[SJgirl]

Hiya all!
My connemara x TB, 7yo 15.1hh mare is well fit like i can do 40mins-1hrs of medium dressage work and she will just be hot but....shes fat! She is out in a paddock all year round, all the time. She is not hard feed at the moment and is break feed grassed, so I have full control of how much she eats. She is ridden 6 days a week with.....
1 fittness day -long periods of trot, canter, gallop
1 full jumping day - Jumpin 1meter,45mins
1 Dressage and Jumping Day - medium work, nothing higher than 85cm, 1hr
2 flatwork schooling day -intense hard work, making her sweat 1hr-1hr 30mins
1 hacking day (30mins-3hrs, mostly walking)
Latley most days i hack her out, for up 3hrs most days but mostly walking
Its confusing me on how she can still be fat! I have noticed she is losing weight but very, very slowly! Now i no that horses (and other animals and humans!) can't shed loads weight just over night, but I have only seen the differnts in 2 weeks! at that was because i could get the girth up a couple more holes....
I would like to no if anyone has ideas on how i should feed her etc. For the work she is doing she still has lots energy so i think i want need hard feed, well untill March when the eventing season starts and i have one on just about every weekend....

Thanks for reading

[Cavalier]

I would consult the services of a qualified equine nutritionist.

Your horse is in full, hard work so her energy requirements do need to be supplemented, but not at the risk of putting on more weight.

A QEN will be able to formulate a specific diet to meet her needs, without adding extra weight.

Hard work and no suplementation can lead to dangerous illness such as hypolipemia (sp?)

[SJgirl]

But wouldn't she be lacking in energry or something if she needed it?
Sorry i just wound't mind it being explained on how she needs hard feed when she seems to be coping found without it and isn't lacking energy or her quality of work dropping...???? ...help...

[Cavalier]

The thing with the horse industry is that you will get a billion different opinions from a billion different people for a billion different reasons!

Just imagine that you've been out running all day and working, and you come in and have a piece of bread and a cup of tea...it doesn't satisfy your energy requirements (in theory I mean) the energy lost needs to be replaced for the horse...the salt and minerals lost through sweat needs to be replaced.

I know you said that your mare has ample energy and does need to lose weight, but she still needs to have that energy replaced or she will eventually burn out.

If I understand correctly she is only on grass...correct? The amount of grass she consumes is controlled, so by guestamet, how many kgs would she consume a day and what is the quality?

I am not a nutritionist so cannot give you much info, but I do have a sound knowledge of feeding and forumulating diets, do a search on hypolipemia to find out what the conditions of a horse being prone to it are, and what it does to the horse.

EDIT - I have a horse that is very hot, and I'm sure would be happy to work all day every day without extra feed, but it can be dangerous not to supplement with that amount of work, despite the spirit of the horse.

[JBandRio]

Given that she's got a pony breed in her, you may want to talk to your vet about insulin resistance. This can cause the horse to be "fat" on very little food. Do a search here on Insulin Resistance, or IR, especially posts by Sue B, and you can get all the information you want

[SJgirl]

Okay I understand now Thankyou for clearing that up and explaining it to me .
I will start Hard feeding Abbey every night. I was hard feeding her to the 25th of Jan, About.....
2 full 2lt Ice-cream containers of Chaff Hage
1 of Mitivate (spl?) Econimixs (spl?)
as well as .......
1 Tablespoon of Salt
1 Tablespoon of Epson Salt
3mls of Tracemill (Vitamins and minerals, also help pervent grass stagges)

Does that sound right for her level of work?
When she is heavy work (from March - November) when there is just about an event on every weekend, should this still be alright or will I have to increase it? She does get hay as well during this period.

Okay JBandRio I will do a search on it .
She is loseing weight I no that, just not alot at the moment. When I got her she was kind of on the light side, but after worming her and starting her up on hard feed bye the end of October she looked great But during November we had a break from competition and I just hacked her around manly just walking for an 1hr or less, and with all the spring yummy grass coming up her weight kind of got away on me Most of December was spent doing lots of steady walking and then trotting to get her fit again for the Show Jumping Champs of the 24th-25th of Jan. Luckly she was fit bye then and had lost weight but she still is caring abit too much weight. When I go out to ride today I will take a photo of here and post it on here so you guys can see how much weight she has to lose etc, it might help a little more.

I've been told the grass that our horses get is very low quality, its all over grown, tall stalking, dead grass with nice grass coming though at the bottom with some clover etc. When I move the break its moved 2m or so up and about 6 meters or so long wise for both her and her paddock mate, but she gets the bulk of it due to being miss bosy boots

[Cavalier]

Hi SJgirl, since you are in Australia, I will recommend a FANTASTIC supplement, it is an alround min/vit/electrolyte supplement...that way you only have to add 1.

Your girl would benefit from an electrolyte supplement, she needs more than salt.

Also, make sure you feed by weight, not by volume, that way, you can forumalte a balanced diet. Its fine to feed by ice-cream container once you know what I weighs...eg, if you know that 1 scoop of chaff weighs 200grams, and a scoop of economix weighs 800grams, then thats fine, but ALWAYS know how much you are feeding by weight.

I personally don't like economix, it does contain A LOT of bran and pollard.

Mitavite Munga is better for horses in hard work, mitavite have a HUGE range of pelleted feeds, you can check them out at their website http://www.mitavite.com.au/

[Cavalier]

Whoops, sorry, the name of the min/vit/electrolyte supplement is 'Equilibrium'. Don't forget that their are mins and vits in pre-mixed pelleted feeds, so a nutritionist is a must to make sure its all balanced.

[SJgirl]

Thanks Cavalier for the info!
Well no I don't live in Australia, across the ditch in New Zealand But I'm sure if i look around I will found that product or one very seimilar.
Luckliy I have ran out of Economix so will be able to try something else I kind of like the sound of 'Pro-Sport' and 'Athlete Plus' as well as Munga from the Mitavite range.
Anywho here that picture of my baby Abbey ....

**Its not very small but than you wouldn't be able to look at her properly **