pistolpete
Well-Known Member
Options are to risk fatness in the summer and be stricter with no rugs/clipping etc in winter or slim now and worry less about ad lib hay in winter. I really fancy a TB from this perspective!
Top tips for fatties!
- Thread starter Lintel
- Start date
Bernster
Well-Known Member
It is trickier than I’d realised having a good doer. Struggling to manage my boy this year in particular.
Polos Mum
Well-Known Member
I'm brining mine in with the heat (limited shade in the fields) and I've put a tub with 2 x large stubbs scoops of top chop zero in it - which is being ignored.
Fine, brilliant even, they have food they could eat (if they wanted to) they are deciding to scream at me as I walk past instead.
They are coming in off a "bald" field but doind 3-4 poos each in the 6 hours they are in.
My logic is that if they aren't walking around then food intake needs to be minimal - I'm honestly thinking ulcers would be easier to manage than lami at this point so if they decide not to eat the food provided for a 6 hour period - tough on them.
Fine, brilliant even, they have food they could eat (if they wanted to) they are deciding to scream at me as I walk past instead.
They are coming in off a "bald" field but doind 3-4 poos each in the 6 hours they are in.
My logic is that if they aren't walking around then food intake needs to be minimal - I'm honestly thinking ulcers would be easier to manage than lami at this point so if they decide not to eat the food provided for a 6 hour period - tough on them.
FlyingCircus
Well-Known Member
Please do just consider that eating very short grass is bad on both the teeth and potentially the gut. My (fat!) mare was rushed into emergency colic surgery due to having an accumulation of soil/sand which was the result of grazing too-short grass.
I'd never considered it a possibility prior to it happening. It was awful and I hope no one has to go through the same.
I'd never considered it a possibility prior to it happening. It was awful and I hope no one has to go through the same.
Patterdale
Well-Known Member
I’m sorry this happened to your pony, but this is an extremely rare occurrence whereas laminitis kills ponies daily.
People in general need to get their heads around the fact that these ponies are designed to live on nothing. They do not need forage in front of them all day - the amount of people giving soaked hay 4 times a day to ponies out on bare paddocks then being unable to understand why they are still fat just baffles me I’m afraid.
Gloi
Too little time, too much to read.
That's the good thing about poo picking, you can tell by the number and hardness of the poos how much they are actually eating. So long as the poo is relatively normal and over about 8-10 per pony they are fine even if they are complaining.
awelshandawarmblood
Well-Known Member
Mine are on a bare track & I move the inner fence to give a touch more if I think its needed. Keeps the weight down off them lovely & has done the last 3 yrs.
pistolpete
Well-Known Member
Not_so_brave_anymore
Well-Known Member
After years of thinking that a track was the only way, I've finally given up this year. It was just too many metres of electric to maintain, and even a track round the edge of just 2 acres was still too much grass. I've now got an almost unridden (ploddy lead rein) EMS pony on the dreaded "postage stamp starvation paddock" (approx 30mx40m) and she's doing really well.
I scatter hay thinly all around the paddock, which I think helps to block the sunlight and suppress the grass growing? They don't stand still unless they're dozing, and they have plenty to pick at, so no food aggression, which has been a big issue in the past.
I think it's a case of finding the compromise that works best for your circumstances.
I scatter hay thinly all around the paddock, which I think helps to block the sunlight and suppress the grass growing? They don't stand still unless they're dozing, and they have plenty to pick at, so no food aggression, which has been a big issue in the past.
I think it's a case of finding the compromise that works best for your circumstances.
MuddyMonster
Well-Known Member
Mine lost so much weight when he came off of a track ? He'd gotten obese as he just didn't move enough & un soaked ad-lib hay (part of the livery package so couldn't change or alter it it) was the last thing he needed.
I've heard lots of similar situations over the last few years.
Don't get me wrong, I think they can work really well but I don't think they are the be all and end all they are often made out to be.
Nasicus
Well-Known Member
Use the terrain to your advantage!
Here's my track setup on 1 acre (total field is 2.5, saving 1.5 for winter), it's on a very steep hill. Water at the top, middle paddocks strip grazed from the bottom up. I initially stripgrazed around the outside, and once that was gone I sectioned off the top and right sides to rest (as per small diagram) and started strip grazing up paddock 2. As mentioned, it's very steep, so from the gate/water the girls have to go down, around and increasingly up to get to the daily strip of grass, then down around and back up the steep hill to get to water, rinse and repeat multiple times a day. I initially considered stripgrazing from the top down, to make it easier for myself (at least to start), but opted not to do that as they wouldn't have to move as much to get from grass to water and back again. Could have made them go allll the way around the track to get to the top, but wanted to alternately rest the outer track so as not to completely nuke it.
Same for the middle, I could have set it up as a maze that strip grazes through all three paddocks, but again wanted to ability to rest as it's only an acre. It is tempting though, considering it's on a hill. I could block off the top on the left, make them go all the way around, enter the maze top left paddock 1, go down there, enter paddock 2 at bottom, graze up, enter paddock 3 at top, graze to the bottom of 3 then have to go all the way back to get to the water. They'd have to go up and down the hill 10 times to get from water to grass and back again by the time it reaches the bottom of paddock 3. Something to think about to next year maybe
Here's my track setup on 1 acre (total field is 2.5, saving 1.5 for winter), it's on a very steep hill. Water at the top, middle paddocks strip grazed from the bottom up. I initially stripgrazed around the outside, and once that was gone I sectioned off the top and right sides to rest (as per small diagram) and started strip grazing up paddock 2. As mentioned, it's very steep, so from the gate/water the girls have to go down, around and increasingly up to get to the daily strip of grass, then down around and back up the steep hill to get to water, rinse and repeat multiple times a day. I initially considered stripgrazing from the top down, to make it easier for myself (at least to start), but opted not to do that as they wouldn't have to move as much to get from grass to water and back again. Could have made them go allll the way around the track to get to the top, but wanted to alternately rest the outer track so as not to completely nuke it.
Same for the middle, I could have set it up as a maze that strip grazes through all three paddocks, but again wanted to ability to rest as it's only an acre. It is tempting though, considering it's on a hill. I could block off the top on the left, make them go all the way around, enter the maze top left paddock 1, go down there, enter paddock 2 at bottom, graze up, enter paddock 3 at top, graze to the bottom of 3 then have to go all the way back to get to the water. They'd have to go up and down the hill 10 times to get from water to grass and back again by the time it reaches the bottom of paddock 3. Something to think about to next year maybe
SEL
Well-Known Member
Well the heat is helping. All 4 of mine seemed to have sulked in the shelters yesterday rather than walking round the track for their hay - which was in the shade of the hedge but they obviously cba to go and find it. The two ponies had a proper gallop about earlier this morning with lots of bucking and farting. Both were drenched afterwards whilst I mentally ticked off that they'd had a good 15 mins of aerobic exercise so might have used up a calorie or two
My lot are on an L-shape track around 2.25 acres and like @Nasicus I move the fence to strip graze as and when the track is bald. They don't have ad lib hay and the stuff I do have is coarse and low NSC so they don't gorge on it. Its also the other side of the track to the shelters and the water so if they want to eat they've got to move
Its worrying that some of the 'professional' tracks are set up so the horses don't move around. The best should be sorting out their water, hay, shelter etc to encourage movement
My lot are on an L-shape track around 2.25 acres and like @Nasicus I move the fence to strip graze as and when the track is bald. They don't have ad lib hay and the stuff I do have is coarse and low NSC so they don't gorge on it. Its also the other side of the track to the shelters and the water so if they want to eat they've got to move
Its worrying that some of the 'professional' tracks are set up so the horses don't move around. The best should be sorting out their water, hay, shelter etc to encourage movement
Oreo&Amy
Well-Known Member
Most horsey people should be ??
TotalMadgeness
Well-Known Member
Mine are in grazed down strips on a hill overnight only. They are brought in during the day and fed oat straw mixed with some timothy haylage. They are exercised daily - even just a session of loose schooling helps. To combat any potential ulcer / colic issue the big horse gets some oat straw in his field too. The connemara doesn't gorge like the big horse does so he gets his fence moved slightly every day so he has a little grass to eat over night. Neither horse is fat but it is very time consuming and expensive plus I doubt I could do this on a livery yard. They still get 2 feeds a day with their supplements - just low sugar feeds.
Lintel
Well-Known Member
@Nasicus thank you for the diagram!
I have bitten the bullet and invested in a lot more electric fence posts and some wire. I’m going to track it! Well… at least try it! Hoping this will work as a lot term summer solution but will still be turfing them out in winter to deflate!
I have bitten the bullet and invested in a lot more electric fence posts and some wire. I’m going to track it! Well… at least try it! Hoping this will work as a lot term summer solution but will still be turfing them out in winter to deflate!