got her she was out for 2weeks once and she came in looking exactly the same. But summers coming so ill try and put her out as much as our yard is allowed to. I was trying to work out condition scaling her, does anyone know where she would be put on it?
 
She keeps coughing with the non wet hay since everywhere is quite dry and dusty recently. I did the net inside a net last night to try and slow her down atleast. Hoover horse.
 
Have a look at D&H'S calm and conditioning mix. It helped me put weight on my new mare gradually. I would be about winter if you're struggling to get weight on her now. Do you think her inability to gain weight may be stress & anxiety related? I stick swedes in my mares haynet/hung using bailing twine to keep her busy :)
 
Shes always been a really skinny horse, winter she does drop some weight but she gets very large nets, extra rugs and more feed in winter so shes coped quite well in the past. Stress wise, i think thats unlikely since she has a very chilled life. Shes an ex BSJA pony so she is still quite highly strung but she never seems distressed or anxious about anything....except maybe feed time and she hasnt got hers first in the barn haha. Shes been on the same yard since I got her 7 years ago and is turned out with all the older mares so she is more like the boss in the field(bullying in the field isnt a problem for her).
That swedes in the net sounds like a nice idea to keep her happy with the net, she loves swede haha. thanks!
 
Did the net inside a net last night and she's the only horse who could get the net out and fling it across the stable haha. Tried it again tonight and tied the net tighter. Gave her three smaller feeds today and had constant hay. Ate all of it, horse just must have a large appetite compared to the others in our barn！
 
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