29 August 2008 17:12
Two years ago I bought a 14.2hh cob, who is now five-and-a-half years old. Despite having no more than four hours’ grazing a day, and being ridden for one-and-a-half to two hours six days a week, last June he got mild laminitis. When the vet eventually x-rayed him, it was found that the pedal bone had sunk slightly.
He is just fed Hi-Fi Lite when he is being ridden. At first he had Hi-Fibre Cubes then, just before he got laminitis, I changed to a balancer.
He now has soaked hay plus an hour’s grazing morning and evening. I tried a grazing muzzle but he went berserk.
He seems fairly sound in the field, but the weight is not really shifting, and I suspect he is eating his bed – shavings!
I am trying to give him the recommended 2.5 per cent of his bodyweight in hay, but he weighs 532kg. His dam is a Welsh x Arab and his sire a heavyweight traditional gypsy cob – who is huge.
Is there anything more I can do (apart from liposuction!)?
Answer
By Your Horse
Nutritionist Clare Lockyer replies:
Feeding an overweight horse can be challenging, as you have found out. British native pony breeds have evolved to survive harsh winters with little nutrition,
so they tend to feed efficiently and store fat. This occurs in several ways:
● Gut capacity may be proportionally greater in ponies than in horses.
● Ponies digest fibre more efficiently than horses and, therefore, they can maintain condition on forage-only diets – though they still need an additional source of vitamins and minerals.
● Ponies tend to move around less than horses, other than draught horses, and so burn fewer calories at pasture or in the stable.
For all these reasons it will be hard to shift weight from your cob.
The only answer is to restrict food intake and exercise him as much as possible, which will increase metabolic rate.
Before his exercise regime resumes, try restricting his total intake to 1.5 per cent
of ideal bodyweight (7.5kg per day). You could also mix some good-quality straw with his hay.
Putting a horse on a diet can sometimes feel like a fruitless task, but it will help his health and wellbeing in the long run.