Quick question regarding feeding 2% bodyweight

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Megibo

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How many of you feed 2% of your horses bodyweight?

I've got a very good doing welsh D mare who's weight has crept up again. She's 14.3 and condition perfect when about 385kg on my weightape however she's gone up again to about 391/398 where I can't work her as much. For feeding 1.5% for weight loss do you feed 1.5 of their current weight, or should I feed 2% of the weight I WANT her to be ?
Hard feed wise she gets a pittance of fast fibre, chaff to mix in her supplements and a few hi fibre nuts in a snack ball she just holds weight so well. I'd put her at 3.5 to 4 on a condition score.

I've never had such a problem getting/keeping weight off of my 13.3 good doing D!
 
I normally feed 1-1.5% of their current body weight (unless actually ridiculous) in decent forage, and supplement with straw. Probably wouldn't go below 1% decent forage with ad lib straw though, I'd up work rather than reduce further.

Unless you're around there every couple of hours, when you might get away with 1.5% without bulking it up with straw by staggering it.
 
I feed the 2% and weigh the hay, and small amount of bucket feed I give. I also regularly weigh tape so I know if my two are gaining weight. I am feeding two young geldings who are only 12.2. but still growing and not old enough to work.

When there is grass I do not give any extra feed, it is only during this really bad weather I am putting out the 2%. As soon as this current cold spell ends I will reduce to about 1% until grass grows properly. They have 24/7 access to field, but really nothing much on it at present.
 
I don't weigh anything. I use a huge mug as a scoop. They are have sugarbeet, conditioning mix, micronised linseed and a glug of oil (They live out. The snow is taking it's toll). I also give them half a bale twice a day. And my girlies are doing fine.


Is it 2% of their weight? I dunno. All I know is that they are not overweight and they are not skinny. That works for me. :)

But FTR, officially, it's supposed to be 1.5% of the weight they are currently. But, if that is still making your horse fat, feed less.
 
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If shes a good doer I would feed 1.5% of target weight, but that may seem a bit tough but if she's putting weight on in winter your going to have a big problem as soon as it warms up
.http://www.dengie.com/pages/feed-advice/feeding-the-overweight-horse.php

What ever % you use it should be the target weight or else you are feeding to maintain the weight she is now. I have dieted a laminetic mare and you have to count every calorie, even on 1.5% it took from June till January to get her back to a normal weight. She was 50kg over weight and the only thing that really shifted it was a winter out with no rugs. If she is rugged taking them off may be a relitively painless way to increase the rate she uses her food.
Some charts suggest feeding 2-2.5% but I think that must be because most research on horses is done for the TB racing industry not on hairy fatties.
 
Just to check, you're not feeding her 2% PLUS any grass she may be getting are you? If she is out on grass at all you need to factor in that if she has her head down she will be getting feed in and that needs to be taken into account.
 
Exactly right! It is easy to get hung up on the 2% of what question and frantically weigh everything forgetting to take into account the grazing!

Mind you anyone who actaully has grazing rather than mud atm is a lucky so and so.....
 
It is dangerous to feed below 1.5% of body weight. Ideally feed 2%. This should be low calorie forage (late cut hay - soaked to reduce sugar if necessary, and straw) a low cal chaff ( dengie unmolassed) and a vet & min supplement. Forage can be fed in trickle nets to ensure she has a constant trickle of feed and is never without.
 
Thanks all.

Jemima-what grazing?! ;)
Not weighing her hay at the moment but going to dig my weigh scale out so that I can feed her 2% of the weight I want her to be! Will get her back in work properly too and weigh tape weekly to track where she's going.
 
If she's out in the field and has her head down at all then you want to feed her accordingly. If she was out 6 hours a day then you'd assume she'd eaten one quarter of her daily allowance in that time and feed her three quarters of the total. You might not think there's much out there but if she's got her head down then she's finding something.
 
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