Top tips for fatties!

[Lintel]

Needing a kick up the rear end, I have a real HUGE Hipo issue this year! Sadly of my own doing, having a recent human addition has detracted my focus from the Hipo this summer and his weight seems to be literally ROLLING away from me!

Top tips all welcomed to jog my memory

I’ll me start…

Never let your guard down, one minute you’ll have a lean machine.
A week later- … can geldings be in foal?

 

[Equi]

I would regularly pass a lovely little grey welsh mare, beyond pregnant. I waited longlingly to see the little bundle beside her. One say she wasn't there so i got excited to see what would come out with her a few days later. After a while i got a little worried because she didn't reappear. Then one day there she was! A lovely little bouncing baby blue muzzle upon her face, and a big -ahem- hanging out.

Top tip - clip the buggers in november and stick them out in a rain sheet (can bring in at night, or stick a 50g on if out and youre feeling particularly nice) Come feb they will drop the pounds so much you will start feeding them up.

Top Tip 2 - don't feed them up come feb.

 

[Pippity]

Top tip - clip the buggers in november and stick them out in a rain sheet (can bring in at night, or stick a 50g on if out and youre feeling particularly nice) Come feb they will drop the pounds so much you will start feeding them up.

Sadly, not possible with mine due to PSSM.

Work them. More than that. No, more than that. A bit more. More. MORE.

 

[Equi]

Work them. More than that. No, more than that. A bit more. More. MORE.

heheheh hehehehhhh hhehehehehehhhh

I should be locked up.

 

[J&S]

Work is what gets if off my little fatty and the decent sized clip in winter with only a very light rug. We don't have much grass either.

 

[Lintel]

? thanks all this far- sadly I have entirely missed last years winter boat (normal tactic is to rough it and come into summer abit ribby!) however due to new arrival just before winter 21/22 riding was nil and I had a lump of lard going into spring/summer!
Bloody longing for this years winter and lack of grass, wishing the summer away and it’s lovely grass away- it’s terrible?

 

[SEL]

Track the field to minimise grass. Feed hay that is rough & low NSC (or soak or mix with straw)

 

[PapaverFollis]

If you think they have "no grass" they probably need a bit less... they need to be hungry. I know I've got it about right when they are whinnying at me for food 90% of the times I walk out of the house and coming in at a canter when called.

A set up where they have food available (like the place where the better grass is; freshly exposed strip grazing for example) at one end and water at the other end. And hay/straw in yet another place. Movement, movement, movement. No square fields!

Work. Work. Work. Work. More work. I'm not sure it even has to be that intense, just really consistent. At least 1hr a day, hack or school. Remembering that that is officially "light work" and should be done on no feed (other than vits and mins).

My fatty is also less fat now she's not herd leader and my bossy, slightly stressy, gelding is in charge and keeps them more on the move and gets first pick of food (luckily he is less of a fatty than her). Herd life is good for them, but that's just luck - difficult to control.

If they have to be stabled don't think they need forage in front of them all the time. Mine get a small amount every four hours and if they are in overnight they get an appropriate ration at 10pm and if they eat it all in an hour that is their problem.

Mine are still slightly chubbier than I would like but we do OK. I think I need to work them with more intensity and sweating to get them any thinner. We just pootle in walk and trot mostly.

I think the biggest thing I have learned is to accept having to deal with hungry, slightly hangry, horses! And not being upset by that. If there is a clear routine for them in terms of when to expect food it is easier as they know when it is coming and don't get stress and excited at other times.

 

[HashRouge]

Don't keep them with a poor doer! I long for the days when my two had the same management requirements, but sadly the 29 year old can now eat pretty much whatever she wants, while the 19 year old Welsh...can't. I find that whatever I think is "not much" grass is still enough to keep him looking very portly. At least this dry weather means my field isn't growing very much!!

 

[scats]

I feel your pain. Both good doers. One loses weight more easily with restrictions, but the other doesn’t.
Muzzle on all summer. No feed other than something to carry vitamins. Work as much as you can/they can.

 

[rabatsa]

Make a track. Narrow it down. Half it again. End up with it so narrow that they have to walk all the time to eat any blades of grass.

Follow my own advice.

 

[tda]

Great advice from everyone
If they do need to be in then straw mixed with hay is good to slow down the eating.
I don't ride much nowadays, so pony got very fat, she's been off with a friend for 3 weeks now, gently ridden nearly every day, she's looking much better only thing is I have to keep it up when she comes home. I think I'll have to look for a sharer

 

[Lintel]

Make a track. Narrow it down. Half it again. End up with it so narrow that they have to walk all the time to eat any blades of grass.

Follow my own advice.

? Particularly like that one.

Following your own advice is paramount!

and to everyone who said when you think you have no grass… You need less, absolutely ?

 

[Gloi]

If they say they are hungry in a bare field count the poos. They are lying saying there is no grass if it is still coming out of the back.

 

[Wishfilly]

This might be slightly controversial, but I know a few people who control weight by limiting turnout (e.g. daytimes only etc, not horses not having daily turnout) all year round- obviously movement is good to burn fat, but if the grass is lush, then often the calories in will still be higher than the calories out from just mooching around a field. Whereas hay (or even straw) is usually lower calorie, and you can restrict intake more easily.

If it's got to the point where you need the horse to drop weight, not just not put on, then I'd take a vet's advice put potentially keeping in overnight with weighed haynets etc.

 

[pistolpete]

I did a blanket clip year before last which really helped. I’m in same boat OP. Now in the grazing muzzle world ?

 

[Fjord]

Can you track your field? I'm cutting down all the lovely long grass so Bobbi has to walk around to find any. She gets soaked hay twice a day and a token feed of speedibeet and chaff for supplements. Definitely clip out and underrug in winter.

 

[Ceriann]

Really mean fields (mine are bare and still not losing weight) and v strict rationing in the stable (they are in during the day). They dropped a decent amount over winter but am trying really hard to stop the weight gain I had last summer (despite tracking). My ridden one does something 6 days a week - including walks in hand.

 

[PapaverFollis]

Fields definitely need to be mean! This was mine a month ago, it is a little greener now. It isn't good for the field but my current plan is to use a section like this each summer, then rotate so it will get a couple of summers of rest after being so eaten down!

 

[Lintel]

Thanks all once again! - those with track systems, silly question…
What do you do with the grass in the middle!?

 

[Fjord]

Thanks all once again! - those with track systems, silly question…
What do you do with the grass in the middle!?

You could graze it in the winter?

 

[Patterdale]

Do not believe the hype about needing to give constant forage. A fat horse on a bare paddock needs nothing extra. The fact that it’s overweight should tell you that it is getting food.

I am always completely baffled by people who own fat ponies and then revolve their lives around feeding them. Just don’t feed them much and they’ll lose weight, there’s genuinely no other way. Even exercise will only take you so far.

 

[Fjord]

This is how much 'grass' Bobbi has. I strim it right down and she picks at what she can find. She still poos for England so clearly the soaked hay is providing enough fibre.

 

[ponynutz]

Scientific answer same as humans - need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight and exercise will help (you'll be able to feed more and still lose the weight with regular exercise but can be done without if you're still busy!)

https://equimed.com/health-centers/equine-feed-calculator

 

[pistolpete]

So depressing. My yard owner won’t let me track or even take ping into a pen so it’s muzzle or nothing.

 

[rabatsa]

Thanks all once again! - those with track systems, silly question…
What do you do with the grass in the middle!?

Hay. The middle of my track has just produced 8 large round bales and this was after sheep grazed the field in early spring. I will have to top the regrowth at some stage this summer as my equines are too fat to strip graze it as in previous years. I am a beastie down and it really makes a difference.

 

[southerncomfort]

? Particularly like that one.

Following your own advice is paramount!

and to everyone who said when you think you have no grass… You need less, absolutely ?

I turned my mini shetland out in a pen overnight that looked bare to me. This morning their are six droppings in there!

 

[rabatsa]

I turned my mini shetland out in a pen overnight that looked bare to me. This morning their are six droppings in there!

Those dropping will be from what has been eaten before last night, unless your pony has a very quick moving digestive system.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

If you bring in, provide plain oat straw chaff as the only available food, they will eat it if they are genuinely hungry

 

[southerncomfort]

Those dropping will be from what has been eaten before last night, unless your pony has a very quick moving digestive system.

Prior to putting her in the pen she was on a bare track, and I mean bare, so my point still stands.