The weight has crept on......

[checkmate1]

... isn't it amazing how that happens and suddenly you realise your horse is the same size and weight as a killer whale?!

So, the girl has been in and out of work the past 2 months- mostly in but light hacking and lunging due to saddle issues and recovering from impalement on gate.
She is now officially fat- I have cut her individual half acre paddock so she is now on 2/3rds of it (there isn't loads of grasee but what there is must be rich!!) and she is in during the day. When she is in she normally had ad lib haylage- I do want her to keep nibbling when shes in and I don't like/use haynets. SO my question is; is soaked hay less calorific than haylege? She is WB/TB and a good doer. Only fed feed balancer and supps. Thank you

 

[kerilli]

depends on the quality of the hay, it needs analysing so you can be sure. i'm pretty sure meadow hay will be lower calorific value than seed hay. soaking it for hours to leach out goodness would help.
i feed hifi lite to anything on a serious diet, rather than hay or haylage.

 

[Mike007]

[ QUOTE ]
... isn't it amazing how that happens and suddenly you realise your horse is the same size and weight as a killer whale?!

Hmm mine has the same temperament as one too.

 

[floradora09]

Someone told me that soaked hay does lose some of it's nutritional value, depending on how long you soak it for I guess. HiFi lite is probably a good option, as it has low nutritional value, but will keep her digestive system going! Be careful not to let her shed too many pounds before the winter though, it's best not to let them go into winter too skinny!

 

[ISHmad]

You could soak the haylage for a few hours to lose the sugars, it's not just hay you can do this to. And then feed a low calorie balancer to ensure she is getting all her vitamins and minerals. We use Top Spec Anti Lam although things like Baileys Lo-Cal are good as well.

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

Depending on how long you soak the hay for will depend on how much nutriment will be leached out. Feeding soaked hay is the cheapest way to feed fibre but not too many calories. Hifi Lite is very good as well but obviously costs more. Our vet uses hifi in diets for horses to lose weight as he says horses burn off more calories chewing the stuff than it actually has in it.

 

[checkmate1]

Bit like celery then!

Thank you- I may soak her haylege then. Thanks for your replies folks