Those of you with fatties... what's your routine?

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fuze

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I'm curious. How do you manage your good doers? Do they live in / out, how many hours in, how much hay do you allow, feed, exercise, grazing?

Wondering if anyone can enlighten me on combinations that work! Thanks! :)
 
It is a constant battle of the bulge with my I/D X HIPPO. She is fed the recomended amount pf Baileys Low Cal Balancer. Her hay is soaked for 24 hours and put into a double hay net to try and slow her down. She spends 12 hours out at grass, when we first moved into the winter field she wore her muzzle untill the frost and snow had killed off the grass so now she does not have to ware it. When we change to the summer field the muzzle will go back on and will stay for the whole of the summer, she then spends the day out and then comes in for the night were again she has soaked hay double in the double net. She is lunged about 3 times a week a lesson once a week and I try and hack when ever I can. At the moment she is starting to look good, but come the summer the battle starts all over again, she just seems to look at a blade of grass and pile on the pounds. Good luck with it lol.
 
Mine has a breakfast at 6.30am of 150 grm (dry weight) of fast fibre, pro hoof and charcoal. I arrive on yard at 7.45am and turn him out by 8am. Meanwhile I put 4kg of hay in giant tubtrug to soak. He is out in a starvation paddock (yes even in winter!!!) I bring him in at 4.30pm and ride 4 days a week. On e I've ridden he'll be bedded down etc. His hay is the absolute last thing I put in before I leave at about 6.30pm (4kg that I soaked at 8am) it is double netted. That's pretty much it. No evening feed.
 
Fatty is still fat, but has lost a fair amount of weight since a got him, about 70kgs I think.

He has lived out all winter unrugged, and only got a token gesture of hay when there was snow on the ground. He had to dig for his grass to eat!

I bought him back into work about a month ago, so he was clipped and is under rugged (but never cold!). At the moment we are hacking at the weekend, lots of hills and brisk walking. He is also being lunged or long reined during the week, but this will change to schooling and more hacking when the evenings get lighter.

He moved onto restricted grazing a week ago in preparation for the grass coming through too.

It's a working progress, but we will get there :)

It's amazing how much more energy he has now he isn't carrying round all that extra weight.
 
I've got two, although they are currently on the lean side. They are in for approx 12hrs overnight for approx 4mnths of winter. Mainly out in a group in large fields, with low quality grazing. When the grass dies off, they have ad lib hay overnight whether in or out, usually late (second) cut of hay. However this year there was no first cut, so everyone shared the late cut stuff, so I've just got a delivery of 2011 hay. One is a good doer, the other literally lives on fresh air, but luckily isn't food orientated so not hard to manage. Both ridden 5/6 times per week, although winter cos we have no arena it can just be 20/30 mins of mainly trot up & down the drive & a lane closed to vehicles if the field is wet. They both lose over winter & start spring lean, condition score 2.5. Then although exercised longer, they gain over summer, although never above 3.5, then lose again over winter. I'm very grateful that one has little interest in food, she has no problems looking fine on the little she does eat, if she did like her grub I'd struggle tbh, as it is she plays above eating, if she liked to stand still & munch it would be a nightmare.
 
Lives out, 48 hour with greenguard muzzel then 24 hour without throughout the summer whilst the grass is growing. Amount of Dinner depends on exercise done. free access to mineral lick at all times. My fatty seems to do great on this though its taken 3years to get the right balance:~/
 
Mine are out 24/7 unrugged at the moment but have had a rain sheet on when it was really wet. They have access to hay and a barn in the yard 24/7. March they will go into their summer paddock - after a couple of weeks they'll get muzzled for pretty much the whole summer, I try to give them a few days off the muzzle or bring them in for a few hours in the daytime. Exercise wise, 2 are midgets so don't get any, one is 3 (I don't muzzle him) and is just at the very beginning of his education learning to wear tack, about to start long lining. My riding fatty is hacked out for a couple of hours Sat and Sun although by next week I think I'll be able to fit a post work hack or two in as the evenings are getting lighter, by April we should be out marching up and down the hills most evenings
 
Would be reformed fattie haffie is out for about 8 hours atm in a field with no visible grass but that doesnt fool me as I go by poo numbers and head down status to judge how much she is getting. Once the frosts go (higher sugars in frosty grass) which might not be til May here, she will be out 12-15 hours in a smaller lami paddock. However her revenge is to eat the fence posts so will be painting them with poo :-D

She has tried many different muzzles but either gets them off or makes her face bleed very badly by rubbing her face on the ground until it does (bad as in needing stitches in her face :-O), so have had to go for the bare paddock approach.

She will be out 24x7 in height of summer but not for most of the year due to (i) too much grass (ii) high grass sickness risk area (iii) frosty grass sugars risk (iv) her oldie companion likes his stable and pipe and slippers :-)

In the stable she gets 1kg of molasses free chaff in the morning, and when she comes in she has 1kg of the same. At night she gets 0.5kg of it with a handful of fast fibre in a soup to hide her vit and min supplement plus a 2kg haynet (soaked for 12 hours, small holed net).

If she is in longer in the winter blizzards she gets either more soaked hay or a slice of oat straw.

shes only being ridden for short hacks about 3x a week atm as just started riding after winter- our tracks out of our place are sheet ice for 3-4 months so it is a 3 season activity. Will build up to longer hacks 4-5x pw plus occasional endurance rides.

She gets no carrot or apple or any other treats, and has a mineral salt lick in stable and field.

She is never rugged or clipped, not rugged even in -15 temps.
 
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I have an Ardennes gelding who came to me very fat as a companion. It has been a steep learning curve but over the last 18 months I've tried various things to varying effect.
First weapon in the arsenal has to be a decent grazing muzzle - Greenguard it has to be (I initially balked at the price but in the long run cheaper and more effect than any other muzzle as he cannot eat his way through it!). He wears it all the time from March to November - obviously if he's in then he has it taken off. Sounds cruel but much less cruel than letting him get lammi.
In winter he is in at night with either soaked for 24hours hay or really rubbish dry hay mixed with straw. I have invested in a trickle net which is amazing. Previously he could guzzle 7kg hay in 20mins even in a double netted haynet- now it takes him all night. In summer I have him in during the day with soaked hay/straw and out muzzled at night.
Drastic measures have included shutting him in the pig pen (without pigs!) and only giving soaked straw, or in during day and then in small pen at night.
It's really important to weigh the hay so you only give the exact amount - I have made a chart detailing how much to give him per hours out/in. He has 1.5% of bodyweight per day in hay/straw and I divide that by 24 and only give him that times the number of hours he's in for.
And don't bed on straw - Arnie has been known to scoff a whole deep bed in one night :eek:
Exercise really helps - get a sharer if you don't have time to exercise him everyday. Even inhand work helps.
I also feed him a half measure of Formula4feet as a balancer to help give him enough vitamins & minerals because I'm feeding him rubbish hay! But no other hard feed at all ever.
Weightape and keep a chart every 2 weeks so you can see you're making progress!
I'm hoping this year will be easier as my fields have much less grass and he's going into spring alot slimmer than last year...
 
Oh and I bib or low trace clip him as he sweats in the stable and it really helps keep some weight off. No rugs - not ever!
 
I am delighted that my fattie has actually got down to a reasonable weight this winter, mainly by eating a large amount of oat straw chaff to supplement her measured amount of haylage but I think that her bout of colic might also have helped - I wouldn't recommend that! She has to have a shavings bed as if she eats a straw bed she gets colic. I have no intention of making her wear a muzzle but will be monitoring her weight carefully over the summer.
She has steadily lost weight in the 2 years we've had her. She came from a home where she had been given a cereal feed everyday and kept in on alternate days. Our grazing is old pasture, which hasn't been fertilized in living memory and which also has sheep on it. She is unclipped and only wears a no-fill rug on the very worst weather days. She is out during daylight hours and will be out 24/7 as soon as the weather allows.
 
It's amazing how much more energy he has now he isn't carrying round all that extra weight.
It's that simple so why people pump oats into fatties to get them moving i'll never know! It's the age old simple equation more in than out =weight gain. It's just about finding the balance for your horse and no horses don't 'need' bucket feeding twice a day or they won't love you!!:-p
 
OakeyT said:
It's that simple so why people pump oats into fatties to get them moving i'll never know! It's the age old simple equation more in than out =weight gain. It's just about finding the balance for your horse and no horses don't 'need' bucket feeding twice a day or they won't love you!!:-p
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He had a little 'WAHEY' moment on the lunge tonight, cantering and bucking round a few times before he settled. It was a bit naughty, but also lovely to see as he literally wouldn't have been bothered to do that before when he was overweight! He has a spring in his step now!
 
Thanks for the replies!

Those of you that soak hay, do you soak regardless of weather? This is my first "live-off-fresh-air" horse, so it's new to me. Some people have told me you shouldn't if it's too cold because of the hay freezing? Also how big is your horse and how much hay do they get overnight? My boy a 14.2hh cob, he gets around 4.5kg, split between a trickle net and a triple netted haynet. He still polishes it off at a rate of knotts. He occasionally gets a handful of good doer after he's worked hard, and he gets a small scoop of baileys high fibre nuggets in a decahedron overnight. He's ridden most days, and usually lunged if I can't ride. He's young, so he's not worked HARD, but he can manage a 2hr hack mainly at trot without breaking a sweat. He's not unfit, but the fat isn't shifting :(

Has anyone tried the fibre blocks that are available now? Are they any good for replacing forage?
 
fuze said:
Thanks for the replies!

Those of you that soak hay, do you soak regardless of weather? This is my first "live-off-fresh-air" horse, so it's new to me. Some people have told me you shouldn't if it's too cold because of the hay freezing? Also how big is your horse and how much hay do they get overnight? My boy a 14.2hh cob, he gets around 4.5kg, split between a trickle net and a triple netted haynet. He still polishes it off at a rate of knotts. He occasionally gets a handful of good doer after he's worked hard, and he gets a small scoop of baileys high fibre nuggets in a decahedron overnight. He's ridden most days, and usually lunged if I can't ride. He's young, so he's not worked HARD, but he can manage a 2hr hack mainly at trot without breaking a sweat. He's not unfit, but the fat isn't shifting :(

Has anyone tried the fibre blocks that are available now? Are they any good for replacing forage?
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I do try and soak the hay for as long as I can with the weather, but the other week in the snow and the temp was so low the water in the bin froze so was not able to soak (gutted) Back to normal once the we ather warmed up. My girl is a 15'3 and gets 14lb of soaked hay. Not tried the fibre blocks so not any help there sorry.
 
The fibre blocks (12x 1kgs) I have tried but madam just inhales them ie bites it in 3 and swallows, not a success.
I soak hay in all conditions except for when the tap won't defrost all day and I need the filled bucket of water for the drinking buckets (we are in Cairngorms!!!) I don't mind a bit of ice forming on the net it mainly falls off. When i can't soak I use oat straw which I buy from farmers combined with molasses free chaff (as the alfalfa is a good nutritional partner for the oat straw which is deficient in protein and minerals that the Alfa is high in)
 
Rowan is in at night (4pm-7am) in this time he is fed 4 slices of hay on the floor but i space it out so he gets 1 when he first comes in, 1 at about 7/8 and then I give him the other 2 at 10pm just before I go to bed.
Meal wise he gets just a handful of chaff (mollasses free) and a little micronised linseed for healthy coat and joints and if I am going to school him he gets a handful of oats.

The biggest thing that makes a difference is exercise. I am slowly upping his work, not in the school so much but out hacking doing more trot work etc. Hoping to do lots of canter work with him over the summer.
 
I would love to have my New Forest good-doer out 24/7 on a Perfect Paradise system - but livery yard set up doesn't allow for that!

I don't soak my hay in winter, as find my boy doesn't eat it - but will start soaking for 8-10 hours anf then rinsing as soon as the weather warms up again. He is always on ad-lib forage - combination of double/triple netted haynets & straw.

He only gets a handful of Hifi Good Doer chaff & Allen and Page Fast Fibre in his feeds once a day alongside magnesium, salt and general purpose supplement - largely as a means to ensure he gets his supplement but also as whole yard is fed breakfast together.

Rug wise he is always in as little as possible - although he does tend to wear a lightweight most of the time, as much to keep clean for riding as anything else!

When he moves from winter to spring/summer fields he might be on restricted turn out depending on how much grass we have - definitely muzzled, which doesn't seem to bother him.

And as much regular exercise as possible :)
 
Lives out on good grass muzzled, still a bit fat but when they are doing more work they will come off the grass for a good 5-6 hours a day to work and wait in the stables with soaked hay
 
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