Those of you with fatties

My opinion a a seasoned cob and native owner is that they shouldnt be having so much feed. My lot get a tiny token feed as a carrier for their general purpose feed balancer. Carrots and succulents are reserved for the winter when grass is a distant memory as a tasty treat. I do agree with giving horses something when they come in to be groomed and worked otherwise they may get difficult to catch, ours usualy get a small hay net.

If you have some grass on the field I would not be giving hay yet. With the recent wet and sunny weather grass is growing fast, if there is not much grass on your field and your horses are plump it will be because it is being eaten!

If you are concerned about the amount of fibre going through keep a close eye on what comes out. If poos become few and hard they need more fibre, in that case give them soaked hay. I was told durng my NVQ that in the growing season one acre of fair to medium grazing (not good grazing) will produce grass with energy the equivalent to one bag of competion mix per day.

I normaly dont start on hay/haylage until November, and start giving extra feed, usualy just beet and chaff when the grass on the winter paddocks has completely gone (just to give them a change from hay). The only one who has anything different is my old mare who has a few lucerne or grass nuts.

This year has been a bit different for us as we have moved to 3 acres of weed and bramble and have half reseeded and out of bounds. The whole summer has been on very, very, very limited grass with meagre hay suplement, however for the first time ever all the neds are the right weight!
 
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My lad is in a fatty paddock with a shettie, and has so far lost a good amount of weight, and hasn't jumped out (yet). he gets a dengie lite lick in the field, and twice a day they have a medium sized trug of soaked hay between them. They must have fibre for the gut action - and they produce a lot of poo between them :D
 
Am I going mad Storm in a teacup? I was sure your post listed what you were feeding your horses - now it just asks how much hay. I must have had more to drink last night than I though!!
 
Magicmillbrook said:
My opinion a a seasoned cob and native owner is that they shouldnt be having so much feed. My lot get a tiny token feed as a carrier for their general purpose feed balancer. Carrots and succulents are reserved for the winter when grass is a distant memory as a tasty treat. I do agree with giving horses something when they come in to be groomed and worked otherwise they may get difficult to catch, ours usualy get a small hay net.

If you have some grass on the field I would not be giving hay yet. With the recent wet and sunny weather grass is growing fast, if there is not much grass on yopur field and your horses are plump it will be because it is being eaten!

If you are concerned about the amount of fibre going through keep a close eye on what comes out. If poos become few and hard they need more fibre, in that case give them soaked hay. I was told duirng my NVQ that in the growing season one acre of fair to medium grazing (not good grazing) will produce grass with energy the equivalent to one bag of competion mix per day.

!
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Thats very helpful and interesting. You see I always overfeed, (with the best will in the world) and my cob is far too fat, always has been. A knowledgeable friend is now insisting that I am very strict and sort the problem, and I am following her advise, because all her horses look very well, and most are native good doers too, so I know she knows her stuff.
But its very hard when you are an overfeeder!!
My other horse is young and can be a bit too full of himself and was quite a handful, and so he is far better behaved now. Plus I know slow growing is best for big youngster.

Thanks for your reassuring post.

They are both getting token daily feeds of speedibeet and Alfa A for their feed balancers as well, and the occasional small haynet if they are standing iin for a while.
So I should try to be rational.
Its sooooooo hard to do though!!!!!!
 
Mine is out in a field with about 5 others (big enough I will add). He seems to be fine and if anything looks little too slim for this time of the year. He tends to live out 24/7 this time of the year and only comes in during the weekend for a snooze and then has two good sized haynets, on in the morning, one at night, both with small holes in them. He gets a token feed if he is in of a handful of coolmix, as our other horse, who is a competition horse is stabled next door and he gets uptight if she is fed and he isnt. He does not get any supplements apart from some codlivine either. He is 17 years old is hacked out 4-5 times a week and where we live its hilly. He is also turned out with much younger horses and he keeps them on their toes. His weight can go up and down, but the only time I have seen him in an obese state was before I bought him. For a cob he seems to be one of those types who keep themselves fairly fit and trim naturally, which I know is odd, but thats the way he is.
 
My 2 fatties have been on the track system all winter. They get given some fresh grass every day and the 3 of them (one isnt a fattie!) are doing about 28 droppings per day! They get given a token feed of happy hoof and supplements, no hay. They only get hay when they come in, which is only when the farrier comes.

In winter they move to the bottom field which has been growing since May. I give them the first quarter, then make the field bigger by giving them the extra quarters until they have the whole field but without eating it down and getting muddy too soon. I am hoping the top summer field will last me until the beginning of October. By the time they get into the bottom field and eat the grass which is in there, I hope not to feed hay until about November time. In winter the get happy hoof and pink powder.
 
I know how hard it is storminateacup but pls listen to my story as I learnt the hard way. I had a 24yr old cob and I lost her two years ago with laminitis because and I can now see how much excess weight she was carrying. I will never allow a good doer to become overweight again because it is so dangerous. Cobs with laminitis are much more likely to have to be put down as their weight forces the pedal bone to drop.

I'm glad that you're doing something about your horse. One thing I was told was to never rug my cob again so she used her body fat to keep warm and she should come out of winter looking a bit ribby xx
 
My Welsh D is the right weight and I have maintained that throughout the summer by being a lot less soft where food is concerned. I learn't the hard way...he got laminitis this time last year and it took 8 months to clear it.
He is on the same paddock all year round now but comes in at night to his field stable and wood chipped corral area outside...so off the grass.
His paddock is eaten well down and he nibbles throughout the day on what comes through as it grows...it looks like there is not much to eat but he is managing fine, always has his head down and does a consistent number of poos each day...I go on poos with him, aswell as weight. If he is maintaining his current weight and does 6 - 8 poos per day I know he is eating enough and not hungry.
At night he is off the grass and gets 4 pads of year old hay to munch on. I am not feeding hay in the daytime, he has to ferret about for grass.
I hope to not have to feed any hay in the daytime and when the grass slows growing and there is less about I will start to strip graze him over some of the rest of the field...so long as his weight stays the same.
My lad has a couple of handfuls of Dengie Healthy Hooves with a vit min supplement in it.
It was a hard lesson to learn in what I should be feeding my lad...this time last year he was out 24/7 on grass - still restricted, but I was feeding him hay also...hindsight says he did not need the additional hay, which is why he shed 50kg when he got laminitis and was on a diet.
 
Supertrooper - wise words and sad that happened to your horse. The rug thing is a fair point although this is not always practical...my horse becomes completely unmanageable if left to fend for himself without a rug...but he only ever has a very old medium weight that is a bit thin and flat through years of use and washing...but it keeps the chill off and keeps him happier.
My lad has lost a lot of weight and I intend to keep it that way...his back no longer has a crease in it, nor does his bum, his neck is no longer hard and cresty and you can see a faint outline of ribs when he moves. Not everyones cup of tea for a Welsh D, but he looks well and healthy and I would rather that than him having a layer of fat on him.
 
Supertrooper said:
I know how hard it is storminateacup but pls listen to my story as I learnt the hard way. I had a 24yr old cob and I lost her two years ago with laminitis because and I can now see how much excess weight she was carrying. I will never allow a good doer to become overweight again because it is so dangerous. Cobs with laminitis are much more likely to have to be put down as their weight forces the pedal bone to drop.

I'm glad that you're doing something about your horse. One thing I was told was to never rug my cob again so she used her body fat to keep warm and she should come out of winter looking a bit ribby xx
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I ve been told the same re rugging him too. - It is very hard.
Plus my youngster was actually getting cresty, but he is over 16h but I was worried. The fat cob was obese. He became so when I had a bad two weeks and let him and the other have access to good pasture. Fatty is now looking almost normal but still a 4 on the fat score. I so, look forward to seeing him have the figure of a normal cob for the first time in his life. He is a teenager too so I do feel for him though - those big bug eyes!!!.
Trouble is he has never been cresty, just a fat bottom boy. Vet says its the cresty ones you have to watch so I suppose that "allowed" me to subconsiously let him have more than was healthy. I tried hay and straw mix soaked too, but that just allowed him to maintain his weight and he didnt lose a pound.
Tough love indeed..........
 
Personally I'd change your feed. Speedibeet and Alfa A are meant for ok/poor doers - I fed this to my thoroughbred when she needed to gain weight!

My two are out at night and in during the day. The little one gets 1kg of hay that has been soaked for 12 hours (weighed out before soaking) and the bigger one 1.5kg in small holed double nets.

It sounds and looks tiny, but they've been on this routine for months now with no ill effects. They're also perfectly happy to come in every morning, and 9/10 times will be standing at the gate waiting for me. So it's obviously not making them miserable at all.

Feed wise they both get a low cal balancer. Currently this is mixed with alfa-a lite to slow them down, but we're trying to find lower cal alternatives as it's too sugery for my liking. Unfortunatly the little one refuses to eat hi-fi, so it's a bit of trial and error right now in regards to chaff.
 
I also feed my horses straw in the winter. Less calories so i am told. A highland pony judge told someone i know that the natives and cobs look better being fed mainly straw.
 
It is incredibly hard having a good doer. I've allowed my mare to get overweight this summer, partly due to changing paddocks onto much richer grass, I was using a track system but probably still too much grass for her and she decided to jump out of it a few times and stuff her face gving herself colic and mild laminitis.:mad:

The best way to get weight off if they are really overweight that I have found is to get them off the grass completely if you can and feed hay weighed out at 1.5% of ideal bodyweight. That is what I'm having to do at the moment and I am upping her exercise as she is back in work this week. The track system normally works really well for me, and I've used it for the past eight years or so but do feed additional hay as the grass is so low; so once I get this paddock sussed out for grass growth etc then I will be back to that. She is on a narrow strip at the moment.
I'm actually looking forwards to winter to help me get the weight off her!
 
Also wanted to say, good luck and try not to get depressed about it. Weight loss takes time - it's taken well over a year to get our morbidly obese fell to her current score of 3.5. A strong mind, determination and patience are needed :)

Good luck - it's not easy!
 
As everyone has already said you really do need to be cruel to be kind with good doers! I've got an 8yr old D who is in medium work, he is out at night on poor grazing and in during the day with ad lib 12 hour soaked hay. He also gets 400g AlfaA Lite, Balancer, 400g oats plus supplements split into two feeds...however he does work 6 days a week...if his work load were to decrease so would his hard feed.
 
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