Interesting read
- Thread starter Wally
- Start date
Very interesting. But I honestly think it's more to do with the horse than the management. Most of my horses are out 24/7/365 on a hill with loads of space. And those in at night get adlib hay. Ie just like the article recommends. So they should all be slim and fit. Well, some stay lean while others get fat. Xavier needing muzzling from early summer as he was laying down excess fat on his crest and withers. Cally looks ok, Oscar is heading towards fat now so I'll probably have to restrict him at some point. Dylan is thin and needs concentrates on top of 24/7 turnout. They are all managed the same way to start with then I adjust as needed.
@Jane&Ziggy I read those paragraphs as examples of the guilt trip laid on owners with fat horses by people who recommend restriction. Not as an endorsement of restriction.
I agree with KP nut. On our yard alone we have three very different horses all owned by the same couple. One is slim, verging on getting podgy, one is fat, one recovering from lammi is obese. They, up until recently have been kept exactly the same, they share several paddocks and always have access to either grass or hay and have huge buckets of feed too. I still maintain that some horses will get fat on fresh air and others can't eat their way through a mountain of food without problems.
Personally, I am not prepared to risk lammi and I know without a doubt that Belle will just keep eating while there is food available, she was massively overweight when I bought her, she isn't insulin resistant, she had been given Un restricted grass and she just ate and ate, I think the best way to stop horses becoming obese is to have them living as naturally as possible, like Jessey and Jane with Ziggy do. While I agree that horses have evolved to eat almost constantly they didn't evolve on lush over fertilised pasture meant for cows which is predominantly what most of the UKs livery is made up of.
Personally, I am not prepared to risk lammi and I know without a doubt that Belle will just keep eating while there is food available, she was massively overweight when I bought her, she isn't insulin resistant, she had been given Un restricted grass and she just ate and ate, I think the best way to stop horses becoming obese is to have them living as naturally as possible, like Jessey and Jane with Ziggy do. While I agree that horses have evolved to eat almost constantly they didn't evolve on lush over fertilised pasture meant for cows which is predominantly what most of the UKs livery is made up of.
I think there is some merit in feeding more - laminitis is usually a gut/digestive based issue. In theory, if the digestion slows so does the processing of toxins which cause laminitis this they can accumulate rather than being expelled... That said it's got to balance with weight gain. For me there is a simple answer, which is how grazing should be for most of the ponies that suffer - moorland type grazing - low energy high fibre and they are forced to exercise to find food.
I would LOVE to have low energy moorland pasture for Ziggy, though Mattie needs extra feed every week they are on the track - he does fine on lush cattle grass. The best we can do is a well-grazed track which keeps them moving. I know though that stressed grass has higher sugars, and sometimes it feels as if you are in trouble coming and going!
Not all horses/ponies are fat to get lami though, believe me some horses just seem to develop lami even if measures have been taken to restrict grass intake ( even on very little grass.) think it's more to do with the quality of grass tbh. x
I think it's also down to the health of their digestive system and they way they break down food and toxins etc.
Definately @popularfurball, I've seen ponies that are obese that have never had lami, then ponies that are a nice weight be struck down. Lami is awful and many owners are just very very unlucky although IMO there seems to be more cases nowadays:-( x
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