Tips for getting weight off the pregnant looking horse please?!

L

Lucinda_x

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I am actually embarrassed by my horses weight and would really like some idea's on how to get it off of her!

So far we have....

- Restricted grazing
- Changed feeds around to the equivilent of a weightwatchers diet - but i am still feeding sugarbeet? Should i change that at all?
- Ridden/lunged 6 days a week including fast and hill work

Honestly im getting worried about her weight and would really appriciate some help on what to do!

Thanks
Lucy :)
 
Same as you would for yourself:-

weigh everything - dont guess - look up what she/he is supposed to eat ie kgs in roughage and stick to it - (make sure you are reading your scale correctly - I know someone who was reading the kgs as lbs)
It does not happen overnight
Do not strave the weigh off him/her
Use 12 hour soaked and then rinsed through hay or bulk up roughage with straw
Dont feed concentrates if you dont have too
Carrotts and treats - do count as food !
Be honest with the work - she/he needs to get slightly out of breath to be doing any good once fit enough to trot
and lastly if all else fails, keep them unrugged if unclipped

You have a good 7 months to make steady progress and tbh the weight should come off as slowly as it went on to have any lasting effects

:)
 
I wouldn't feed sugar beet. What sort of restricted grazing do you have? How long is he out etc? My lad has looked the best he ever has this summer, he's in from 4pm-9am with 4 sec of hay (he's 17hh) 1 feed of lo cal baileys balancer and a handful of chaff. Ridden 4/5 times a week for about 45m, a lot of canter work and a couple if jumping sessions.

X
 
She's in a bare paddock overnight (Thats not ideal but we're about to swap around to in at night). Hopefully i'll notice a difference next spring :)
 
We use sugarbeet to put/keep weight on our oldie, so i certainly wouldn't feed to something on a diet.
I have a similar problem with the horse I bought in January. She got colic when we fed her on barley straw, so now part of her forage is soaked, the best thing about that is that it slows her down and she still has some left each morning. She has a small handful of dried grass to carry her Pink Powder, (which she desperately needs). Her exercise is mainly at a walk, with short bursts of trot. We monitor her weight weekly and adjust her feed accordingly. Her average weight loss is 1cm per week. She is a big girl, so she is actually off the kg scale on the weight-tape. My intention is that she will be a normal weight by the time they go out 24/7 next Spring.
 
Have had the same problem with my mare - what I have done is

Stable her at night on shavings, giving her one slice of good quality meadow hay in a hay net with very small holes. A small feed - enough soaked sugarbeet to cover the bottom of the bucket, along with her balancer pellets - the sort that are just for feeding minerals and vitamins, no extra foods, and her linseed, sunflower seeds for her coat.

She comes in around 5:30pm and goes back out at 8am. Her grazing is very short - after everyone else has cleaned it out. Along with her lunging she has got down to a reasonable size.

Haylage is a high source of energy so will probebly be far too much for her.

I laugh when people moan about their high maintenance horses - mine life on fresh air!
 
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