Ration balancer+fat horse=?

Miss Lacey is turning into a super fatty again (currently she weighs around 1500lbs and she really should weight closer to 950/1000). She's probably a high 6, low 7 on the Henneke scale (ribs can be felt easily through a thin layer of chub but she does have fat pads on her tail head and over her back) and I'd like to do something about it. She is very muscular as well so it's not all fat but she has more fat than I want to see on her.
She's also started coughing after exercise again which has always been a sign that some weight needs to come off (she hasn't been diagnosed but I think she maybe has some sort of obesity related heaves or something).

Right now the only extra thing she's eating is 1lb of Purina Enrich 32 (ration balancer) a day, plus her supplements of Mare Magic, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (for flies), and her Smartpak of MSM for joints. She's off hay completely, because the grass has come in enough, and I don't even have any hay out for her.

My dilemma is that I'm not sure if the ration balancer is actually helping keep weight off or if it's adding extra calories that she really doesn't need. I've found that she seems to be less hot while on the ration balancer which is a major major plus but if she stays as fat as she is, her being less hot isn't going to do much for her if she founders or something similar.

I've tried a grazing muzzle but she protests it most heartily. She is of the opinion that she cannot drink water with it on and that she is probably going to keel over and die if I don't take it off.
We're going to camp on Saturday and by the end of June, her paddock at camp will basically be a dry lot which will help, I think. I think I'm going to put the grazing muzzle on her anyway for a few hours a day at camp because she is such a chub ball and she'll be in a paddock with lots of tall grass (and at camp I'll be around basically all the time in case she gets herself into trouble while wearing the grazing muzzle).

I'm also exercising her quite a bit and getting her really sweaty which is probably helping...but is there anything else I can do?

Take out the ration balancer or is it helping her be less fat or something?

Sorry for the novel... I need to practice writing less. Haha

I talked to a buckeye nutritionist about a fat horse on their ration balancer. She said limit grazing not gro n win, the gro n win, and I'm sure yours is the same, is made to supplement what isn't in hay/grass. So you don't want to take her off the ration balancer. I'd do what you're planning, grazing muzzle. Maybe more workouts :) my gelding is a 6 per the vet but she's not worried so neither am I. She reccomends between 5 and 7. But I think everyone is different.
Posted via Mobile Device

Grazing muzzle or dry lot with weighed soaked hay :)

Typo in the first post, she currently weighs around 1050lbs, not 1500!! Haha

So I guess my gut is right, keep her on that ration balancer! :) She'll like that because she loooovvvves her ration balancer. Haha

I've been trying to work her more, it's just a wee bit hard since my saddle doesn't fit her at all so we can't go out on trails (we have to walk about a half mile to get to the trails over an asphalt road and I'm not willing to risk my life like that) so I'm basically left with lunging or walking around her field bareback. But I've been trying to lunge her every other day enough that she's sweaty so hopefully that's doing some good.

Thanks! :)