Those who think keeping a native trim is difficult ..

Montyforever

Montyforever

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When i got Honey (underweight)..

4215_1141555213617_1069542624_415700_546263_n-1.jpg


A few months later ..

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Now ..

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When i got Mysti (overweight) ..

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A few months later ..

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Now ..

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Theyre not ridden, given any special treatment, muzzled, starved or on a strict exercise routine. Its not that hard to keep a native trim .. honestly!

Im sick of seeing overweight ponies and horses! It does so much damage :(
 
OMG, the picture of Mysti could be our Gypsy, she is identical, will try to find a pic, seriously identical, facial features too!!

They both look really healthy and you should be proud because they are not easy to keep like that without hard work and you shouldn't underestimate the effort you have put in. I agree with you about the weight, we have 2 out of 13 that are still overweight but just cannot work them at the moment, I worry constantly about them because I do think it worse that being too thin.
 
Depends entirely on your land/pasture, a lot of natives are kept on ex cattle/dairy farms as are mine. It certainly is not easy!!!

So how do you manage yours then if their not starved, muzzled or on a strict exercise regime?
 
I love your girls. :) It's so nice to see someone else who doesn't use the fact that there pony is a native as an excuse to why they are FAT.

Lucy Welsh pony. Kept on a veriety of pastures. I used many methods of weight control but the main one was always excersise. :) She always lived out 24/7 as she suffered from COPD.
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I lost count of the times we got told she was to lean in the show ring and she should carry more CONDITION :mad: :mad: :mad:

Herbie a forest bred forester the day I went to view him. (Overweight :()
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Herbie now :) Looking a much better shape. He also lives out 24/7 :)
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Merryn another forest bred when I got him just over a week ago. :(
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Not the best pic but you can see the improvment in his weight already :)
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To say it's not easy or is easy is rediculous- they're all different. We have natives on conditioning feed to keep their weight up and others who even on resticted grazing and work twice a day would condition score above ideal. You are clearly lucky yours do well on their routine but that doesn't mean all natives are like this.
 
So how do you manage yours then if their not starved, muzzled or on a strict exercise regime?
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Ditto this, as someone who has a constant battle keeping the weight off my native, I'm genuinely interested to know please?

Mine is in a decent amount of work, reasonable but not excessive grazing during the day, in at night with soaked hay, unrugged, not fed anything extra.

And I still struggle to keep her weight down...:o
 
My section A on the amount of grass shown in that picture would look like yours did when you got her very quickly.
 
My Sec A is out on a paddock that is tiny with no grass... he's still overweight (He gets no feed either)... It's not easy if you live in the middle of the Cheshire plain on x dairy grass...

Blitz

PS I have a DWB who I struggle to keep weight on and a gypsy cob who my farrier told me yesterday I should be careful with cos he's looking a bit thin:eek: Never had this said to me by my farrier about anything....
 
Sorry but the thread title is ridiculous. I have two Sec D's, sisters, out together both on same pasture for the same amount of time (24/7). One is in work and overweight, the other is not working and is trim and svelte. You cannot make generalisations with horses any more than you can with people.

Go figure.
 
I had 2 Welshies as a child - 1/2 brothers - a 12.2hh and 13hh and we used to battle to keep the weight on them - they were fed on barley and sugar beet. They hunted once a fornight and hacked, but not excessively.

I have 2 ponies off dartmoor - one keeps herself trim - the other gets very fat - they live together, are the same age, get the same amount of exercise and food!!
 
I'm intrigued too. What do you think is the reason for their weight loss ? My cob only dropped weight when he was living in a stressy environment. Otherwise its down to good old fashioned exercise = calorie intake and clipping his thick woolly coat off.
 
Perhaps you'd enjoy looking after Phil for a while. Muzzled 24/7 from March-September/October (still muzzled now because of the rain :() and worked 6 days a week, maintains his weight but he only drops it by being stabled (then box walks) or through winter.

Please don't assume all native owners use the excuse that it's fat because it's native. It makes me so upset to see I can't get Phils weight down without literally locking him up for months on end :(

And yes it is possible, but it's not easy. You're clearly very lucky. Phil is on approx 6 acres with 6 other horses. None of them are fed except the 3 year old (two are rugged) and are only given hay when it snows. They are not rotated (stay on the same field all year round) nor do they share the fields with anything that would make the grass more lush. They aren't even on a big field full of lush green grass. This was our grazing in june: http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._409006807326_633522326_5060986_8075704_n.jpg

August 2008:
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April 2009:
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April 2010:
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September 2010:
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Phils weight fluctuates a lot. I hate it. I feel so guilty and I hate that I work hard to get it off and people think i'm doing nothing or that it's easy. Sure I could lock him in a stable and get the weight off of him, but in order to maintain a constant weight he would need to either stay stabled or spend his life on his own on a bald patch. Yes his life is important to me and laminitis is not worth the worry and risk, but I refuse to compromise his life to either extreme. I am hoping that once I finish university I can stop the weight form going on in the first place. My loaner gave up in April whilst I was still at uni and just as the grass came through. Bad combination of timing. I even get told how cruel I am for muzzling and restricting him because he paces non stop. I think we feel guilty enough about it without having people come along and tell us how easy it is :(
 
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montyforever said:
When i got Honey (underweight)..

4215_1141555213617_1069542624_415700_546263_n-1.jpg


A few months later ..

5740_1170680221724_1069542624_517822_4227975_n.jpg


Now ..

IMAG0017.jpg


When i got Mysti (overweight) ..

10123_189588714831_578799831_3879381_7086786_n-2.jpg


A few months later ..

12137_225099654831_578799831_4238612_4771585_n-2.jpg


Now ..

Photo0775Jt-1.jpg



Theyre not ridden, given any special treatment, muzzled, starved or on a strict exercise routine. Its not that hard to keep a native trim .. honestly!

Im sick of seeing overweight ponies and horses! It does so much damage :(
Click to expand...

Nice to see..

Natives, contrary to popular myth, do not need rugs, hard feed, tonnes of hay/haylege, stabling

i've never in the 45yrs of being around Natives, EVER had 1 case of Laminitis, so i too, must be doing something right. ;)
 
montyforever said:
Theyre not ridden, given any special treatment, muzzled, starved or on a strict exercise routine. Its not that hard to keep a native trim .. honestly!

Im sick of seeing overweight ponies and horses! It does so much damage :(
Click to expand...

How do you keep them trim then, I'm intreiged. My boy is a Fell and I'm telling you now if you didn't give him any special treatment, restrict his calorie intake and exercise him then you would have a massively obese pony on your hands. As it is he is worked 5-6 days a week, has been on restricted grazing (and we have sandy immature pasture, not dairy grazing) and weighed forage all summer and I'm proud to say I can actually feel his ribs. Yes I agree grossley overweight horses are aweful to see but please do not be so arrogant as to assume that with very little management they will all stay the right weight, every horse is individual and it is a massive challange to keep some horses at the right weight which shouldn't be underestimated.
 
My native was grossly overweight when I got him, do not know how he didnt have laminitis. I put him on a strict diet and go his weight to a good level. I always keep jim ridden and check his feed and hay intake. He was doing really well until he injuried his suspensory and needed 3months paddock rest (stable sizes pen). Not exercising piled on the pounds. Its a year on and he is still carring extra pound which I cant seem to get rid of.
Yet our Welsh D carries extra pounds and she is exercised 6days a week, intense schooling, lunging, long hacking and jumping. When my sister started secondary school she wasnt riding her as much and she piled on the weight and now shes back to being ridden her normal amount and has a grazing muzzle on again her weight is dropping.
It is down to each horse is different and I believe different things work for different horses.
 
I agree that you cannot generalise like this. My New Forest has put on condition while I've had her and I'd say she's at a near perfect weight but keeping a VERY close eye on her to make sure she doesn't balloon. It is difficult to know what her weight will do as she is young but we'll take it as it comes.

For my Highland, I had her at a super weight and my farrier compimented me on her when he first saw her. She was incredibly trim (but had been in full work from 4-7 years old). Last november, my farrier and I decided to take her shoes off as her feet were crumbling.

She had the winter off - she was fed one haynet a day over winter, there was no grass, she got no hard feed and her weight piled on so she put on around 90kg. :(

I'm STILL in the process of trying to get this off as she only got shoes back on in July and farrier is pleased with the results.

Please don't generalise as some people may simply use an excuse "it's a highland, they are fat", but most of us do try to get weight off our ponies and it isn't as easy as you state! Same as us, we all have different metabolisms!

ETA - You can see my siggy - the bay is my little Newfie who I'm delighted with. The grey is the highland when she was at her trimmest (she had a rug here due to being prone to rainscald when I first got her) and the last one is her at a working hunter this year where she is horrendously overweight.
 
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Thats not the point i was getting at, sorry if i offended :(

I mean with my welsh a mare, why was she allowed to get so fat (at only 5yrs old) when its clearly easy to manage her. She had lami the year before i got her and she hasnt has any problems since shes the right weight again.

They are not stressed, they have their teeth checked regularly and are groomed near enough everyday even though i dont ride.

We are on very good grazing and if allowed to the grass gets very thick and lush very quickly. They are also rugged and fed in the winter as the grazing goes completley into mud.

I totally agree all horses are not the same, but i used to work a welsh mare for a friend and got her into fabulous shape, and it wasnt difficult to do, and ive just found out that shes on 4 acres of lush grazing and looks like shes infoal with triplets! :mad: Yet owner is using the excuse "its because shes native" It makes me so upset and angry that a fab little pony like that, that any mum would give her right arm for a pony like her and shes going to be crippled with lami before long :(
 
For whoever asked about how i manage them ..

Honey (bay) has a small section of the field cut off for her to grow from march - april as she looses some weight during the winter. She is then on that small section everyday for around a month until the grass is gone and Mysti (grey) stays in the main field, which has poor grazing in it as its only an acre and is grazed on all year round. Then for the rest of the summer/autumn they are on that acre and have a small haynet (soaked) between them and a handful of hifi with garlic and oil in everyday. They are lunged maybe once a week for 10mins.

Then the winter they are in at night, Honey gets mollichaff, nuts, speedibeet, oil and garlic twice a day and a 10lb haynet at night. Mysti gets hifi, nuts and garlic and a 6lb haynet at night. They get a large haynet between them during the day in the field. And they are hardly ever lunged in the winter as i have no school and the field is mush :(
 
Apologies for taking your post the wrong way. I read it to be that every native is easy to manage. :)

Clearly, each horse has to be managed sensibly and in a way that suits them. Yes, some horses such as yours could be managed so easily as you have seen that it didn't take long to sort them out.

This could be due to ignorance for a lot of people. They shouldn't have horses if they don't take due care for them but a lot of horses can be difficult to manage and finding the right livery can also be a nightmare. I know one place had one field for all mares and there were two that were constantly on the verge of laminitis because there wasn't any other field for them. One owner eventually moved hers so that she could section her off.

I was lucky with the first yard I had Tilly on because what worked with her was a starvation paddock for 2 days and then the main field for 5 days and this kept her weight ideal.
 
First, they do look good

HOWEVER there isn't much grass in that there field, it is easy when they can be out on sparse grazing. Many people have a choice between out on good dense grass or keep off the grass in a stable - in which case muzzling is the easy answer. Staving is never the solution, but exercise is necessary for good health
 
I was about to say the bay in the last pic where he's turned out is not what I would call a field, very lack off grass and the last pic off the grey turned out is what I call a servation paddock, ain't much grass about so that helps all the way. My ponies kept in fields like yours are fine. It's the people who don't manage the grass intake that will have problems. You wouldn't need to muzzle in your fields that they are in
 
I'm just a little confused as in post no. 21 you said they are on very good grazing, and in post number 22, you said the grazing was poor.

I was looking forward to finding out how you manage them, as I am having problems keeping the shetty's weight down, now I'm confused!!
 
Slightly frustrating post....

I have a Newforest filly, a part bred new forest filly and a warmblood all kept in the same field. The WB is slim and trim, the part bred is a good healthy weight, however my NF filly is overweight!! I'm constantly battling to keep her weight down!!

None are in work as the 2 fillies are yearlings and the WB has just been turned away. Even kept on a bald field throughout summer my NF filly was overweight whereas the other 2 dropped weight and were rather on the slim side.

Try looking after mine if you think it's easy!! Ideally I need one bald field for my NF, one field full of grass for my WB and a happy medium for the part bred NF.

She just seems to blow up at the sight of grass :confused:
 
Grazing in spring (lush - only honey was on this, mysti was in a pen by the gate) ..

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Grazing in summer (dry - but long)..

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Grazing in autumn (lush but short) ..


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Grazing in winter (non-existant!:p)...

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Just to add, they are on livery, i have 1 field to manage the best i can.
 
I have the other problem - keeping weight on my native!! She's had most of the summer off so she isn't too bad but as soon as she's in work weight falls of her (lucky cow ;) )
 
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