I'm really sorry... Another hay/straw and condition thread :o

popularfurball

popularfurball

Learning all the time
Jul 18, 2005
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North west
I have been desperatley trying to get the weight off madam now for a good two months.

She is out unrugged, unclipped and muzzled. She is out every other day, and on the alternate days she is either ridden or we sort of free school (Either Join up, or just lunging without the lunge line lol or ground work or a combo). She does have days off, but it just depends on how my shifts fall. When I ride we go out for an hour+ and mainly in walk as she is so unfit.

She currently has two and a half slices of hay a day - One in the morning and one and a half at tea time (for the days she is in all day). She is eating all that, but will leave some if I give her anymore. But nothing seems to be changing with her weight :mad:.

She also has a handful - literally - of happy hoof a day as neighbour makes such a fuss about dinner time that Silver was copying. Im not too keen on this, but I am not having her kick the door - she was getting nothing for standing nicely so she started jamming her teeth on the door and kicking the door, so she is having a handful in a bucket if she is polite - nothing if she kicks door because Im mean mummy :p

I was wondering about changing her over to straw to eat, but as she has much less turnout now I am worried it wont be enough vits etc for her, although she will choose to eat straw over hay, and if I give her haylage she loves the first few mouthfuls, but always leaves some despite giving her the same amount as the amount of hay she will hoover up overnight.

I dont have access to oat straw, its just regular bedding straw....

She is a 12hh Welsh X between 9-15yo. She doesnt really carry on her tummy - I can feel her ribs with medium pressure - its mainly chest/neck/withers and back.

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She's not that porky! Yes, a bit cresty but honestly not too much to worry about.

I would keep her on the diet she is on - changing to straw is IMO a last resort (esp as you can't get oat straw) and as she's not obese or dangerously overweight then I wouldn't recommend it. The only thing to get weight off her now is work. I would bet that she is fitter than you think! I would gradually build her up to a good hack, mainly in trot (and where possible canter if you can get in fields etc) to work her. If she doesn't break a sweat, she won't lose weight and gain fitness. Obviously you don't want to ride her until her legs fall off and the sweat is pouring off her, but she does need to put a bit of effort in and break a sweat. If I recall, you don't have a saddle yet? If you don't fancy trotting bareback for hours (I don't blame you) then 20 - 30 minutes of lunging in trot (again build up to this) in side reins to make her work correctly will also be good for her. If she jumps you can introduce raised poles and small fences to make lunging a bit more interesting. :)
 
I have a saddle now :D:D:D:D

Hence riding mch more now, but all road work despite the lovely countryside everywhere is so wet/boggy/slippy it is safer on the tarmaced roads/lanes.

I dont think she has sweat glands! Ive only seen her shiver once and never sweat!!! Even in that mammoth coat!

Dentist gave her a 7-8/10 on obesity scale :eek:

I have no idea why she finds straw more palatable - she will choose dirty straw out of wheelbarrow/skip bucket over hay or haylage :eek: freky thing!! :p
 
If she's not sweating then she's fitter than you think! I'd be trotting her just about all the way there and all the way back to get some of her lard off her :p . Obviously give her a walk out on the way there and a cool down on the way back, and if she is too short of breath then give her a minute or so in walk to recover, before picking trot back up.

I'd say 7/8 out of 10 is a bit strong to be honest, I have seen some obese horses that would be about 14 out of 10 if your horse is 7 or 8! She's more like 6.5ish.
:)
 
Dont know what youve done with pics, but my screen is sooooo wide.

She looks just identical to my section A at the moment. Not overweight at all.

Mine is 11.3 and 12 yrs old gelding. I am sure you already know him.

What happened with your saddlepad?

Just a note of caution, mine had lami 8 times, last time was a small bout.
He had no lameness and no heat, just a little footy on stones, so put his hoof boots back on for roadwork. His soles were bright red. No shoes.

Kept him in for a week and started with 1/2 day turnout for another week then back to full days out and nights in.

Seemed it cleared up. He is not overweight but the richness in the grass when it rains a lot sets him off. He is field sound and riding ok in trot and canter,

but at WALk he feels for road more and my weight is not moving through the air, but more on his back. More noticeable up and down hills.

So I get off on the steep upand down hills and get back on where it is flat, or keep the speed up. Rather like insects running very fast over water, they get heavier and sink

when they slow down. Weird comparison that.

I am giving 2 slices of hay and 2 slices of straw at night. 2 meals of dengie hi fi lite and 2 carrots. I am also including a teacup of antilam at the moment till the grass is all gone.

Mine loves straw and donkeys only get straw because of laminitis and hardly ever get hay. I am giving the antilam *Top Spec*, so know he is getting his vits and minerals

so it doesnt matter if he eats the straw first and doesnt touch the hay.

Incidently he gets loads of either water or speedibeet on his meals it is literally floating and drinks 2 buckets of water so doesnt get colic.
 
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That is what she is like with this weird knee problem - Im guessing you saw me mention it elsewhere on here??? I havent ridden since, so may wear off - be surprised if it was lami shes getting hardly any turnout :mad: Like 6hrs a week *shakes head*. So I wonder if its all the standing around, shes also muzzled when out.

I weigh taped her the other day she either was 613kg (15"1hh) or the size of a 17hh - cant figure out where Ive gone wrong thats the worst thing!!!!!!

The pad didnt work out - sorry forgot to let you know!!! It was miles too thick, I didnt even bother to ride in it - I found it difficult to inititally get beads equally spread before putting on her back, which mean saddle tipped up or down or side to side lol... and the height just made it unstable. We are using a haf - its awesome - so please with it!!!!

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These are the marks post ride too - again pretty happy. Shes a little confused and not sure - its the same colour as all her "bad saddles" and is a bit confused about where the brown/red one went I think!! She could easily tell that was "the nice one", she cant with this one, she still thinks Im going to put a bad one on her....

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There is an interesting article in Dec horse deals about condition scoring may not be reliable for overweight ponies and even though they may lose weight their condition score remains the same interesting reading if you can get a hold of a copy.
 
I was about to post that interval trot work to make her a bit out of breath would be a good thing but...

I would not be happy with the marks of that saddle. I know nothing about treeless but it does appear that the weight is partly being carried behind her ribs and over her loins.

I suspect you are using a horse not pony weight tape, generally tapes are not accurate on small ponies as they are based on horse averages. Have you got a local vet practice with weighing facilities, she doesn't look desperately over, certainly not a 7/8 from your pictures.
 
Snap. We have the same saddles as well as ponies.

eml: If you notice in saddle on pic, weight of rider is between pommel and cantel and it is only sweat marks behind. Mine does the same as it is sheepskin lined and my pad is too. Pop' has a pic sitting on her in her album and you can see she is small and in the right place (although different saddle I think).

If I am not mistaken this is the full size 16" saddle, mine is. Look in my album you will see a similar thing. Would be very surprised if saddle is causing any problem as you dont even need a pad under 11 stone and we are both 9 although I am taller with shorter pony.

Pops' remember they can get lami from stress and maybe she doesnt like being stabled so much. Mine is used to it having been in for 3 months at a time with lami so doesnt mind. How is she with it/stress? Some horses that are worked hard and always at shows get lami from the stress of travel and competing all the time, which is why theyare supposed to get the winters off.:)
 
Baby Blue saddle which was returned is 15" and placing all my weight in one small spot and he let me know about it. Libra saddle spreads the weight and has no tree to put pressure points anywhere.

Pop' hope you dont mind me showing these on your thread just illustrating a point. As you can see second pic saddle is much further back but spreading weight better.

Looking at your saddle pic again, mine is further forwards than yours as with pad it cant harm his withers and my seat area is still further back and not bothering his shoulders or withers.

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Weight wise she looks about 280kgs which is 600 odd pounds, so you were probably looking at wrong side of tape. Mine has 4 measurements, 2 per side. It has pounds, kilos on same side???? and inches and centimetres on other. (as well as hands somewhere too). Her tummy (in the middle), fat part) is prob 62- 64 inches. Which is perfect.:)
 
I have thought about putting it a bit further forwards, but its only a 15" seat, so wherever the seat is, my weigh is. There is no pressure around the back of the pad, but those are mud lines lol - well there is pressure as obviously the whole pad is weighed down by weight, but its not weighted on as such - I can easily slip my hands under the back of pad. The part im pleased about is the mud channel down spine which is less obvious in photo, but as she doesnt seem to have sweat glands I have no other way of telling!!


This is me seated in saddle - nice and snug :rolleyes: lol

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As for the tape, its one sided and runs from small pony to 21hh on the one side :confused: I will look at it again later, but the other side is blank.
 
So my saddle is longer on a smaller pony? Doesnt sound right. I will measure inside the seat of mine tomorrow so we can compare. I am sure I have the largest could even be 17 not 16. ??

Anyway your saddle shouldnt be the problem and dont think your weight is either. She looks a perfect condition. I always have my saddle halfway up his neck as his girth groove is very forward and it goes there anyway. At least if I put it there he doesnt have hair pushed the wrong way from it moving itself.

She looks barefoot, if so, even if not, try to borrow some hoofboots for the front at least and see if it makes a difference. Busby is always sound with his trainers on. :D
 
Yeah she is barefoot, awaiting farrier *sighs*. she needs a trim... If he thinks she needs shoes i will have her shod but as its road hill work im worried about slipping as phoebe slips a lot. What hoof boots do you use? I have grown quite fond of her being barefoot :eek: and don't really want her shod, but obviously road work isnt great for unshod feeties, and we are hopefully going to go on the pennine bridleway which is near but its very stony - would hoof boots cope with that? Hadnt thought about the option of booties :D

The underneath length is 19" i think, its dress size 6-10. I should possibly have gotten a larger seat as we are a bit snug hehe - I have no backside on pommel or cantle, but the end of the pommel digs into my inner theighs. Her girth groove is forward, but thankfully it doesnt slip if further back unlike most welshies! That is the "new" libra with panels but it doesnt seem any different to me!

Just the pommel is like a handlebar:

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This is it in theighs
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Just still a bit niggly that its digging in - if its digging into me, its easily doing the same to her, although there is the haf and underneath of saddle between her and "it".

We should meet up somewhere and ride out with the twins hahahaha.
 
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Oh and the weigh tape is the one from Robbies...There really is no other way to use it... its tres confusing! Instructions just say "Place behind front legs around girth and pull tight.... Either Im not strangling her enough or its wrong or something. Shes petrified of the dreaded weigh tape which doesnt help.
 
Carrying weight where she does, not sweating - have you thought about a thyroid or other metabolic problem?
 
Busby has never sweated in his life either, even when kids were doing pony club, wouldnt worry unless she looks ill.

My saddle is definately bigger. I notice you still have tag on, or are they old pics, could you change for bigger. I am happy with mine. Very sticky too the suede.

He is nearly 12 and always been barefoot. Had front boots 3 yrs and got back ones this summer. He uses them for turnout when it is frozen and he cant walk on it, otherwise roadwork in summer. Much better traction than metal shoes. Cavello simple boots, just does up with velcro. No parts to replace or break.

I am near Penine way in Sheffield. Where are you? Could we meet in the middle and swap.:rolleyes:
 
Boots from Robinsons. Cheaper than other makes.

Long distance riders use them even over shoes to help soles over rocky ground. Look on the website, got to go or would find it for you.
 
newrider.com
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