Does she look too thin?

Someone told me today that my mare is losing too much weight and was approaching the overly thin side. She is the thinnest horse at the barn at the moment, but the other horses are a little thick (especially now with all the summer grass), so I don't have an "ideal" to compare her to. Does she look thin to y'all? Here's some of her over the months...

When I first got her, December of 2010.




March 2011





Two Weeks Ago (Current)

It certainly looks like she is dropping weight to me. Have you changed her feed or anything recently? What is she getting?

It is hard to compare the first picture because of the differences between the light and shadow but I agree with SD, she does appear to be dropping weight. I think the thing that concerns me most is that much of the weight she appears to be dropping is muscle mass in her neck, shoulders, and haunches.

In addition to the question about changing her feed, has she been moved to a new barn recently? Has her work load changed a significant amount in the last couple of months?

If you haven't changed her feed, what is she getting and how much?

Back in December (back when I was riding her on trial and she was still at her old owner's barn), she was on half a scoop of feed twice a day (I don't remember the brand) , two flakes of hay (timothy/alfalfa mix), and pasture for a few hours a day. She certainly did need all that food. Her body score at the time was 6-7.

I moved her to my barn in January and changed her food. She was on half a scoop of Strategy once a day with free choice hay and all day turnout. This continued until it started to get warm in March and the hay was removed, leaving her with grass.

Currently, she is on half a scoop of Strategy once a day with constant access to rich pasture.

Work wise, in December she was ridden three times a month at most on trail rides at mostly a walk. When I got her, I started riding her daily. I conditioned her slowly throughout the months for CTRs. After she was legged up, my usual ride (five days a week) consisted of an hour or two out, 50% slow saddle gait, 10% canter, and the rest an energetic walk.

I don't know how many pounds is in a half of a scoop, but if she is in any amount of work at all, she may not be getting enough protein to maintain her muscle mass. I would suggest either putting her back on the hay or getting some alfalfa pellets to supplement her feed and increase her protein intake.

She does look like she's dropping weight. When I was a kid our dad always would feed more grain in the winter. What kind of hay is she getting?

Oops. Half a scoop would be roughly three pounds.

I'll head to the feed store and see what they have in the way of alfalfa. Putting her back on hay would be difficult, since we used all our hay up during the winter... When she was on hay, it was just grass hay cut from our pasture.

Timothy/alfalfa is pretty rich. Lots of protein, vitamins, & stuff. She was a nice weight in the 1st pict, not overweight or anything.

I don't know how much a bag of alfalfa pellets would cost around your area, but for me, a 50 lb bag is approximately $8. I am quite certain that she would start showing improvement quickly with that.

I agree that adding in either alfalfa or hay stretcher pellets would help her out a bit. I think her weight was probably best in the second photo...the first she was a little chubby...

How long has she been out on the pasture? She may just be picking back up after the winter.