overweight

[suze]

Chester is now in the starvation paddock due to being overweight and spring grass(worries about getting fatter and laminitis. I dont think he looks too overweight but I havent got a weight measure.
How should he be fed considering he is supposed to be on a diet and how much exersize could he do on a diet. Any ideas here?
Also I found this biggish worm (ughhh). Admit I wouldnt know what horse worms look like but this was about 2 1/2 inches long and looked like a common garden worm but it had a red dot on its rear end and its head was red.
He has previuosly been on powdered wormer which is mixed with some food and he ate all of it.
This time I used EquiMax.

[Tina J]

The important thing when dieting horses and ponies is to make sure that they still have bulk going through their guts. If you have some of last year's hay left, a small wedge morning and evening (if he is genuinly on a patch with no grass left) is a minimum, depending on his size. Newly cut hay is a no-no for dieters as it is still too high in protein and sugars - and it needs to be introduced VERY cautiously for any other horses. In terms of working him, overweight horses are like overweight humans - they must have regular exercise, but it should be slow and steady, not fast and pounding. So lots of long walks for him, with just the odd slow canter or trot on good ground, and no jumping until he is down to a sensible weight and has got fit. If he's already reasonably fit, then just make a conscious effort to exercise him daily, following your usual routine. If you want to feed him something as well as hay, then Dengie hi-fi alfalfa chaff, mixed with a little un-mollassed soaked sugar beet will give a good balance of fibre and vitamins without increasing his sugar intake (this is a feed mix recommended by the laminitus trust). Otherwise you can also buy readymixed equine diet food that is also endorsed by the laminitus trust.

A weigh tape is a good idea, and they only cost a few pounds. I measure my friend's fat cob every two weeks and write it down so that we can monitor his weight loss. It should be the same person who measures each time though, as different people can come up with different weights - its the change you are looking for; they're not totally accurate as an absolute measure of weight.
In terms of judging if he is overweight or not, look at his neck and bum, not his ribs. If his neck is full, and you have difficulty grasping and wobbling his crest, then he is overweight. If his neck looks fairly flat, and his bum is round, without being dimpled about his spine, then he is not too bad. If his bum looks a nice shape, but when you look up under his back legs you can see a bit of fat on the inside of his thighs (don't I know how that feels!) then he still needs to lose a bit of weight, but that will probably come off with regular steady exercise.

Hope all this helps. You're very wise to worry about laminitus at this time of year. Prevention is much better than cure!

[Tina J]

Forgot to say about the worm - there is a species of earth worm that likes manure, and which looks very much as you describe. If the droppings had been lying in the field for a couple of hours or more, on a damp day, or it was a dewy morning, then you probably saw an earth worm. If the pooh had just been dropped as it were, then it would be worth having a worm count done - ask your vet. Or other people on this site may know where you can get a worm count done directly.

[Miriam]

Suze my pony is in the starvation paddock too. The only problem with this paddock is that it is a starvation paddock as in no grass. So in order to make sure she does not starve totally and become a lunatic she has readi grass (one bucket in morning and one at night) this is equivalent to two hours grass time. She also gets a scoup of feed (Slim and Healthy which is aimed at those ponies which get fart (sorry that is fat :D ) on fresh air but need that little extra). She also gets any unused hay that others have left i.e. there is always a pile left on the floor where the hay stands that people will not use and it just gets left so the quality of the hay goes down. Yes she is loosing weight.

[suze]

Well the outside of his thighs are plump but not so much the insides, lovely big rounded bum that dosent look so fat, lovely smooth neck, seems to be mostly his tum. I dont think he is grossly overweight but he is a bit. Shame I havent got a pic to use.
I have been giving him a big handful of spillers high fibre cubes with some chopped carrot.
He is lunged in walk and trot and hacks out in walk and trot. He wont jump or canter. He was sold as a plod, well behaved but ready for a quieter life although he is only 10 but I think he is footsore on hard ground so that may be the reason for his only wanting to plod.
The paddock is nearly bare, no grass but still clearing out some dock(nearly finished there) and Im clearing up the poo twice daily, havent found anything nasty. Ah well Farrier comes tomorrow so looking forwards to seeing about his feet.
Ive had him 3 months now and we seem to be getting on really well.

[Tina J]

Sounds as if his weight is something that you can keep on top of by taking care (as you are). If you can get his feet sorted out and get him fitter, then his belly will reduce anyway. Good luck with him. He sounds a poppet.

[suze]

Poor poppet went in there just in time. Farrier says thats why he was a bit footsore.
Was a little bit lamanatic but his feet were much better by the time the Farrier got to us.
He is looking a lot better.

[virtuallyhorses]

If you haven't a weight tape and don't have a good handle on just how overweight your horse is take a look at some of the articles on body scoring - this is a system that lets you look at the whole horse and work out what sort of condition it is in.

As for starvation paddocks - although I understand that some ponies need restriction on their grass intake, horses can lose weight without being starved - I've attached a photo of my gelding - the 'fat' right hand photo was taken in Feb and the slimmed down version recently. He has been at grass 24hrs and receiving some (small) feeds for vitamin and mineral supplements - the difference is exercise\work.



Virtually Horses Body Score Article (http://www.worldzone.net/recreation/virtuallyhorses/bodyscoring.html)

http://communities.msn.co.nz/VirtuallyHorses/myridingphotos.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=90