Speed of weight loss/ gain in horses?

[KarinUS]

Weight has always been a concern with DJ.
Lately though he has kept it on pretty well and now it even appears that he is gaining.
I just recently switched to a new food.
Surely it can't show after only a few days yet, right?
For the first time ever I will be in charge of my horses' feeding and I want to make sure they do well in my care.
I'd like to have DJ rely more on good quality hay and less on grain.
Only today did I manage to convince YO to cut him down to 7 pounds per day.
Once he comes home (19 days :D) I'd like to reduce to 6 pounds.

HOW FAST do horses drop weight or gain weight? Surely for such a big animal it will take a while to show, right?

I am taking pics of them from all sides so I have a comparison and I will measure them with the weight tape. But how often should I remeasure? On a weekly basis maybe? Or every two weeks?

[galadriel]

Once a week I feed a bran mash with psyllium. It's a good time to do a number of regular checks. One of those is to go around the horses and make sure that I like their conditions. Which is to say, I check once a week.

I look both at the amount of meat on their ribcages, and at their bellies. A grass belly has a different appearance from overall fat. I adjust their feed amounts if I don't like their conditions. Most of the time I don't make any change, but occasionally I'll add or cut down 1/2 a pound a day for a while. If things are really drastic, I'll do more--but over time, not immediately.

[Portia]

I use a graph to log weekly weight tape measurements as I tend to forget over the month how she's doing, plus find my 'eye' can be a little too forgiving. having photos is a good idea too,

[KarinUS]

That's a good idea. I shall get a dry erase board for the feed room so I can chart my weekly weight tape measure results! :D