Good Doer...or just greedy?

Joyscarer

Joyscarer

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Dec 30, 2006
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This is a question i ask myself time and time again when it comes to my welsh sec d mare, Joy.

There's no doubt about it, I have to work at keeping her weight low, but is this because she's a good doer, or is it because she simply eats way more than other horses if not restricted?

For Joy, I thinks it's a combination of both. She certainly does well on the food she gets but she's also obsessed with eating till she pops!



So, what about those of you with fatties? Good doers, overeaters or a combination of both?
 
Mine is a very good doer, can live on a bare field with just a smidge of hay and still be massive. If I work him he stays a nice size. In winter he literally just stands at the round hay bales they have in the fields and eats all day, all the other liveries moan at me as he blatantly eating eating a lot more than his fair share. So he's greedy too!
 
Ziggy is both a good doer and greedy.

In his hilly paddock at present there is little to eat. He still has fat pockets and spends his days breaking into the fenced-off areas where the rabbit warrens are :stomp:. When we are out for a walk he tells me he is starving all the time by snatching at anything within lip distance.

I swear he would eat until he burst.
 
Horses are strange things aren't they. chanter tells me when he is getting to hard feed by not eating it all. He hardly every cleans all his hay up and never really racing to the grass when I give him more. He is neither a good or bad doers. I am convinced he is aware of his weight 'issues' just like he does not like to be muddy!!!
 
I think Storm is greedy - she is a good doer but looks for choice pieces all the time, ignoring anything that is not new and interesting. She will constantly snuffle for truffles off the stable floor - after stuff has beem there a few minutes she will move on to the next thing.....
 
All mine have been greedy. I always pour scorn on the people who suggest feeding "ad lib" as horses will eventually regulate their intake.... um.... yes, possibly but how FAT do they have to get before they realise they can't actually fit any more in? :redcarded:

I've not had one yet that hasn't been overweight at some stage and needed a little intervention.....
 
3 of mine are both good doers and greedy, if they are given access to some fresh grazing they eat at 100mph and don't stop until its gone. They are the same in winter with the hay, although hay slows them down. All lick buckets clean then toss aside when done.

Wally and Bertie are entirely different, average doers, they both eat a little, then have a nap, and so on. Wally in particular is a browser, he spends alot of his time hedgerowing looking for tasty weeds and leaves. Neither clean their buckets, always someone else willing to do that job though.
 
Izzy is a good doer and pretty greedy. He will do anything for food. But when he is in in the summer for he rarely eats all his haylage as he is stuffed full of grass.

He does like to eat when we are hacking.
 
I think good doers are just that - greedy. They don't have that self control button that says - 'I am full' Friends cob is certainly like that and the other cob on the yard is just the same, they have to be regulated because they can't regulate themselves.

Mine loves his food, but for instance when I brought him in this morning to give him a little brekkie with his vits in it, he didn't want it because he was full. Friends would have eaten it with no issue whatsoever!!!

Just as difficult I think having a good doer as a poor doer.
 
More fat on thin air than greedy per se, but am sure its very much a contributing factor. He's not an 'I'll do anything for food' type though. He doesn't break through the leccy fence to stuff his face, won't eat if he thinks its being used as a bribe to do something he doesn't want to, and on Sunday there, in a showfield full with the lushest of grass, he was quite happy to stand and stare at all the goings on rather than get down to the important business of eating.

ETA I guess I'm not with him 24/7 to watch how much he eats compared to his companion horse so I shouldn't really be so naive lol!

But ETA again!! - he doesn't always come up for his feed. CBA syndrome....but I'm sure the grass is tasting sweeter and thats probably why!
 
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Both of mine are greedy rather than efficient digestets!!

Silver is definitely not holding condition like she used too, but out on rough grazing she has scoffed silly and put weight on in a week.

Rascal is more efficient with his food but less greedy. I think his biggest problem is me and others thinking he hasn't got enough to eat - his hay looks so measly - but he is so much smaller. He will leve hay still and trample it in his bed as well so not as greedy as madam who will finish her hay an then set to work on her straw or next doors net
 
I class Rosie as greedy, she tries to snatch at grass if given half the chance, she continuously eats until everything devoured and doesnt stop to look up! the day that Rosie leaves hay in her net I will know she is unwell.....Moët however just isn't that bothered, I mean she does like to graze if I let her, but she isn't obsessed like Rosie. Major is a Houdini and escapes continuously into fresh grass....but we work him harder than the others so it's ok for him to eat nice grass as he is perfect weight and doesn't fluctuate as much as the girls do!
 
I think Marb is a good doer,and is also a bit greedy,but to be fair I think a lot of it is my grazing,it's just too lush.

He wasn't such a good doer whan I first had him,wasn't a poor doer but just ordinary I guess?? Since being on my land though he has become the best doer ever and seems to get fat on thin air!! Trouble is he has to be muzzled all the time now because of it and that makes him greedy I think,would do anything to got to food at the mo bless him,doesn't come up for air when I take the muzzle off:redface:

I have always had pretty good doers,and some of them have been greedy with it,but I think most of the actual weight problem is my area and the richness of the grass.
 
I don't believe it makes sense to say horses are greedy - they've evolved to keep eating: just think of the size and energy of a horse compared with the small amount of nourishment in a mouthful of grass! A horse that didn't keep eating whenever possible would soon starve to death. It's true that some are more food-oriented than others; Hebe would sell her soul for a haynet - my daughter had a mare who couldn't be bribed with food, although she spent her time grazing just like the rest of the horses. But Hebe, food-orientate as she is, has learned that work time is not eating time, and that a ride out doesn't involve lunch.

"Greedy" suggests inappropriate eating, and eating too much, but that's not what horses do - they just take advantage of what's on offer.
 
LindaAd said:
"Greedy" suggests inappropriate eating, and eating too much, but that's not what horses do - they just take advantage of what's on offer.
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Yep, I think this is exactly why I don't see my horse as greedy - I also think of greedy as being synonymous with 'naughty', and my horse knows not to eat when I'm on his back (something I'm grateful for), doesn't snatch at food, break through leccy fencing, etc. I guess this is some of his few good manners that I've managed to keep - but doesn't actually truly indicate if he's greedy or not.
 
Rubic is a combination of both I think. Over winter she was stabled a lot so I had control over her food intake. She only got a small handful of chaff in the morning and the same at night and was on less hay than a lot of the horses in my barn - still she was a bit chubby! I managed to get her perfect... right before she started getting out in the field more and it's started to go downhill again :( She just eats the grass constantly (there is a lot of it) and doesn't seem to run about as much as some of the others do so its possibly a combination of greediness and laziness!

I've decided she is coming in overnight Friday and Saturday and will only get out in the field for about 4/5 hours on Saturday and I'll turn her out late afternoon on Sunday. I just don't want to risk her getting too fat. If it gets really bad the muzzle will be going back on (but it had started to rub so I stopped using it so I'll need to modify it again!). I ride for at least 45min 5-6 days a week mainly schooling (mostly in trot and canter) with a few walk/trot hacks so lack of exercise shouldn't be too big a problem but I might need to up that again too if she puts on any more!
 
IMO when we talk about good doers then Native breeds come to mind, don't think its so much as greed but natural instincts to eat and store ready for winter and would walk miles to do it, we have to restrict as we keep them different to what nature intended.
 
Im not fussed what term is used. Fact is that as a Welsh Sec D Joy can get maximum nutrition out of anything she eats and also would eat until she pops so eats more than most other equines if not restricted.

That's not a great combo when I'm on ex-cattle grazing and struggling to manage her weight.

It struck me that in my very limited experience, those ponies I'd always considered as good doers also would eat far more than their slimmer field mates. That's what led me to wonder if other people have found the same thing. It would seem I'm not alone in this.

This then begs the question, how much of a poor doer's problem is down to the fact that they don't eat as much as they need so need more nutritionally intensive feed as they eat less?
 
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