What is the correct weight for a 14.1 Haflinger Mare?!

[Potato!]

I took Donna's rug off last night and lets just say you would think that she was in foal (she was turned out with a gelding who kept covering her in may for about 1 month or so until i put her on regumate then again when she came off it for about a week in august) . I nearly died of shock.

All she gets is a pony size haybar full of haylege in the evening and a feed of 1 x scoop of molichaf and 1 x scoop of sugar beet. I have now taken her rugs off as her clip has pretty much grown out but will be clipped again in the next week or so. She is only ridden at weekends at the mo because of work and dark nights. She is turned out with another pony on a 3.5 acre field but im not allowed to section it off because they poach up along the fence lines and she gets a grazing muzzle off in about 10 minutes. To be honest the is not much grass at the mo anyway.

Haylege is the only option for me as i dont hay the storage space for hay.
I was thinking of taking her off the beet and giving her some lo cal balancer instead. What do you guys think?

 

[TGM]

As a rough guide, your mare will be about the correct weight if you can feel her ribs easily, but not see them. Her neck should not be cresty and she should not have a gutter down the middle of her bottom, otherwise she will be overweight.

Don't worry too much about the belly as this fluctuates according to how much fibre is in it at anyone time.

If she is overweight, then I would just give her a tiny handful of Fast Fibre or low sugar chaff mixed with a vit/min supplement such as Benevit or Equivite.

 

[Potato!]

No i don't think she has any ribs lol, and there is fat pads on her shoulders but no crest. Her quarter are pretty big too.

 

[yvonne36]

Hello friend!! I also have a Haflinger so I can sympathise with you. I really, really struggle to get and keep the weight off her. She is out all day in a relatively small field with 5 other horses and comes in at night to two small haynets, doubled up so that the holes are small and she takes longer to eat it as she drinks hay! She has one scoop of Hi-Fi light and a wee drop carrots. She is only ridden at the weekends because of work, weather etc. In spring/summer I don't change her routine but she wears a greenguard grazing muzzle. She is unclipped as I never rug her. I don't know what else to do apart from really, really cut down the hay and then it will lead to other problems I believe. Good luck with yours.

 

[PennyJ]

I would aim for something between 400-450kg on the weigh tape.

Does she need anything to eat at all? You say there's not much grass in that field, but if she's as tubby as you say then she is finding it somewhere. If she was mine I think I would cut out the feed completely, reduce the haylage dramatically and see what difference that made in a week.

If you can't restrict the amount of grazing she has access to and she won't keep a muzzle on, how are you planning on managing her weight when the spring grass comes through?

 

[Clava]

Agree with PennyJ, she probably doesn't need any extra food. I'm giving mine a handful of speedibeet and fast fibre and she's doing well or rather, she's fat (as you know she was a toast rack in September) and I have little grass now.

 

[SO1]

I think if you can't swap to hay or increase her exercise you are going to struggle to keep her weight down.

Most Hayledge is very fattening and I would not give it to my good doer by choice, he would get huge. Soaked hay is the normal way of managing weight loss. Some sort of hayledge are worse than others can you swap to another type I think the horsehage timothy is better than the ryegrass types.

If you can't do anything about the hayledge reduce the quantity and perhaps replace some of it with a low caleries chaff that is mainly made of straw (check the DE on the bags lower is better!)

I would stop the sugar beet, I am presuming that you are feeding a scoop of sugar beet as in the soaked form not mean that the scoop is the dry weight? If she has to have something when the others are fed then perhaps a couple of handfuls of good doer chaff.

My good doer a similar size as yours is ridden at the weekend only at the moment, is only on one handful of dengie good doer chaff and a handful of slim and healthy once a day. He lives out though. I would not be able to keep him at a reasonable weight on your regime!

How much work is your pony getting at the weekends? Can you take her for long slow rides to help increase her exercise?

 

[Potato!]

I forgot to say that i have only been turning her out for about 5 hours per day. to be honest she has never been like this before so im not sure what to do with her in spring.

We go out riding for several hours both days over the weekend.

The haylege i have is large round bale haylege but it is so dry it is more or less hay.

just to give you an idea of the size she is look at my signature she is bigger that that.