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My mare is a fatty girl

1K views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  Trinity3205 
#1 ·
My 8 yr old Arabian/Welsh mare always looks like she is in foal. She has a big barrel but is fatty in her shoulders, elbows, butt and crest.
She is fed 2 flakes of Rye hay twice a day and approx. 1 - 1/2 cup of stale mix a day. She put on more weigh over the last 6 mos or so because I was not able to exericse her as regularly as I am used to doing. Now she is getting ridden quite often, arena work and trail rides but the weight won't drop off of her. Cushings crossed my mind. She only get carrots as treat, no sugary horse treats. Should I just work her more and feed her 1 flake instead of 2?
 
#3 ·
I'd drop the stable mix. If you feel you must give her hard feed (because other horses are being fed at the same time, for example) give her a big handful of grass pellets isntead. Also consider adding a vitamin in to the grass pellets.

I'm not familiar with how rye grass hay compares to other hays, but you can also try looking for a less energy-dense hay to feed. Putting hay into a slow feeder will also help slow her down, so less hay will last longer. Just giving her less hay could mean long stretches without any food in her belly, which is not good for her.

Having the vet examine her and test for metabolic issues is also a good idea.
 
#6 ·
Agree with Verona - and yes, rye grass is rich & sugary, so I'd be looking to get some low NSC tested hay, or soaking/draining it before feeding to leach out some of the sugars. Not knowing how big she is, how heavy a flake of hay, how much time she's on grass, don't know whether you should cut down on quantity, but horses need at least 1.5-2% BWT daily in forage, and are built for near constant small amounts going through, so shouldn't be left hungry for any length of time.

What is the stable mix? Why does she get it? I'd look at cutting that out & replacing it with a low dose or powdered(you can get them that are palatable without mixing) nutritional supplement. I'd also suggest looking into Magnesium4Horses More exercise is also great. Carrots are relatively sugary, so it depends how sensitive she may be as to how her system handles them, but if only feeding for treats, one carrot diced can go a long way!
 
#9 ·
Yes rye grass is VERY high in carbs/sugars typically. They turn out lactating dairy cows on it and fattening beef cattle. Way worse than any horse treat. You need different hay, drop the sweet feed junk and just feed a ration balancer of some sort. JMO
 
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