We hear often from people that “My pony is so fat!” It is often followed with, “He doesn’t need to be fed anything – he so much as sees a bag of feed and he gains weight.”
Obesity in horses can lead to laminitis, overheating and numerous other health issues. Ideally, chubby horses should have their nutrition monitored closely. Three good practices to manage these types of easy keepers are:
- Limit their forage first and provide a controlled-calorie horse feed to complete the missing nutrients from the forage. This still allows the horse or pony to feel as though it gets fed, too.
- If monitored well, grazing muzzles work for overweight horses on pastures, allowing them only small bites of grass but maintaining free access to run with the other horses.
- Not surprisingly, most effective is daily exercise. Increasing the amount of calories burned each day reduces the amount that are stored away as fat.
Taking weight off of an easy keeper is no small task, but is well worth it in the long run. Keeping our equine friends fit will help ensure they stay with us for years to come.
exercise, exercise, exercise !!!
Great advise. I have a Mustang who is an easy keeper – boy what a challenge. He’s the only one in the herd overweight too. It’s funny – yet not at the same time.
Thanks for the information.
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my tn walker is overweight and only feeding 1/2 cup of feed once a day can not exercise her too much cause of her condition-bilateral proximal suspensory ligament desmitis on her left front fetlock and her rear tarsus stifle, so what do i do now?
Hi Donna, So sorry to hear of your horse’s injury – that’s no fun at all. We would strongly suggest working with your veterinarian to determine how much exercise you can provide her – even regular handwalking for short periods, if she can do it, will help both her condition and also her mental health and attitude.
As for her diet, you don’t mention what type of feed you are using, but we would suggest switching to a ration balancer or “lite” product right away (of course with a 5-7 day transition) to make sure she continues to get her needed vitamins & minerals, but without the calories of a traditional feed. Also, you should definitely take a look at the amount of hay/pasture she is getting. If she’s on grass/pasture at all, she may need a grazing muzzle, or you may need to limit her access to hay if she is being kept up in a stall.
Hope that helps, and please do let us know if you have more questions! Thanks ~ Gina T.