Hi! Thank you.
Maybe it’s just because I see her every day, but even since moving to this barn, I see such a change in her neck and booty, specifically.
But interesting observation on feed. We will begin transitioning her to Triple Crown Complete, and maybe that would help.
That may help! You should also weigh out her portion to see how much she’s actually getting. Barns usually just use a scoop and it’s impossible to guess how much they’re actually getting. I use a cheap kitchen scale just to set the volume to the barn. If I want 3 lbs I figure out is that a full scoop, scoop and a half etc.
It was a hard transition for me going from a QH to a TB and having to accept that he needs actual real volume of grain to look healthy. The QH looks great on zero grain.
Are you using a weight tape or flexible measurement tape? Not specific to horses but to measures inches? I think it’s harder when we see them every day to notice small changes. I find even if it’s not totally accurate for weight it can help me gauge increase or decrease. You can use a regular measurement tape around her neck too just take note of where you measured so that when you check a few weeks or months later you put it in the same spot.
Yes! I use a weight tape and she’s trending upward.
I see a difference, not a huge one though. Her hind end is slightly more filled out.
She’s never going to be super round like a stock horse but definitely lacking in the top line.
I’d consult with a professional nutritionist to get a good game plan. It might be as simple as adding a lb or two of ration balancer on top of her current ration and/or getting some gut support to make sure she’s able to use her calories.
Good points.
It’s also Fall and their coats are filling in, so one can be lulled into thinking they’ve gained or look better, when really they’re just hiding the lack of improvement under a new, denser coat. Even if we are literally measuring.
It would help to use specific anatomical terms for where we’re talking about too .
Which area exactly does “booty” refer to?
Good plan.
I just reached out to a nutritionist
I’m real excited by her croup, but I’m talking her hind end, croup, point of hip.
It’s hard to tell the difference in her hind quarters because she’s angled away from the camera in the first pic. Proper assessment of progress needs pics taken in the same setting, camera angle, lighting, horse position otherwise the differences you’re seeing could be a fact of her standing differently or the camera position.
ETA do you do in hand exercises with her? Not lunging. If there’s ever a horse who would benefit from pony pilates it’s this one IMO
My 34 year old 22" high, 225ish lb mini gets 3 lbs of Tribuite Senior plus Cocosoya (split into 2 feedings) and as much first cutting grass hay that he wants a day, for prospective. No pasture (he and his EMS buddy are on drylot). Barely holding weight but he is old! Will be increasing Senior more for the winter but he can only eat so much grain. Am considering flax, alfalfa pellets gives him gas!
Most people, self included, are probably referring to the size and shape of the butt cheeks.
I’m always so proud of you for your efforts with her; I know reading here can be like drinking from a firehose of advice but you are doing a good job of taking steps and balancing it out to keep making progress. She looks much healthier and happier to my eye and I know you will keep trying to get the weight on her. Good job 
I see the belly is bigger, but no noticeable change anywhere else. Is her food being weighed so that we know exactly how much she’s getting? It doesn’t seem to be enough for her.
I’m sorry that anyone equates disagreement with nastiness. People are trying to help.
I have a horse that is a hard keeper and inclined to be very angular, hard to muscle up and with a difficult top line. He wasn’t really thin or poor, just didn’t look the way I prefer my horses to look. I decided to take this in hand fully about six weeks ago and see what I could do about it.
Hes a fairly hard working 3rd level dressage horse, WB/Arab cross.
He gets generous quantities of good quality grass hay three times a day, always has done on my watch. And he’s been getting about 3.5lbs of Strategy professional formula plus about a pound of rice bran once a day, and triamino, magnesium and aloe vera pellets.
I started by just adding breakfast. Just an extra pound and a half of the Strategy. (Which i know is not everyone’s grain of choice but works for us for reasons unrelated to what we are discussing.)
Its made a remarkable difference in a short space of time, just adding that small extra meal.
I do think the splitting of the grain rather than feeding it all in one lump aids in him digesting it fully and getting the extra benefit from it. I’m contemplating balancing out the quantities a bit more (more breakfast, less dinner.)
Its an extra service I have to pay for, but it seems to be working.
[quote=“Jackie_amp_Starlette, post:902, topic:786908, full:true”]
We have a dear 31 year old blind mini mare here who gets about 3 lbs of Triple Crown Senior a day (also split into 2 feedings) and as much soft hay as she likes. She has no teeth issues - unlike her younger (27) 2 friends. She is holding her weight very well and is happy… she knows her turnout paddock very well and runs and bucks and plays. She can find her way in to her stall - walking carefully with her nose out in front of her. I swear she counts the steps - 5 steps forward once you come off the mat and through the door into the aisle, then 7 steps left parallel to the wall, then right turn at the stall door and bounce inside. But that does not seem to work in reverse - she patiently waits at her stall door for me to come and just put a hand on her neck to guide her outside.
Yes, they are… and I am sorry that others cannot see that.
No, people were disparaging, extremely combative and nasty. OP is brave to be posting after that nonsense.
There were some nasty, personal posts and some back and forth not even involving OP or this horse. They were very quickly removed, especially towards the end when Mods got involved.
Got no problem with disagreeing or even arguing, all information has value, even if you disagree but this went too far.
ETA, two thoughts….
Where I have kept horses outside, we fed hay in mangers, tubs or nets to try to keep it off the bare ground. It still got thrown around but in greatly reduced quantity. Whether from rain or pee, once wet hay can get mixed into muddy ground and create an undesirable odor plus attract an assortment of insects and those lovely grubs.
Long ago picked up a fish scale in the fishing section of a sporting goods store, pretty cheap. Started weighing a flake or serving of hay. Just an example here but lets say an average sized adult horse needs 20/25 pounds of hay daily. How do you know how many pounds your hay flakes or servings weigh? Even if its free fed, you need to know how much she is consuming to be sure shes getting enough calories in.
With grain/concentrates, you need to know what whatever she gets actually weighs…a 3lb can, for example, may hold 3lbs of coffee or green beans but only 2lbs of your grain/ concentrates, or 5lbs. You need to know. Same thing with scoops, how much does it really weigh?
Not saying you march around weighing every feeding, don’t need to do that. Once you establish how much it actually weighs, you can adjust as needed.
Soo…go get a fish scale and see how much that full hay net really weighs…is it 12lbs? 17lbs? 20lbs?
The above is somewhat simplistic but sometimes simple is easier to understand to get started being aware of actual caloric intake.
Jumping in here to say, I’ll be interested to see how she does with a change of feed. From my experience, you can feed the same feed to 3 different horses and have wildly different results.
It could be, for whatever reason, she’s just not thriving on her current feed. I had a mare with a gazillion health issues that only held her weight on TC Senior while my senior TB did eat it (he was picky), but looked… pretty bad on it. It wasn’t the amount of feed or hay either. Best feed means nothing if it doesn’t work for your horse. So, try your new feed, maybe it’ll be the ticket. And for the record, while you and your barn manager should know how much she gets so you can increase/decrease, no reason the rest of us need to know…
Also, slow but steady weight tape increases are good! My current gelding looks awful in pictures and looks fat in person. I took several photos of him, friends told me he should gain weight, vet came out that week and told me he was should drop a few pounds. He always looks awful in pictures. So, while she may still need weight, if the weight tape is showing progress, I wouldn’t completely panic either.
Then again, I’m just one person.
Yes, and I don’t think every post offering a differing opinion was nastiness. But there was also a lot of unfair conjecture, dog-piling, outright nastiness, personal attacks, and general COTH drama. Whether or not folks mean well, the way the message is delivered matters.
For instance, I wouldn’t categorize any of the comments from the last couple days as nasty. Some are more terse than others, but all are clearly trying to help. I cannot say the same for what went on in September and early October. If I had been the OP, I don’t think I’d have been brave enough to come back.
From the most recent pictures, personally I do think Honey is looking better, but agree that it has been a slow improvement. I do think her hind end looks more filled out, overall she’s in better flesh but she is definitely lacking in topline.
I agree with the suggestions to weigh what she’s eating so you have a baseline. And if she’s not getting the minimum recommended daily ration, consider adding a ration balancer, which won’t add calories but will add nutrition. For added fat, I’m a big fan of flax, but there’s many options depending on what you can get, what the horse prefers to eat, etc. I encourage you to check out the Triple Crown Senior Gold if you can find it–it’s got a really nice nutrition profile. But the TC Complete is also a good feed.
ETA: I think it would also be super helpful to start keeping weekly or monthly shots from the side and from the top (ideally looking down over her tail towards her head)! Try and keep them as similar as possible in terms of positioning, angle, etc. That way you’ll also have photos you can look back on to more effectively track where she is gaining or possibly losing, stalling out, etc. The top view ones may require coordinating with someone to hold her while you stand on a mounting block or the like behind her. Definitely stay safe and introduce it slowly to make sure she doesn’t find it too disconcerting, but usually most horses are okay with it after an initial “what are you doing back there??”
Wonders why the thread is once again being derailed by people insisting everyone else is wrong and mean and …
Instead of just talking about the latest Honey photos and her new boarding place and such.
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