?? Feeding the Fat Horse (Beyond ration balancers)

[lwk]

Our draft cross is too fat. She is on 24x7 turnout (pasture is fading), has access to fairly stemmy grass hay, and gets Progressive ration balancer plus a handful of oats.

This level of feeding works well for her when she is in moderate work but she is now on rather light work and she is too fat.

Should I try a vitamin/mineral mix and drop the ration balancer? Not worry about it since winter is coming and the grass will be gone soon?

The other mare she is turned out with is in work and is not too fat. I'd hate to separate them but it may come to putting Miss Drafty on dry lot at least 12 hrs/day.

[whbar158]

Why even the handful of oats? How much RB is she eating? You may easily be able to just do vit/min supp and some hay pellets (alfalfa or other) for her meals too.

[JB]

Our draft cross is too fat. She is on 24x7 turnout (pasture is fading), has access to fairly stemmy grass hay, and gets Progressive ration balancer plus a handful of oats.

This level of feeding works well for her when she is in moderate work but she is now on rather light work and she is too fat.
Muzzle :)

Should I try a vitamin/mineral mix and drop the ration balancer?
Yes

Not worry about it since winter is coming and the grass will be gone soon?
Depends. Personally, for that easy of a keeper, I'd do a vit/min supplement, add Tri-Amino (uckele) at least, and a cup or 2 of alfalfa pellets or beet pulp as a carrier - soaked

The other mare she is turned out with is in work and is not too fat. I'd hate to separate them but it may come to putting Miss Drafty on dry lot at least 12 hrs/day.
Muzzle is easier of that can be arranged. Better to be muzzled and moving on the grass with a buddy, than hay'd and standing around in a dry lot, all else equal.

[Tamara in TN]

This level of feeding works well for her when she is in moderate work but she is now on rather light work and she is too fat.
.

why not lunge her everyday ??

[lwk]

She's getting about 2 lb/day of the PN Grass RB. She's about 1500 lb.
I am concentrating on working with younger mare - just not enough hours in the day with somewhat-more-than-full-time job, farm work, etc to get it all done.

I hadn't thought about trying a grazing muzzle.

[deltawave]

My ID cross gets 3/4 pound of a very similar ration balancer when she's in fairly hard work, ridden 40 minutes 5-6 days a week and doing Training level eventing/2nd level dressage. The "recommended amount" would leave her FAT. I've never actually known a horse that needed the recommended amount.

Cut the RB down to maybe 1/2 pound per day, add a multivitamin.

Or, get the hay analyzed (I always like to know what makes up the other 95% of what my horses eat!) and you may find you don't need anything else.

Ditto a muzzle. :yes: