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Discussion on Easy Keeping. oh the joy.
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Member:
lara
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Posted on Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 - 10:43 am:
So I am joining the ranks of frustrated owners (hello Diane, Patty B , Et Al ) of easy keepers.
Ive been expiermenting with Lara to see what it takes to get her to lose weight. She is on dry, brown pasture, but nary a rib in sight.
But...she has been chewing my plank and her feet look terrible. So I bought some Triple Crown Lite to hopefully combat that.
Hehehe, obviously she will need exercise to lose. I tried to give her the summer off to finish growing a be a horse...but she is going to have to go back into work.
Ive never had a horse that could stay plump on a dead dry pasture.
sigh. 
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 - 10:55 am:
Well Welcome Leslie and enjoy the ride
I will say soaking the horses hay has helped and they can have a little more getting rid of the clover was a HUGE success!!!, other than that Lara is of the easy keeping breeds so be careful, you are smart to stop it before she gets really fat.
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Saturday, Oct 30, 2010 - 11:57 am:
Tango is also an easy keeper. No health problems YET and I want to keep it that way. Hoofs not the best they can be yet either, working on that.
As soon as we had a light frost, I took my horses off pasture. It is believed even brown grass has high sugars and isn't good for easy keepers. Not until it's had lots of rain on it should horses graze it. (from the safergrass.org site)
For about 3 weeks I sprinkled hay all around my track, and in a lesser amount than normal. I thought that was helping with weight loss but then I had to go out of state for 3 days for a funeral so left mega amounts of hay in the slow feeders and spread out ;-(.
Right now I am putting hay in 2 slow feeders at night, and spreading it on the track during the day. Really weird to be trying to take weight off going into winter, but we had such a lush summer! I hope I can report back that they lost some weight and the track system and slow feeders make a big difference.
The only time my horses lost weight was when they all got rode 4-7 times a week and the pastures were ate down to nothing.
Good Luck!
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Oct 31, 2010 - 9:05 am:
Hello leslie,
The biggest nutritional problem with loosing weight in very easy keeping horses is adequate oil soluble vitamins and protein. Both can have an effect on the quality of the horn. Be sure to consider the protein and vitamin recommendations in the article.
DrO
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Member:
lara
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Posted on Sunday, Oct 31, 2010 - 3:42 pm:
Will do DrO, thanks for the heads up.
Now that both of my little ones are in school, I will have 4 days a week to ride and work horses. i am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. Perhaps both Lara and I will lose weight???
cheers to all
leslie
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Member:
dskup
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Posted on Thursday, Apr 19, 2012 - 2:12 pm:
Does anybody know whether grazing muzzles can also be used to reduce hay consumption in a herd situation? I have one overweight horse among a group of five. The horses are all together in paddock or pasture, so it isn’t really possible to limit hay for only one. I wondered if a grazing muzzle would work. Any insights will be appreciated.
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Member:
juliem
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Posted on Thursday, Apr 19, 2012 - 4:48 pm:
Dan, you might post this question in a new discussion to get more answers. Having said that, I use a grazing muzzle on my pony and they really only work well on short grass. I don't think a horse could get enough hay to meet their requirements with a muzzle on all the time. If you could arrange it so the horse could eat unrestricted three or four times a day, that could work.
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