[lolajane]

ok my horse is kind of a chunk and i'm trying to get her to lose some weight..... haha easier said than done... she gets a flake of greenish local for breakfast, one for lunch and 1 or 2 for dinner.. at dinner time she also gets about a cup of soaked beet pulp just to make her not feel left out in the grain... its really a minicule amount.... i i try to exercize her almost everyday even if its only for 20 mins, lunging or somthing. she's just fat by nature i guess.... anythoughts on this? maybe get a yellower hay.... do you htink she could be short on vitamins or minerals?

[Shotgun93]

What do you mean by "greenish" hay? Grass, alfalfa, both?
How much do your flakes weigh? And, yes, she probably is lacking in vitamins and minerals. Do you provide any free choice?
You might consider getting her tested for insulin resistance too.

[BettyBootsy]

Wow she really needs her hay so maybe you can find a more filler type hay like prairie hay. Is she grazing too? You could use a grazing muzzle. More exercise 20 min isn't much! Sorry not much help! Good luck! Gosh I only have one easy keeper it must be nice!

[Dawn]

I would look into insulin resistance and even some other metabolic issues. She's only getting about 9-12 lbs of hay a day. Does she have access to grazing as well? If not, then she needs more hay regardless.

[PaintedQH]

Easy keepers are really hard to keep weight off of. The best way is to up the exercise, and to make it quality exercise where the horse is working up a good sweat, while getting in better shape. I would up the exercise, but not go crazy all at once. 20 minutes is more like a warm up, and your horse is not burning off the fat. The other way is to limit the feed intake. If your horse has good pasture to graze on, she may not need any hay at all. If there is not much for pasture, grass hay is best.

[Lou3]

She needs a bit more hay or you might run into digestive problems, make sure it is seed hay and not meadow hay or alfalfa The important thing with hay is to make sure enough roughage passes through the gut to keep her gut moving properly. Seed hay is lower in calories than meadow hay as once the grass has seeded it has given up a lot of energy.
I would ditch the beet pulp altogether and give her unmolassed chaff at dinner time - its more long stem roughage and its fewer calories. I would also add a broad spectrum vitamin supplement to make sure she is getting everything she needs.
The only real way to get considerable weight loss on a fat horse though is to increase exercise significantly.

[Dawn]

Beet pulp is long stem roughage. So the chaff wouldn't be a better choice so far as that goes. It's also very difficult to find 'chaff' or chopped hay products in much of North America. And if you can, they're very, very expensive.

I would recommend on the beet pulp though to soak it then pour the water off as it will remove some calories and most of the molasses that's sprayed onto it.

[Lou3]

beet pulp is roughage yes but long stem roughage refers almost exclusively to grasses and hays - its as much about the form it is delivered in as anything. Alfalfa pellets for example would not be considered "long stem".
You really dont have chaff readily available over there? Wow. Its a staple of the diet of most horses over here.

[JBandRio]

Beet pulp, and hay cubes, is long stem enough to satisfy the "scratch factor" that the horse's digestive system needs.

Chaff is available here Triple Crown has a chopped forage product. There is a product called Showing Chaff. There is Dengie. They are all more $$ than the equivalent weight of regular hay, but when you have to use them, they are great.

However, if hay is available, I wouldn't be feeding either beet pulp or chaff of any sort to an overweight horse. Hay just takes longer to eat than the equivalent weight of a chopped forage, so the horse just has something to eat for longer.

[Deb]

Is this grass hay? Because if it is I would not cut her back on the hay. I might even up the amount depending on the weight of your horse. That amount of BP is good...in exchange of grain for sure. If you cut her back too much on hay, her body will go into starvation mode and she will hang on to her fat as a means to survive. I am assuming there is no pasture grass to graze on BTW. You should probably have her checked for metabolic issues such as Hypothyroid and Insulin Resistence. Exercise is definitely good.