Unridden Fatties, how to lose the weight?

ShadowHunter

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 July 2012
Messages
628
Location
North West, UK
Visit site
I've a mare than is (unfortunately) a very good doer, she's also carrying far too many pounds. She's unridden due to multiple lameness issues, her ridden future is really uncertain at the moment. She's clipped on her belly and neck, on grassless turnout and on rationed hay. Still the weight is not shifting..
Does anybody else have an unridden good doer and manages to keep the weight off, and if so, how?
 

windand rain

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 November 2012
Messages
8,517
Visit site
Get her moving a thin track or walking out, get her coat off and rug as little as you can get away with. Movement is key and getting a little cold is incentive to move. Make sure any forage is spread around so she has to move to eat standing at a net is just making her move less. Put her ration in 6 haynets if you cannot just spread it around and make sure they are as far apart as possible
 

Bonnie Allie

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 June 2019
Messages
480
Visit site
As with humans, there is now great new studies about the impact of gut bacteria and microbiomes on weight loss.

As a human I have had success in changing my gut health, dropping 5kg by doing so and I have now moved the same thinking across to my podgy mare.

might be worth investigating?
 

Not_so_brave_anymore

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 January 2020
Messages
632
Visit site
The best thing for mine is a good brisk walk several times a week. But it's almost impossible for me at the moment for lots of reasons (always having at least one blinking kid at home isolating being a big one) and my mare hasn't even left her field for over a month now ?

I would say there must be something metabolic going on with yours though, because since the nights have got longer and colder (even though its still quite mild in the day) I've been able to have her on ad lib hay and she hasn't put on any weight (and she was quite heavily restricted during the spring/summer /early autumn)
 
Top