Weight Management Tips for your horse

Summer time can either be really easy with your horses because they can live out full time without issue...or it can be fraught with issues if your horse is a 'good doer', prone to weight gain, has had laminitis, has EMS, or any type of grass related issue. 

If you're in the latter camp with your horse, I feel your pain, as I know from my own experience that it's a really difficult juggling act. 

Through experience I have found ways to manage horses weight, to keep them slim and healthy. It does take work and a lot of monitoring, but it is down to us as horse owners to control their weight, they can't do it for themselves! 

The first thing to say is that the grass in the UK is generally too good for horses! Horses are evolved to eat 'rough' grasses, and a variety of grasses, bushes, trees, while travelling up to 20 miles per day looking for food and water. This is the complete opposite of how we keep our domesticated horses! So it makes sense that a lot of horses are overweight or it's difficult to manage their weight - the grass is simply too good for their digestive system to deal with, there is too much of it, it's too rich, no variety, and they are not moving enough. 

It really is important to maintain a healthy weight for our horses, to prevent various illnesses developing either immediately or in the future. 

In simple terms, if your horse develops laminitis due to too much sugar/too may calories, this can be FATAL for them. The best way to prevent this happening is to keep your horse slim, in regular exercise, and manage his grass intake so that he's not getting any large intakes of grass. 

From a physio perspective, I see a lot of overweight horses in the summer, and they are more lethargic, tighter in their bodies because it's a downward spiral of 'too much grass, full belly, lethargic, lack of movement' which isn't good for them, and they are actually more prone to injury due to being heavier, as well as being potentially on the borderline of laminitis. 

SO WHAT CAN WE DO TO REDUCE THEN MAINTAIN OUR HORSES WEIGHT? 

It's simple really, less calories and more exercise!! 

Here are some practical things that we can do for our horses:

• Reduce your horses weight..look at what he is consuming on a daily basis, where could you make changes? 
• Buy a weight tape so you can monitor his weight weekly (it's difficult to see their weight reducing to begin with by eye)
• Strip graze your paddocks so that your horse has turnout time but minimal grass
• Reduce the amount of time your horse is turned out on grass (not ideal but sometimes necessary) 
• Consider turning out overnight when the sugars in the grass are reduced (turnout late evening, bring in early morning) 
• Consider a grazing muzzle to reduce amount of grass intake
• Increase exercise levels to burn calories
• Weigh your haynets so that you are not over feeding
• Reduce or remove hard feed from diet (does he really need it…)
• Soak hay to reduce sugar intake even further
• No treats!
• Learn how to monitor your horses feet daily for increased heat and elevated digital pulses (signs of laminitis). If you monitor their feet daily you will pick up the slightest increase in heat quickly and can act on this by removing them from the grass
• As owners it’s important that we are really strict, our horses can’t manage these factors on their own, so be strict with yourself and how you manage your horse
• These are my practical tips that I have found to work, but it is an individual situation, so do your research and speak to other professionals to make the necessary changes for YOUR horse

IF YOU'RE NOT SURE ABOUT ANY OF THIS CONTACT YOUR VET TO DISCUSS YOUR HORSE, ESPECIALLY IF YOU THINK YOUR HORSE MAY BE SUFFERING WITH LAMINITIS - THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. 

ALSO EQUINE NUTRITIONISTS CAN HELP YOU TO FORMULATE A BESPOKE DIET PLAN FOR YOUR HORSE. 

This month we have Clare MacLeod, Equine Nutritionist, in The Members Enclosure, my monthly training group, as a Guest Expert, talking about Metabolically Challenged Horses for us. There really is a lot to this topic, it's complex, and can be really dangerous for your horse to be overweight. 

I encourage you to do more research into nutrition and understand why your horse is overweight, and how you are going to change this. Check out Clare MacLeod's website and her new online learning centre for excellent resources on nutrition, weight loss and exercise: https://equinenutritionist.com/ 

AND my Ebook 'Horse Weight Loss' is available through my Ebooks page: Ebook Series