# How to make a horse lose weight?



## loverly (28 February 2011)

Although not the offical end of the winter but my horse has come out with a barrel body (no crease along the back). You have to press quite hard to feel his ribs :/

He is exercised daily (6 out of 7 days) goes for two hacks a week for 2 hours including trotting and cantering with no problems. Fed a high fibre mix and a bit of sugarbeet and as much hay as he can eat!

How can I get him to loose the flab?! 

(would upload a photo but don't know how)


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## tasteofchristmaschaos (28 February 2011)

Loose the feed and soak the hay before you give it to him


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## stencilface (28 February 2011)

How much turnout does he have?  I think the grass has started to come through now, so if it were me I would be cutting back on the feed and hay.

Is he clipped and rugged?  If he still has a full coat I would be removing rugs (within reason!) to make him work to keep warm. Our pony is out hairy and unrugged atm, and has dropped a little weight thankfully, otherwise he's far too much of a good doer come spring


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## abbieandfiona (28 February 2011)

No sugerbeet for a start, if you want to feed him them a lower fat diet like fiber beet, hifi or fastfibre. Soak his hay as well, plenty of turnout. If full coat then loose all rugs.


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## loverly (28 February 2011)

He get around 6 hours turnout a day. Has a hunter clip but hes in L/W rugs to get him to move!

He only gets one scoop (the small one) of feed a day but a haybar full of hay. Shall re-think the feed! Any ideas?


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## Oscar162 (28 February 2011)

Cut the food back. Don't give add lib hay. Put on lighter rugs.
My girl gets restricted hay, just a small miserable excuse of a feed so she can get her sups, is naked during the day and just a 70grm rug at night. works six days a week as well....weight is only just shifting...feel a bit cruel as it is clod here at night ( north Scotland)  but I cant have a fat horse when the grass comes through.


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## tallyho! (28 February 2011)

Give him chaff (if any fed at all) and mix his soaked hay with oat straw half and half.

If that doesn't work - send him to the gym!


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## Spudlet (28 February 2011)

You could swap the l/w for a rainsheet or even have a nekkid pony He will burn off calories keeping warm. Some of the horses at work have had no rugs on all winter (they are unclipped and have shelter, but even so, it just shows how tough they are!), so I would imagine a slightly podgy horse will be fine now that hopefully the worst of the freezing weather is past.


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## frankie8 (28 February 2011)

Does he really need hard feed? My mare is just coming back into work after injury so I have had to be quite strict with her to stop her getting porky! You could soak his hay over night as others have suggested but also can you not use haynets so he always has access to fibre but will limit the amount he recieves? My mare has hers double netted over night to last her and this works well. If you soak the hay then I would be giving him a multi vit, speedibeet is great for getting this into them as it's suitable for laminitics and you only need a tiny amount to soak up the powder. Also limit his grazing by reducing the size of his field. And get the rugs off if he doesn't need them, Pippa has been naked all winter! Other than this lots of brisk walking, 30 mins a day if you can. Hope you get the weight off soon!


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## Snowysadude (28 February 2011)

I would give ad lib hay if thats what hes used to but halve the hay and give 1/2 as oat straw


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## nikkimariet (28 February 2011)

Think the hard feed you are giving him is appropriate for the level of work you are doing. BUT, you haven't said how much of each you are giving him?

I would cut back on the hay, soak it possibly, but deffo cut back on that.

What about his grazing? Is it restricted? If you can restrict it, I would do so.... Have you considered a muzzle?? Bruce is a good doer, fortunately with 3 people riding him 6/7 days a week for at least an hour each day he is looking very slim and trim, and seems to be very happy in himself. He usually wears a muzzle as soon as the spring grass comes in (which my father then does his MAN bit and mowers it all to 1cm short to help), and then his hay gets restricted also.

I don't agree with taking his rugs off to make him cold so that he loses his weight, I think that's unnecessary.


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## spotty_pony (28 February 2011)

I would get rid of the hard feed and replace with a Balancer. My good doer is currently hunting fit and we've been out quite a few times this season - he is fed Baileys Lo-Cal and is the perfect weight for his type and has plenty of energy (sometimes too much! ) on just a Balancer.


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## loverly (28 February 2011)

He has hardly any feed. Just a small scoop of hifi mix and a drizzel of the sugarbeet. He is in a large field but there is hardly any grass in there at the moment. 

Will cut back on his hay - not sure on the idea of making him go naked as he's only recently been clipped and is quite a sensitive chap. 

Will definitely consider the muzzel for when the grass starts to shoot up!


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## JenTaz (28 February 2011)

taking his rugs off would definately be uneccessary and rather cruel, after all its only the end of feb and its still pretty chilly! all i can think is make sure he is working hard, push him as much as you can really, my boy is a bit porky getting two feeds a day on straw during the day and two nets at night, fully clipped with a l/w rug on in the stable, it just depends on the individual horse.


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## nikkimariet (28 February 2011)

One last tip, I've found that most muzzles rub a little, so duct tape a little bit of dead sheep across the nose helps!! xoxo


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## loverly (28 February 2011)

Thank-you everyone - all advice has been taken onboard  x


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## trendybraincell (28 February 2011)

nikkimariet said:



			One last tip, I've found that most muzzles rub a little, so duct tape a little bit of dead sheep across the nose helps!! xoxo
		
Click to expand...

I spent AGES last year wrapping duct tape round every single nylon part of The Welsh Cobs muzzle...and this is how the sod thanked me!!













Glad I didn't treat him to dead sheep aswell...ungrateful so-in-so


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## Strawberryroan (28 February 2011)

I feed a lo-cal balancer and lite chaff, and soak my hay, mix it with straw and put it inside a  small-holed net, inside another net.


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## CobSunshine (28 February 2011)

Whats haylage like for a horse on a diet?


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## stressedmum (28 February 2011)

I have a 14.2 part bred new forest, he is coming out of winter rather plump and he has been turned out 24/7 this year for the first time. I have not fed him apart from 2 nets of hayledge a day . He is ridden 5 times a week approx. I unrugged him as he was getting too fat so he just had a lightweight no fill on when its been raining. When my grass appears i am having him in all day and out at night to try and stop him popping! I would like a muzzle but i know someone who hates them and they would remove it when i am not around :$


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## nikkimariet (1 March 2011)

trendybraincell said:



			I spent AGES last year wrapping duct tape round every single nylon part of The Welsh Cobs muzzle...and this is how the sod thanked me!!













Glad I didn't treat him to dead sheep aswell...ungrateful so-in-so 

Click to expand...


Haha! What a sod!!

If you find your horse takes it off, try putting a headcollar over the top, and threading both through a loop of balertwine to keep them together?

Bruce has gone few at least 3....and our Shetland has had at least 5....We've had expensive ones, and really cheap ones. If they are truly destructive it's best just to go for the cheapy cheap ones!


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## lilaclomax (1 March 2011)

What does he weigh? For a 500kg horse with a bodyscore of 3 - 3.5 you need to be looking at feeding the equivilant of 10kg of hay within a 24 hour period or .45kg an hour.

If he is in for 16 hours at night (5pm-9am) he needs 7.2kg of soaked hay (soaked for 60 - 90 mins to remove 30% of the sugars) and fed in a small holed net if he guzzles his hay to slow his eating down.

If you have grass in your fields then a 500kg horse will be eating the equivilant of 1.65kg of grass an hour for the first 3 hours of turnout reducing down to .5kg an hour from then onwards. 1kg of grass = 2,425 calories.

Totals
Soaked hay (7.2kg) = 8,891 calories (unsoaked = 12,701)
Grazing (500kg horse) = 15,641 calories (muzzled = 7,821 calories (halving the intake))
HiFi is 2,030 calories/kg
Sugarbeet is around 2986 calories/kg

Total energy required for a 500kg horse in light/medium work is 19,850 calories.

I hope that makes some sense!


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## Kiribati_uk (1 March 2011)

My cob does as much canterwork as the p2pers yet lives on rabbit food!!! , full clip lives in at night out in day with the foals as they make him move allday!!, Gets handful of feed for supps plus rationed hay. and yes you guessed it he is still Very CURVEY!! He wears shoes out in less than 5weeks!(as in shiny!)
Think it may have something to do with Daddys beautifully manicured sheep paddocks!!!


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## stencilface (1 March 2011)

Just to say my fully clipped horse (although clipped 6 weeks ago now I think) has been wearing a rain sheet out on the warm days recently, tbh I would have turned him out naked except for the fact that I'd be bringing a hippo in a feed time, not a horse


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## Pat10 (1 March 2011)

CobSunshine said:



			Whats haylage like for a horse on a diet?
		
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Not good - much more fattening than hay, especially well soaked hay.


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## loverly (1 March 2011)

lilaclomax said:



			What does he weigh? For a 500kg horse with a bodyscore of 3 - 3.5 you need to be looking at feeding the equivilant of 10kg of hay within a 24 hour period or .45kg an hour.

If he is in for 16 hours at night (5pm-9am) he needs 7.2kg of soaked hay (soaked for 60 - 90 mins to remove 30% of the sugars) and fed in a small holed net if he guzzles his hay to slow his eating down.

If you have grass in your fields then a 500kg horse will be eating the equivilant of 1.65kg of grass an hour for the first 3 hours of turnout reducing down to .5kg an hour from then onwards. 1kg of grass = 2,425 calories.

Totals
Soaked hay (7.2kg) = 8,891 calories (unsoaked = 12,701)
Grazing (500kg horse) = 15,641 calories (muzzled = 7,821 calories (halving the intake))
HiFi is 2,030 calories/kg
Sugarbeet is around 2986 calories/kg

Total energy required for a 500kg horse in light/medium work is 19,850 calories.

I hope that makes some sense!
		
Click to expand...

* I will start to weigh all his feed from now on... Thanks*


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## horsegirl (1 March 2011)

as others have said, lose the feed.  Put the hay in 2 small holed nets one inside the other so he has hay all the time but can only get a little at a time.


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