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Fat horse

2K views 19 replies 13 participants last post by  loosie 
#1 ·
I have 2 horses on parture board. They are in a pasture with about 12 other horses. My older gelding maintains a great weight but my mare is HEAVY. She balloned up this past month (she does every winter). I'm looking for ideas to help her lose weight. Hay is put out for all of them at once, and separating her for feeding is not possible. I do plan on exercising her a bit more but with the busy season at work it will be a couple weeks before I can do that. Would putting a grazing muzzle on her work for the hay? Thanks for any help :)
 
#2 ·
i would not put a grazing muzzle on in winter. she would not consume enough pieces of hay to sasisfy her hunger. Granted, she would lose weight, but she'd be starving.

Your only option right now is to work her more. (You said you cannot seperate her.)

good luck!
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#3 ·
Disagree with above... generally. So long as she can get small amounts near constantly, she won't starve. Grazing muzzles don't work for all horses though & I'd want to supervise the first couple of days, maybe help her work out how to eat through it, cut a bigger hole in it for eg, if she has a problem.

I don't think it's a real problem necessarily, that horses put on excess weight, but as with us, it's retaining that weight long term, without regular 'hard seasons' to use up fat stores that causes metabolic issues. Just that for many, winter is the 'hard season', not when horses put on too much! So I wouldn't be too concerned, so long as you're confident you can manage her to lose the excess... some time in the near future.
 
#10 ·
Better to be fat in winter than skinny. ... (I vote after since spring grass will be rich anyway)
Depends. Fat going into winter can be, but fat long term/metabolic & not allowing weightloss before spring hits can be 'too little too late' for so many.

I would though look for why did she suddenly "blossom" at a time of the year when grass is not prime in nutrients and she is now on hay bales and minimal grain.
Absolutely! My bet is the hay. Vast majority of hay available these days is from 'improved' varieties such as rye grass which is high in sugars, often 'well fertilised' & cut in it's prime. Grass loses many nutrients when cut & dried, but only loses sugars when growing, so she may well indeed be getting 'prime' cattle fattening grass, where the sugars are concerned. Soaking a small amount in clean water for an hour or so & seeing how brown the water turns will give you an idea of how rich it is.
 
#6 ·
I will happily put a grazing muzzle on in winter, as long as they can eat with it on it doesn't matter which season it is. I was amazed my pony could eat hay with it on but he can and if he were fat in winter and I didn't control it then I would lose him to laminitis.
 
#7 ·
I know you said you couldn't separate her but if you could soak her hay for an hour or half an hour to reduce the sugar by 30%.
But because you can't separate her I would put her muzzle on.
We kept it on our pony and she didn't lose a lot straight away but she didn't put any more on either.
 
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#8 ·
I would not muzzle her if she is kept out in the weather of your region...it is darn cold without the wind chill or adverse snow/rain/sleet/winds you get!

I would though look for why did she suddenly "blossom" at a time of the year when grass is not prime in nutrients and she is now on hay bales and minimal grain...:?

Most horses "blossom" in the spring/summer on rich pasture, not in the late summer, fall or oncoming winter season from grazing on "past" prime grasses...

:think:
 
#15 ·
Surely it depends how the horse is managed? I expect horses to be checked every day twice a day and in an area with hay to eat what is the issue? If the horse cannot be checked then of course you wouldn't muzzle. Just because it is extremely cold I'm not sure why that would stop muzzling?
 
#12 ·
I can relate to this, as I too have an 'air fern'.

A muzzle is not an option for my boy, as he lives in the bush and could get hung up. Maximus is a veritable vacuum cleaner, besides simply steamrolling in on everyone else's portions.

The only thing I could do was pull him out for the couple of hours it took everyone to eat each meal. This way, he only got his portion.

Metabolic issues are no game, full of endless heartbreak and I will do what it takes to manage weight properly. I have a friend going through it with her boy and it's horrid.

My ultimate goal is slow feeders!

**I live just above you, in Manitoba... I'd be more concerned about the muzzle causing some sort of freezing/frostbite issue on the face, more than anything else... I know several people who successfully use them when feeding hay.
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#14 ·
Iam in minnesota iv muzzled my gelding during winter time didn't really work to well. Muzzle gets all frozen from them drinking with it. Personally I wouldn't muzzle its to cold and they need to beable to eat unrestricked.

Only that one winter did I muzzle but won't ever again during winter months.
 
#18 ·
ice balls and frost stuck to the face for 3 months isn't pleasant. It will be a rare day for me when I make it above freezing now until mid March or so. Minnesota is going to be much the same, parts of it worse.
The horses are often coated with rim frost in the morning. Their eyes and muzzles are white from the moisture escaping their bodies and freezing nearly immediately. Drinking soaks the nylon and it will freeze in moments. Your skin will freeze and stick to the gate or other ice chunks. It hurts to breathe at times it's so cold.

-38 is a temp I don't even have words to describe. No bird sounds, you feel like somebody has hit you in the chest it's so hard to breathe. Only sound is the trees snapping and breaking because they have frozen so hard they are brittle. Doesn't matter if it's Celsius or Farhenheit the two scales meet at that point.

Nope! not a fan of anything that is going to compromise body heat. Heat is an immediate need in our northern winters. It is a constant need.
Frostbite is painful. It never completely heals. I frostbit the tips of my fingers over 20 yrs ago and it still only takes a very short time to start feeling it freeze again.
 
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