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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
 
Location: MN | Does anyone have a horse like mine?! He's an air fern. Can LOOK at food and boom, he's fat. He has no underlying metabolic issues that I am aware of.
Obviously living up North were we get a lot of sub zero temps, he has access to grass hay 24/7. Only fed a ration balancer during winter months, 1 lb a day. I dont know what else to do when I cant ride him 3-5 times a week.
I just want to keep him healthy and I know being heavier is harder on them... what would you do?
ETA - picture of my porker.
Edited by Kay-DRacing. 2017-11-14 10:32 AM
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| I would like to know also as I also have an air fern. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 595
Location: North Dakota | We have a few like this and in our winters I feel like there isn't much to do if you can't exercise them.
We just don't blanket those horses at all and let them burn some calories to stay warm even in our coldest of colds and this seems to help. Other than that, not much you can do till you can at least lunge them to get some exercise.
A supplement to regulate blood sugar could be helpful even if you don't know of any metabolic issues. Wouldn't hurt to at least give it a try. |
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 Am I really the Weirdo?
Posts: 11181
Location: Kansas | My 14 hand rodeo horse just lost his pasture privileges because he was packing on the pounds. My other 3 horses are all 15.2 or taller and their metabolism allows them to graze 24/7, but the shorty just can't be given that freedom year round. He gets just under 2 pounds of grain twice a day, worked (ridden or ponied) 4-5 times a week, and I'm hoping that pulling him off the pasture and dry lotting him from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. will slim him down a bit. |
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 The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | I put mine on Heiro. Really helped slim him down. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
Location: MN | WYOTurn-n-Burn - 2017-11-14 10:51 AM I put mine on Heiro. Really helped slim him down.
I have heard of this stuff! Thank you for the reminder. I will look into it. Where do you buy yours from? |
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Veteran
Posts: 277
| My horses are hippos and my 21 yr old "hard keeper" looks like your "fat" horse lol I like them fat in the winter |
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 Total Germophobe
Posts: 6443
Location: Montana | I have one! I don't know what to do with mine either. She is 16 y/o and 14.2 hands or so, and in the winter I can't keep her ridden every day because of the day light hours and the mud, snow and ice. I've had mine tested (minimally) and doesn't show any metabollic issues either. I try to ration her and I don't grain her, but I feed good quality hay, and it seems like you say, she gets fat on air. But I'd rather have that than a hard keeper...I had one of those that it didn't matter what or how much I fed him, he was a skinny fella. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| People really frown at me for this one, but I feed a lower quality grass hay, but make sure he gets a good vitamin/mineral supplement. He still gets some alfalfa cubes and some good quality grass hay, but the round bale is weed free, cattle quality grass hay. And by cattle quality, I just mean a little more stem. NOT real stemmy, just not as fine as the high quality horse hay. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| I would look at a digestive supplement like Forco or an all around supplement like Platinum. Making sure they can get all they need out of the hay and not just develop a hay belly is key. We have 1 hippo who’s packed some on since we’ve been working him less, but he looks a lot better this year than in the past - he’s been on Platinum since spring. We also have a hard keeper who looks better than he ever has.
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| OhMax - 2017-11-14 12:37 PM
I would look at a digestive supplement like Forco or an all around supplement like Platinum. Making sure they can get all they need out of the hay and not just develop a hay belly is key. We have 1 hippo who’s packed some on since we’ve been working him less, but he looks a lot better this year than in the past - he’s been on Platinum since spring. We also have a hard keeper who looks better than he ever has.
I am glad you said Forco! That stuff is great and I wouldn’t feed a lower quality hay without also feeding Forco and a good bit/min supplement. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | I have one, and it is really hard because she gets stressy when she is hungry. The best thing we have done for her is get her a slow feeder hay net. Its a little bit of a pain to load it up rather than just throw hay down for her but she is much happier. She gets good quality orchard grass, 1 lb Renew Gold and one small flake of really good alfalfa daily. If I try to skip the alfalfa she TELLS me I forgot something. Very food driven and expressive. Hahaha
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| I have just started mine on Forco and I also supplement with THE Performance. Mine were all shiny before but after adding the Forco they really shine. Also it seems that their underneath is a little tucked more. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
Location: MN | GLP - 2017-11-14 12:17 PM People really frown at me for this one, but I feed a lower quality grass hay, but make sure he gets a good vitamin/mineral supplement. He still gets some alfalfa cubes and some good quality grass hay, but the round bale is weed free, cattle quality grass hay. And by cattle quality, I just mean a little more stem. NOT real stemmy, just not as fine as the high quality horse hay.
I am glad you said this. This year, we had a super dry summer so my choice of hay isnt what I would normally get. Its definitely lower quality than I like. I should add that he is on Exceed 6 way for all around/joint supplement and access to several mineral and salt blocks. He is only stalled at night and eats out of a slow feed hay net. I usually have one on my round bale too but because it is lower quality hay this year, they arent going thru it as fast as they usually do. But he is one to sit there all day and munch. His "treats" are alfalfa cubes so he gets 2 or 3 of those a day. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1079
Location: MN | NipntuckLR - 2017-11-14 1:03 PM I have one, and it is really hard because she gets stressy when she is hungry. The best thing we have done for her is get her a slow feeder hay net. Its a little bit of a pain to load it up rather than just throw hay down for her but she is much happier. She gets good quality orchard grass, 1 lb Renew Gold and one small flake of really good alfalfa daily. If I try to skip the alfalfa she TELLS me I forgot something. Very food driven and expressive. Hahaha
Your horse sounds A LOT like mine!!! I feed RG in the summer but if I fed it in the winter, he'd be twice the size he is now  |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| Kay-DRacing. - 2017-11-14 1:23 PM
GLP - 2017-11-14 12:17 PM People really frown at me for this one, but I feed a lower quality grass hay, but make sure he gets a good vitamin/mineral supplement. He still gets some alfalfa cubes and some good quality grass hay, but the round bale is weed free, cattle quality grass hay. And by cattle quality, I just mean a little more stem. NOT real stemmy, just not as fine as the high quality horse hay.
I am glad you said this. This year, we had a super dry summer so my choice of hay isnt what I would normally get. Its definitely lower quality than I like. I should add that he is on Exceed 6 way for all around/joint supplement and access to several mineral and salt blocks. He is only stalled at night and eats out of a slow feed hay net. I usually have one on my round bale too but because it is lower quality hay this year, they arent going thru it as fast as they usually do. But he is one to sit there all day and munch. His "treats" are alfalfa cubes so he gets 2 or 3 of those a day.
I had an old time vet tell me one time that he thought all horses feed coastal/bermuda hay should be fed the higher quality cow hay instead of the fine horse quality. He said they had made the grass to have more calories for the cattle to keep them fatter and he felt it was what was contributing to laminitis and metabolice problems in the horses. In other words, it was too rich for them when it was also fertilized. He also thought the slightly stemmier high quality cow hay would keep them from having impaction colic as he felt the fine stuff could ball up in their gut to cause impaction. I have always tried to follow that advice and have had a few gas colics but never an impaction colic. |
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The Bling Princess
Posts: 3411
Location: North Dakota | Kay-DRacing. - 2017-11-14 11:22 AM WYOTurn-n-Burn - 2017-11-14 10:51 AM I put mine on Heiro. Really helped slim him down. I have heard of this stuff! Thank you for the reminder. I will look into it. Where do you buy yours from?
I ordered right from Dr. Reilly's website. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 851
Location: West Texas | I don't think your horse is fat. He looks good to me. |
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Expert
Posts: 1409
Location: Oklahoma | Pleas read Dr. Getty's articles on line or get her book on how to feed a horse like a horse. I understand so much more than I did before and why they react to certain things. I grew up dry lotting if fat and so forth. My horse looked like he had a hay belly all the time and I struggled to get weight off him bc I was also told he was fat all the time and I would ride and still nothing always had that hay belly look and I was losing topline too and I blamed that on epm which he has. Now I have topline! and he looks awesome and he is not being ridden bc of his hock. This is the best he has looked. He only gets all the Bermuda Hay, a flake of alfalfa hay 2x day, 1/2 scoop of whole oats, and his vit/min, and forefront. She also explains if you dry lot they should have hay in front of them at all times. and their system is so different than our system. She has a bunch of articles on her website if you don't want to spend the money on her book. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 824
Location: Duvall, WA | We are in Washington so our orchard grass can be really really nice, kind of like cotton candy. I have a first cutting that is a little steamier and not quite as appealing but has a ton of food value. Fed in a slow feeder bag it works for our chubby girl. She does love her one little bit of alfalfa a day, tho, for sure. |
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