Unlimited access >

What to feed an overweight horse?

I bought an ID mare that was a 9/9.5 on the BCS. I’ve had her about three months now and we are down probably about 150lb. She gets a whole bale of teff with a hay chix 1" net covered in a 1 1/4" net. this gets her about 4.5 days which puts her eating at 1.5% of her goal weight a day. She gets a bit of soaked beet pulp as a carrier for her V/M and amino acid supplements and a dash of grain for taste and she has been doing well with this and losing weight steadily.

Interesting. I might try this with my old man, as he has taken up stall walking after he’s done inhaling his limited hay. I have a couple jump blocks in his stall to try and get him to cut it out. Maybe I’ll give this a whirl with some meh grass hay and see how it goes.

Question - what’s the proper knot for a haynet that is going to be thrown on the ground?

I use a standard knot and make sure the very ends are not tied together. But my pony and his pasture mates are barefoot and super sensible.

Ok, I will do that. I normally tie a quick release, but that’s when I have it hung. Didn’t know if there was a better way if it’s on the ground. The old man is very sensible and barefoot, but I don’t want to invite trouble if I don’t have to. Thanks!

My fine-boned barely 16hh mare weighs 1300lbs. My all legs tiny-bodied 18hh gelding weighed 1800lbs. 16.2hh gelding I had in training ages ago who was “old style” heavily built guy was 1475lbs (all weighed at OVC) so you might be a bit shy on your weight estimate.

Wish I could remember weights on all the horses I’ve taken to OVC over the years - I’d have a really great estimate chart of sorts.

1 Like

So fascinating to hear this.

My Oldenburg mare is just shy of 16.3, short-coupled (she wears a Horseware size 75 to give you an idea), but with a well-sprung rib cage. If she had her choice, she’d be about 1200 lbs. Her goal weight (my choice) is 1100 lbs. These numbers are from actual scale weighings, too, not just a weight tape.

I boarded at a barn with a scale for a while. It was always fascinating. My 15.2 PRE was typically in the mid to high 1100s, with a goal weight of 1050-1075. My 16.2 WB was typically around 1350 lbs.

This is an interesting theory about free choice hay. My easy keepers have been on free choice hay in a slow net for years and the point at which they “self regulate” leaves them quite overweight. Because I’ve been home since March, I switched to 4 rationed meals per day for 9 months. I recently went back to free choice just for a couple months and I find they chose to eat much less than they did before I rationed the hay.

I have been feeding Purina Equalizer for years and it’s safe for my easy keepers and my insulin resistant mini.

I have one boarder pony who doesn’t work and he is very overweight. The vet has recommended a grazing muzzle in addition to a hay net. I’m not so keen on that so I have him in a diet pen for now. All the horses here are semi-retired easy keepers so we are constantly battling the bulge!

Did you ever compare the scale reading to the weight tape? Is there a significant difference in the readings?

Yes. Weight tape was close on the finer boned types - GRP and TB. It was somewhere between a bit under and way under for the mature WBs.