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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
   
Location: Phoenix | My gelding could pass as pregnant sometimes. He's exercised consistently, although it's usually just light-moderate work. He's got some extra pounds but does have muscle definition--not overweight by any means. Sometimes the belly seems proportionate...other times he's big as a whale! He's fed a clean diet: alfalfa, grass hay, Renew Gold and Platinum Performance. Dosed with psyllium for a week every month. Highly doubt he has ulcers and his fecal count has come up clean the last 2x. He's happy and healthy. Anyone with similar experiences? Is there a way to minimize that belly?! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | If your feed and fecal counts are good then you need to increase his exercise. He isn't going to get fit on light-moderate exercise. Sounds like he's got a good feed plan you just need to work him harder to trim him up. |
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3310
Location: Jersey Girl | Do you free feed him his hay? That can cause a hay belly.
If you do try feeding them from a slow feeder. Hay eaten more naturally by "grazing" should reduce the hay belly. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | If he is fed a lot of hay, a full belly is normal. Increasing digestibility of fiber will slim the belly up. Post a picture. I bet it is normal and quite fine. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 788
| I have the same problem. I recently put my gelding in a smaller lot where I can control the amount of forage he is getting. Before he was in a huge pasture with more grass than they could eat. So, hopefully the gut will decrease soon. lol but someone told me the other day he looks great.
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 Go Your Own Way
Posts: 4947
Location: SE KS | My littel stud muffin is the same - need to limit his hay - he is in a dry lot - big round bale all the time. I go 3-4 miles on him..
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Expert
Posts: 1694
Location: Willows, CA | This is an interesting question. There are a number of reasons that horses show this kind of fullness. In cases where grass hay is a large portion of the diet you may still be seeing some digestive inefficiency that is encouraging the horse to keep on eating rather than be satisfied. Since your diet looks very good, I would check to see that there is not something going on in the horses mouth that is making chewing uncomfortable. This in turn could mean that the grass portion of the diet is not well digested because it is not broken up enough before it reaches the hind gut, and the horse remains hungry and continues to eat more in the effort to feel satisfied. This can be an ongoing circle that results in an enlarged looking belly. I know this sounds strange, but we have resolved this in horses that have a large percentage of grass hay in their diet. |
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | My gelding with what Ed Wright used to refer to as "whale belly" had a preggo mare belly unless he was a good 150lbs underweight, until I started feeding him in a slow feeder net. Even the years I went to Pendleton to run for the 4th of July race he had that belly and let me tell you the sucker could run the Belmont and barely have to take a deep breathe but yet there was the belly. Slow feeder net!!!
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | winwillows - 2016-05-19 10:00 AM This is an interesting question. There are a number of reasons that horses show this kind of fullness. In cases where grass hay is a large portion of the diet you may still be seeing some digestive inefficiency that is encouraging the horse to keep on eating rather than be satisfied. Since your diet looks very good, I would check to see that there is not something going on in the horses mouth that is making chewing uncomfortable. This in turn could mean that the grass portion of the diet is not well digested because it is not broken up enough before it reaches the hind gut, and the horse remains hungry and continues to eat more in the effort to feel satisfied. This can be an ongoing circle that results in an enlarged looking belly. I know this sounds strange, but we have resolved this in horses that have a large percentage of grass hay in their diet.
This is interesting as he's due pretty soon for his teeth to be done. And while he gets a flake of alfalfa and grass hay morning and night, there's typically a lot of grass hay that he leaves behind. |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | This is him....pics look decent but he's so much larger in person. I'll see what I can do about a slow feeder hay net. Maybe get 2 so I can have at least one loaded up so the barn owner doesn't get fussy about filling the darn thing if he's out.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | Looks fine to me. Slow feeder net might just make him eat less hay. If you want to trim him up. Try reducing his grass hay and feed more alfalfa. In the form of cubes or pellets will trim him up more than baled. I prefer cubes personally. Just a suggestion. You basically want to increase the digestibilty of the forage. |
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  Keeper of the King Snake
Posts: 7616
Location: Dubach, LA | What about humans with pot bellies? Every time I decide to take my gelding off grass...he just looks at me...like, "Hey mom, what about you?" |
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