what can i give my fatty for energy?

Ellemoo

Ellemoo

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Advise needed please :o
My girl is one of those 'stays fat on thin air' types, and im desperately trying to get some lbs off of her waist line.. but she is really struggling to do a decent workout!
My farrier commented that she was looking a little 'too' well last time he visited, and with spring grass coming through she was gong to be at risk of getting laminitis if i wasnt careful.
So, shes in a field that is looking pretty bare but i guess shes eating it as its coming through because despite my best efforts she seems to be maintaining her round physique :(
Can anyone recomend anything i can feed her to give her more energy to do more work for longer? At the moment shes struggling to do more than 25 mins before shes dead on her feet :rolleyes:
Any suggestions would be useful... :)

Shes 14h Welsh X Arab 6yrs old and currently only gets ridden Tuesdays and both days on alternate wkends and occasionaly Thursdays - (due to my needing my OH to look after our sprogg) so she isnt exactly on the worlds most demanding fitness regime!! :p
 
What are you feeding atm? Mines a good doer ISH and have the same problem, but by restricting her feed and upping her workload she's lost weight and is fitter so therefore more forward going. She only gets turned out for 1-2hrs per day and is exercised 6 days a week for 1hr (longer for hacking). Tbh id up the work load and restrict the feed, if your really struggling with energy then id try the NAF energy, I had my mare on it for a while last summer and it worked a treat.
 
With regards to the weight can she be stabled with well soaked hay for some of the time? Or muzzled? Is there anyone who'd ride or lunge her a couple of times per week?
I used to have a similar problem with my hunter, he needed hard feed to give him the energy to shift his body weight so that I could get him fit!
I just added soaked whole oats to his daily feed, just a mugful to start with, they're useful because you can adjust the quantity to suit your needs and oats are higher in fibre than most cereals.
 
It's not food she needs but a steady, consistant fitness programme!! I would start by making her a track around the outside of her paddock and place soaked hay and water at strategic intervals to encourage her to move around.

Can you not get a sharer to ride her a few days a week?? Starting with walking and a little trotting - and by walking I mean WALKING at a brisk pace with an overtrack, not dawdling along looking at the scenery!!

One thing I would do is give her a vitamin and mineral supplement in a handful of hi-fi lite , very often fatties are lacking in vitamins and this can impact on their energy levels. I would give any high energy feeds to this girl as they are packed with calories which she will just happily store away as yet more fat!
 
She lives out 24/7, and doesnt get any 'feed' ontop of grazing. She gets a section of hay to eat on days when shes excercised and a few of those herb treat things each day when i check her over :):o
 
Not overly keen on the 'sharer' idea having seen a similar arrangement go pear shaped on my yard this week. Also shes not exactly an easy pony to ride and i wouldnt think theres many adults out there that want to share a pony like her? :p
As i said in my op, i cant exercise any more than i do because i have no help to look after my son :(
 
How old is your little one? Could you put him in his buggy while you lunge her, lunging will really help her loose weight.

Totally agree that you don't want to be giving her any extra feed but you need to give her a vit/min supplement. You could think about swapping hay for fast fibre, it's very high in fibre but very low in calories and if fed at rec amount it contains all vits/mins.

Also could you pay an instructor to exercise or do you have a friend that would ride her?
 
She may be lacking in vits and mins due to the restricted grazing so how about giving her a handful of Hifi good doer with a vit min supplement or a lo cal balancer. Or those equibite thingys if you don't want to give her a feed. What kind of work does she do? A long walking hack (really walking not just plodding) might be more interesting for her than schooling?
 
Apparently walking is one of the best ways to shift the lbs in horses, and I agree that finding a way to exercise her more is the key, along with possibly a good vit and min supplement as others have said.
 
Thanks for suggestions :) I think i shall go down the vitamin route- as it sounds a good thing to do.
My son is 17months old- no chance in hell of him sitting in a buggy haha he hates anything like that :rolleyes:
I dont have the finance to pay an instructor to help out unfortunately, and noone else on the yard has enough time to do anything ontop of their own horses.. also because my girl is a 14h midget i dont think people really want to waste their time riding her :( shes not a 'proper adult horse' :p its an aquired taste riding her :D
 
This pony needs work not any type of energy feed. Only work will shift the weight and the pony will not get any energy until the weight comes off. You may think that you are dieting her but unless she is consuming sod all calories and exercising she is at serious risk of metabolic syndrome and laminitis. A min/vit supplement mixed with 6 (yes 6) damped high fibre cubes as her meal, and soaked (12 hours) hay - either dried and resoaked or well washed after soaking - and a track round her field with water at one end and hay at several points to keep her moving. She wants to be taken out for a good stiff walk every day if possible, no ambling along but marching at a brisk pace. If no one will ride her can they long rein her for you?
 
More feed of any kind will just put more weight on.
The real problem is that she is not fit, that is why she can't work for more than 25 mins. You need to build up her stamina with slow work everyday. riding once a week just isn't going to get her fit. If you can't ride her or get any-one else to do so, can you put her in a filed with a hill? I have found that to make quite a difference to my fattie.
 
She's struggling because she is fat. She could be carrying the equivalent of another person on her at the mo. Do you lunge her at all or is it all ridden? I have three here that are on a constant diet. Two of them were really sluggish and lazy and were puffed out after only 20 minutes of exercise. The key is to forget about feeding energy and just concentrate on the diet. If she's still to fat on a bare paddock then cut the size in half. Let her eat it down until it's bare and then feed only weighed and soaked hay until she reached her target condition. You will find her energy increases as she loses the weight. Both the lazy geldings that have lost over 50 kg each here are now so off the leg.
 
The last thing I'd do is stable her like someone has suggested - you want her moving about as much as possible to work off the calories not standing about in a box. I'd half the field she's in now with electric tape for a start and if this doesn't give her enough to eat, give her soaked hay. Hay is definately better than grass. Work-wise try to work her slower but longer (ie. long slow hacks rather than short schooling sessions), she's obviously going to struggle with energy because she's too fat and no food will help with that! If you had the time, lunge her as well if possible. I wouldnt give her any extra hard feed at all, but make sure as someone has said that she is getting a high spec vit & min supplement (ideally with B vitamins and iron added as this can help with energy if the horse is difficient). The key is to never allow them to become overweight in the first place, she certainly shouldn't be coming out of the winter.
 
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If you don't want a sharer how about putting an ad up for someone to hack her. Either a small adult or a competent teen would do fine & you'd still maintain control. Agree with others its fitness she needs not feed.
 
I'm afraid if your horse is fat and lives on fresh air you should be staying away from ALL hard feed apart from a balancer. Energy feeds are high in calories so anything you feed will just make your horse fatter not fitter! Feed doesn't fitten a horse, good old fashioned exercise does. If I was you I would increase exercise and after a while your horse will loose weight and have increased energy levels.

You don't see overweight runners for a reason!
 
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