Getting weight off a thoroughbred

[Vampira]

Hey

I just bought a TB she was an exracer and retired in 1999 she then had a foal last year and just been left in the paddock this year. She still looks like she is pregnant....lol... anyone have ideas in helping her to lose weight I am going to be riding and lungeing her so she still would need energy would just pasture and a biscuit of hay be ok or would she still need some hard feed and if so how much she would be being ridden twice a week and can lunge once a week as well i can also and probably will for a bit be lungeing before i ride. Obviously this will be built up over time as she wont have the fitness for it yet. I have been through putting weight on a TB but not losing it. Any ideas would be great.

Ta Jo

 

[Gracie]

Well if your going to be working her I recommend giving her maybe a handful of something just to give her some energy!
I'm sure she'll loose the weight once you start working her!

 

[Lgd]

She will lose a lot of the weight with work. A lot of it will be flabby muscles rather than fat, but be warned it may take 6 months to a year for her to get her figure back.

 

[Yann]

We have a very similar scenario with Rio, she had babies and after a spell of work did nothing for quite a while, when we bought her she was very overweight with a huge belly and very soft all over.

I would definitely second giving her some hard feed if she's working, we started off with just grass and hay and she struggled, one good session and she'd be tired for a couple of days afterwards. We only started making real progress with her fitness and improving her condition once she was getting mix, even though she was on very nice pasture.

As LGD says it is a slow process, there's still a long way to go for us but it's satisfying to see the improvement in her. I can identify with the pregnancy bit, our farrier swore she was in foal when he first saw her

At least you have a TB, it should be a bit easier for you than for us with our ultra good doer!

 

[Vampira]

Ta

Thanks for your responses......and yeh it shouldn't be to difficult on a TB i've just spent 2 months putting weight on one. I going up to bring her home tommorrow so i'll see how we go.

 

[KarlR]

Yann - I suspect that with Rio there is no hope! She looks like the sort of horse that can live on air and you have hundreds of acres of glorious, lush, pasture for her!

Sorry!