Why do some horses not get fat?

Mule

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I was skinny malinky for most of my life (in my 50’s now) as in 8 and a half stone 5’8, ate food like it was going out of fashion, (2 roast dinners!) didn’t put an ounce of weight on, sister, father etc all the same, didn’t really exercise etc..genetics has a lot to do with it in my opinion..😁
I was skinny until I gave up the fags.
I no longer am. . . I'm still a bit sore about it too:rolleyes:
 

little_critter

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I was skinny malinky for most of my life (in my 50’s now) as in 8 and a half stone 5’8, ate food like it was going out of fashion, (2 roast dinners!) didn’t put an ounce of weight on, sister, father etc all the same, didn’t really exercise etc..genetics has a lot to do with it in my opinion..😁
Same here - I wouldn't say I eat loads but I've never needed to watch what I eat.
My pony is a good doer, currently on a very dry scrubby paddock which has already been grazed off by horse 2. She is still a bit heavier than I would like.
I actually find it hard in winter too. I still have to restrict grazing, but the grass is less interesting and the weather is worse so she is more keen to break through the fencing than she is in summer.
 

Mule

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Some breeds are not suitable for keeping on pasture as my lovely vet said" Welsh ponies are designed to live on stones and lichen, anything else and they get too fat" It's certainly been true of the welsh ponies I've had and they have also been eating machines. Even muzzled they still manage to consume a lot of grass.
Especially nowadays with fertilization and abundant ryegrass. Land is generally so rich.
 

Hormonal Filly

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Definitely genetic and age related.. one lady on our yard has 3 horses. All warmblood cross types, on rich green grass and plenty of it. They just got given access to another field.. never been grazed, green as can be. They still don't look fat! They aren't 'thin' but a nice size, I would of at least expected a grass belly! Surely so much grass can't be good for them?!

Then one of mine just looks at grass and puts on the pounds!
 

MyBoyChe

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I wonder this every time I look over my garden fence!! 20 acre field, fairly rich pasture, previously grazed by cattle or cut for hay, now rented to a local travelling family. He currently has 1 stallion, 8 mares and 3 foals on it, in the past has had more mares. None of them are ridden or driven, they get big round bales of hay in winter and none are obese or laminitic. If I put my highland in there he would eat himself dead within a month. The only real difference is of course he doesnt rug anything, but mine only ever wears a lw or mw at a push and is fully clipped!!
 

TGM

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I think much of it is down to individual appetites and natural activity levels. My rounder ones seem to have food as the main priority in their life and spend most of their time with their heads down eating, whereas the leaner ones don't and will spend a lot of time just standing or wandering about when they could be eating. I read somewhere that 25% of labradors lack the gene that tells them they are full up and I suspect that may be true of some of our porkier equines! I'm not convinced it is always due to them being restricted in earlier life as I once bred a foal out of a 7/8TB mare by a native stallion. Mare and offspring had the same regime and the same access to hay/grazing but the youngster put on weight at the drop of a hat whilst the mare kept a good weight and I knew the youngster hadn't had restricted food intake at any point.

With regards to humans, often the leaner people will have high activity levels even if they don't do sports or other types of 'official' exercise. I remember seeing a TV programme on metabolism and there was a chap that said he ate loads but didn't exercise and never put on weight. However, when they put him under close supervision it turned out he was actually very active in that he was never really still, and would fidget and constantly move even when he was sitting down, so was burning off calories that way!
 

scats

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I think that a number of factors come into play- quality of grazing/hay, quantity of food, exercise level etc but also breeding and genetics. Natives were designed to be extremely efficient at storing fat to help them survive when the harsh winter arrived and grazing/weather was poor. The average livery yard or riding school nowadays will have a lot of natives or native X types and there are certainly far more of them nowadays around here than there were 20-25 years ago. That in-built fat deposit system and today’s cushy lifestyles on good grazing with very little work (in a lot of cases), it’s really no wonder that these types tend to balloon.
 

spoo

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Why can some humans eat junk food all day and not gain weight whilst others only have to look at a doughnut and put on a stone....
 

only_me

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Both poor and good are stressful IMO. Most of my experience with poor doers there has been underlying pain.

No wouldn’t agree with poor doers had underlying pain. No matter how much food we gave billy as a 5/6 year old he never became fat as he just stopped eating when full!

If a horse eats till he is full it is hard to “feed up” even with good quality food.

If you have a horse that suddenly becomes poor then yes would need to investigate, especially their teeth, but for a horse that’s a known Poor doer then it’s most likely just them.
 

Dave's Mam

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Some ponies burn off energy even in the field. Dave plays a lot, he and his herd are not constantly eating, they play, snooze and groom.

Obviously, this active lifestyle takes its toll.

66160526_2167392896717199_3657619974911950848_n.jpg


Knackered.
 

DabDab

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My skinny minnie eats a fair amount, but she always stops when she's full and she is always on the go in the field. She also properly trickle feeds, as opposed to stuffing her face and then standing around without eating for a bit.

I'm always amazed though at how much energy a native can have on very little food, they are certainly very efficient beasties.
 

little_critter

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I think low level movement must help. My fatty will stand glued to the spot stuffing her face, only moving a step when she has exhausted the patch of grass she's stood on. She has always been on individual turnout.
Last winter she was turned out with another mare who was boss mare (not nasty - but was boss mare), this mare made my fatty move more, moving her off the patch of grass she wanted, herding her around a bit. Nothing frantic but it just made her move a bit and interrupted the eating. She was easier to manage weight-wise that winter.
Sadly i can't repeat that next winter because my boss mare was PTS in March, the gelding I have bought has shown a liking for chewing rugs so I think I'll need to separate them to prevent spending a fortune on turnout rugs (and before I get scolded for rugging a fatty, I rug as lightly as possible; either a no-fill or a 50g just to keep the rain off, she also has a neck and belly clip to help keep her on the cool side of comfortable)
 

vhf

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I have one who has varied by 2 girth-holes in 11 years! She will look at the last 2 mouthfuls of a bucket feed and apparently say "nah, it will just go on my hips"! Spends half her life horizontal, but if she's on the go, she's 100% energy bunny. My fatty has only recently started to relax when there's still food to be seen, (+ she's an excellent converter!); she acted like she worried she might never see food again if she didn't eat it now - yet I know she's never been underfed.
I am in the "Used to be able to eat anything, now I'm middle aged"... category :rolleyes:.
 

catkin

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I wonder this every time I look over my garden fence!! 20 acre field, fairly rich pasture, previously grazed by cattle or cut for hay, now rented to a local travelling family. He currently has 1 stallion, 8 mares and 3 foals on it, in the past has had more mares. None of them are ridden or driven, they get big round bales of hay in winter and none are obese or laminitic. If I put my highland in there he would eat himself dead within a month. The only real difference is of course he doesnt rug anything, but mine only ever wears a lw or mw at a push and is fully clipped!!

Sounds like your neighbour keeps a breeding herd. A breeding herd will usually need a higher plane of nutrition than a non-breeding herd of equivalent animals - making babies ain't maintenance food rations-wise.
 
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