Muscling Up QH

[soultraincoonhounds]

My horse “Mayce” is 18 years old and hasn’t been ridden much this year. I moved houses, moved her, and just now got a job that allows me to ride her again.

I am looking for ways I can get her muscle filled out. I know she won’t be 100% since she is older but she can look better than she does now.

She is on Purina SafeChoice at 6 quarts a day and hay or grass depending on grass levels.

She is part barrel horse part trail horse part western pleasure classes. All around mare.

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She’s an awesome horse and she just got over a minor injury on her back leg. So I need to start her off slowly as well.

[findeight]

Just starting her back to regular work will tighten her up and reduce that belly. Maybe review your feeding choices towards more and better hay, like alfalfa, and fewer then 6 quarts of concentrated feed/ grain daily. That sounds like alot for a not that big horse from a breed known for being easy keepers that’s not in hard work. She’s just gotten flabby on you.

[soultraincoonhounds]

6 quarts of feed is only one plastic scoop 2 times a day, and she is out in the big pasture now with tons of grass and hay coming in soon. thank you for the advice. She has gotten flabby ha

[findeight]

Don’t know how much a quart container of whatever you are feeding really holds or how big your scoop is so no idea how much you are feeding. Likewise “tons” of grass or hay.

Its best to track what you are feeding by weight and it’s not hard to weigh that quart container with the feed in it or the full scoop. Get a cheap fisherman’s scale at a sporting goods store ir that section of Wal Mart. Average sized horse in light work needs about 20-25 lbs of good forage (hay) a day and might not need any grain or concentrate at all. Most recommended amounts on feed bag labels are by weight as are equine nutrition requirements.

If you have questions like this you’d like to ask about on this or any other site online or with your vet or feed supplier, weight gets both sides on the same page.

Still think she looks like you could reduce the Safechoice and step up the exercise.

[NoSuchPerson]

The best place to start is with walking. Saddle her up and take a nice little stroll around the farm at an easy walk. Gradually increase distance and pace. Throw in a hill or two as she gets into better shape. There is no quick way to accomplish this with an old horse coming off an injury. It takes time and lots of slow work.

[soultraincoonhounds]

@findeight

Don’t know how much a quart container of whatever you are feeding really holds or how big your scoop is so no idea how much you are feeding. Likewise “tons” of grass or hay.

Its best to track what you are feeding by weight and it’s not hard to weigh that quart container with the feed in it or the full scoop. Get a cheap fisherman’s scale at a sporting goods store ir that section of Wal Mart. Average sized horse in light work needs about 20-25 lbs of good forage (hay) a day and might not need any grain or concentrate at all. Most recommended amounts on feed bag labels are by weight as are equine nutrition requirements.

If you have questions like this you’d like to ask about on this or any other site online or with your vet or feed supplier, weight gets both sides on the same page.

Still think she looks like you could reduce the Safechoice and step up the exercise.

Thank you! I never have weighed her food as hardly anyone does that around here. We just give and increase until they keep on weight. She doesn’t need much weight but more muscle. She does need some exercise and we are going to ride today. She gets free choice hay and grass, and that is what I mean by “tons”. The feed is just because she is older, and to prepare for the winter because she is known to drop weight in the winter. never fails no matter what I do…

Anyway, thanks for the advice y’all, I am hoping she will lose her belly and start looking better but it isn’t too big of a deal. she’s healthy and happy right now even if she does have a belly.

[ladyj79]

Some horses are a perfectly acceptable weight but seem to “have a belly” because the lack of muscling in the back makes that more noticeable. I wouldn’t worry about that at all, but as above and as you’ve said yourself, start slow, walking is great.