Hello all! I have a pony that is currently a little chubby. She is on grass hay/ grass pasture and recently just healed from a tendon injury. We are working on getting her back to riding and learning all the basics again because she was without work for over a year! Obviously, all ponies are a little chubby, but is it something that I should be concerned with? Also, does anyone have any tips for gaining some muscle back in her? Should I lunge her a specific way or a specific amount a day or just keep riding her and getting her back into basics?
Well, you’ve actually got a couple of separate questions in there.
1.) If you’re worried about weight per se, take a long critical look at your pony relative to the Henneke Scale, and proceed from there.
https://www.habitatforhorses.org/the-henneke-body-condition-scoring-system/
2.) If you’re worried about muscle, organize your program around exercises that build hindquarters and topline, like work over ground poles and walking hills. Any decent book on basic gymnastic training will include details on this.
Be careful, though, that your two goals - weight loss and muscle building - aren’t in conflict. That can a bit tricky, for sure!
https://thehorse.com/166950/bulking-up-does-your-horse-need-to-gain-weight-muscle-or-both/
And don’t forget about the tendon injury. Rehab should be long, slow, and progressive. Talk with your vet about a good program, including things to avoid. Depending on the injury, my vet recommends you avoid lunging entirely if at all possible. Lots of walking long, straight lines in the beginning.
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Coming off a year lay off due to a tendon issue would have me leery of lunging her and putting that strain on her legs ( if you can help it).
Is she just a little plump or fat? If her neck is cresty/ lumpy/ hard then you might want to modify her grass/ hay intake while you bring her back to fitness. You can adjust things as she loses weight due to added exercise.
I think the best thing is to bring her along slowly, no circles etc… and her muscle should improve along with her fitness.
Has your vet given you a plan for her rehab??
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I’d wager coming off the tendon injury it might have put on a couple extra pounds. Personally I wouldn’t put my pony on a weight plan if she lost some exercise due to the injury since you can easily work that off in the future.
Thank you all so far! My vet has not given me a rehab plan and now that I think about it, I’m not sure why she didn’t… This mare was never super active and didn’t have a lot of muscle to begin with, but after being “off” for about a year, she has just really gotten to be lazy I guess. Thank you for letting me know that lunging might not be good. Maybe I’ll try some groundwork like Red Barn mentioned. While I wait for my vet to get an opening to come out and reassess her tendon and put her on a plan, does anyone have a general idea? Like 20 minutes of walking over poles, 30 minutes walking, etc.
I’d definitely ask the vet, and - as I say - consult a gymnastic training book in your discipline. (We don’t even know what that is!)
I gave my earlier advice based on the assumption that you had the okay to go ahead, so yes: I’d wait for that before you begin anything serious. In the meantime, you could work on her ground manners generally, and get her used to behaving nicely when hand walked. Just getting her back into the habit of being handled and asked to pay attention every day would be very useful.
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If your vet hasn’t mentioned that she needs to lose weight she might be fine. I too - called my pony “a little chubby” - and then my vet was at the barn one day and she told me to put a grazing muzzle on her immediately. I kind of knew she was too fat but I didn’t want to admit it 
I am so thrilled with how the grazing muzzle helped though!
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Fat ponies easily become laminitic ponies. I’d put a grazing muzzle on the pony. you aren’t doing ponies any favors keeping extra weight on them, nor are you doing that tendon injury any good. I would hold off on exercise until the vet approves it and gives you a plan.
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If the vet clears you to start riding, they should give you a plan. My vet has us start with 15-20 minutes of forward walk on flat ground, 5x/week. My vet has us add 5 minutes of walking per week until we reach 45 minutes, then if the ultrasound looks good, we start adding trotting - 2 minutes per day , increasing by 2 minutes per week. Then another ultrasound before cantering.
You can always start with hand walking at a brisk walk until you get clearance to ride.
walking walking walking. I would not use lunge to condition up on a tendon recovery hand walk if need be then weight bearing walk then trot. Muscle tone and body condition should start coming back. I would not worry too much about body fat unless she is getting cresty and rump lumps. See what return to work does for body shape and calorie burn
Reading this over, it seems like everybody’s making different assumptions about the status of the injury, the OP’s priorities, the type of pony and degree of “chubbiness” we’re talking about . . .
Maybe more details, OP? Or pictures?
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I myself am slightly confused about what we’re really being asked.
Well, the tendon injury has completely healed and has to be kept in a vet wrap and cotton bandage for compression. My priorities are just to get her back into a routine so she doesn’t become severely overweight and out of shape. I don’t tend to do any specific discipline with her because of the risk associated with her past injury. I do ride in a western saddle if that helps. She is a Welsh X, 13.3 hh. I think I misworded my original post. She is not super chubby, she just has no muscle definition and is out of shape (lazy when we try to work). I am just wondering if anyone has any tips to start her back up with work. Hope this helps. Sorry for the confusion.
That does help, yes.
Assuming your vet gives you the okay, I’d second walking, on reasonably regular ground, first in hand and then under saddle. You can also do very simple in-hand exercises to build (or rebuild) core strength and good posture, to make sure your horse is relaxed, stretching, and using his body well. Later you can walk over poles, and on hills. Aerobic fitness comes after that, with intervals of trot work, and eventually canter if you’re cleared for that.
I live in Maine, without an indoor, so I have to leg up every spring. I follow a program roughly like this, but of course that assumes a basically sound horse. Your case is slightly different because of the injury, which is why I keep harping on the vet thing. I expect she’ll advise you to avoid tiny circles and rough terrain, and to keep the horse from tearing around like a lunatic if at all possible. (Vets always seem to make baffling pronouncements like, “Turn him out but don’t let him run around too much” . . . 
. . . . . they never seem to offer any insight into how this miracle might actually be accomplished.)
Anyhow, this one is on posture and topline:
https://thehorse.com/170405/horse-to…building-tips/
This one is on aerobics and interval training:
https://horsesport.com/magazine/trai…p-event-horse/
It doesn’t sound like you’re planning to do anything hugely demanding with your little pony, so of course you can stick to the stuff at the easier end of the spectrum.
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