Watching the grass

Jane&Ziggy

Jane&Sid these days!
Apr 30, 2010
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Ziggy has been on a grazing track since the end of March. He has never, ever been so slim at this time of year - when he trots towards you, you can see his ribs on each side come and go as his belly swings.

He is feeling fit, feisty and full of himself, and every day he and the other horses gallop up the track and play at the top with much leaping and kicking, caprioles and courbettes all over the place.

But of course he's starving hungry and makes woebegone pony eyes at me whenever he sees me. He has been shivering in the cold and windy wet mornings recently, too. Sometimes I feel so sorry for him I let him into the central section with our poor doer, Mattie.

Trevor came to trim him today and praised how well he looks. But when he looked at his most sensitive foot (right fore) he sucked his teeth and said "White line is spreading a bit here. Just watch out how much grass he is getting."

So I must harden my heart and not give him more grass. It's tough because the track is very well grazed down and all the track horses are on psyllium now to protect them against sand colic. Jeez, what a balancing act! I wish I had 6 acres of moor.
 
It must be such a worry. You are doing so well with him. And sounds like he's loving feeling so fit even if he is convinced he's wasting away!!
 
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I feel your pain. Belle is a little bit fatter than she was tbis time last year but her feet and her whole self have never been better. Thankfully the yard we are on now is old meadow, full of all sorts of different grasses and plants so I don't need to restrict her quite so much, although she is still on slim pickings compared to the rest of the yard. It's so hard having the lovely native types.
 
I am going to have to give him hay when he is hungry! Isn't that mad in the summer when there is lots of grass? I'd give my eye teeth for an old meadow.
 
I feel for You both. I have the opposite problem, or at least did have. I brought m'y best friend out of an rs as He was practically anorexic, took him to a lively paradise of livery with hectares of lush green grass. He has gained to a "normal" weight but Is on the verge of becomung tubby. I'm reluctant right now to restrisct grazing as i'm convinced some zxcess Will do him well for Next Winter when he has a tendency to drop weight. As i Say i feel for You as either extrême Is a constant worry.
 
I am in exactly the same boat, my guys went on the track in feb and they are both keeping slim but my farrier commented on Jess' white line having spread a little on last visit and that she must not get any extra grass time (I had been letting her graze the lush stuff for half hour after riding) for at least another month, for the first time ever in june I am still haying and feeding (she was dropping a little too much weight). My track is bare and with the heavy rain have been really worrying about sand colic, the middle on the other hand is thigh deep in grass and I had to spend 5 hours topping it with the ride on mower a couple of weeks ago, but that does just go to show how much grass they have been getting as they have obviously eaten that much off the track.
 
You are doing really well with Ziggy I can't imagine how hard it is to have to be on such high alert all the time. I am the oppersite the boys are in a lush field and holding there weight but as soon as it has been eaten down they will start to drop again. By the end of the summer I actually want them a little chubby as with going away it means leaving their weight in my OH hands and he just does not have the experience to know when to start upping feed and rugs etc.

I am back after Christmas when it starts to get really cold but I still worry now
 
Mine are the same - thought I'm having to throw a no fill on them both to keep the rain off at the moment - they have been naked all winter but they've shed their winter coats so I keep finding them shivering when the rain is bad!
 
One thing that really confuses me is that I have Ben in a grazing muzzle and he does not go out without it between April and September. There are several other horses/ponies who are so fat they look pregnant. Our grass is amazing - acres and acres of lush grass and all the horses love it. But we haven't had a single case of laminitis in the 3 and a half years I have been there. How can that be? Everything thinks I worry too much as all the other horses cope fine with their huge bellies.
 
Big bellies are ofter just gas, its the actual fat laying down you have to watch. Jess has been much bigger in the past and been fine (with a huge grass belly but also fat deposits), I dont want to make the mistake of thinking she always will be tho, esp since her cushings diagnosis.
Here is one of my paddocks a couple of weeks ago, its longer than the bottom string on the fence now, I had to mow to stop the fence grounding
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I think there is an element of chance and an element of genetics too MP - much like in humans - some people can be over weight and never have any ill health connected to it, and others suffer with lots of issues (heart, diabetes, cholesterol, strokes, breathing etc) - there is sometimes no rhyme or reason to it - but I would always rather prevent it.
 
Well, Trevor says that from the evidence of ZIggy's feet he is definitely lami prone, so I just have to be careful. But Izzy the filly and Mattie the arab can be as fat as you like and never give any cause for worry. I guess as pub says it's all in the genetics.
 
@Mary Poppins the horses on our yard also have access to huge lush acres. The only case of lami we have had in the 8 years I've been involved with the yard was a skinny pony with the concussive type of lami

I did speak to the farrier about Zak and he said he was not really a 'laminitis type' but I've no idea how you can judge that.
 
We have two good doers and one wussy warmblood on our field. The wussy warmblood drops weight in the mildest of cold winter weather whereas ours are in a constant battle to keep weight off. Dolly has a crest like a stallion :shame: So which one came down with lami last year? The wussy warmblood.

My farrier reckons the shape of the foot can show changes that could indicate a risk of lami.
 
My trimmer (trained by K C La Pierre) says "laminitis" is a broad term describing all sorts of things. KC calls the stretching of the foot "elastosis" and it can lead to what vets call laminitis, or not, depending.

I don't pretend to have a good grasp of all of this.
 
I use a different vet to most people on my yard, and the general consensus from everyone else is that my vet is far too strict on weight and that I worry myself un-necessarily. All I know is that my vet warned me that Ben would be at risk of laminitis and that his joints would age prematurely unless he dropped the weight. He lost over 150kg and has maintained his weight loss. I look at him now and he looks great, I can't believe he was so fat back then!
 
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