Diet Planning Top Tips for Managing the Overweight Horse

Tracey Hammond M.Sc. (Dist)

Whoever said losing weight was simply a case of more calories out than in, although mathematically and nutritionally correct, clearly had never tried losing weight. For those of you with dieting horses and ponies, or those who have ever tried dieting yourselves, you will understand the amount of time and effort that has to go in to try and achieve your weight loss goal.

With our horses and ponies there are a number of complicating factors. Firstly restricting the intake of an animal that has evolved to spend the majority of its time eating and secondly the guilt we feel as horse owners when we have to restrict intake, even though we know it is for our horse’s own good. Here we provide some practical tips to help simplify your horse’s weight loss journey from the obvious to the slightly more cunning!

Weigh your Horse

Regularly monitoring your horse’s bodyweight not only lets you keep a close eye on how your management regime is affecting your horse’s waistline, but is also important for other management factors such as supplying the correct quantity of wormer. Regular weighing makes it much easier to notice if your horse’s weight is steadily creeping up and therefore allows you to address the problem sooner rather than later before it becomes an even bigger issue.

If you don’t already know the weight of your horse click here to purchase one of the Blue Cross Fat Horse Slim Packs or enter our competition to win one where you will not only receive a weigh tape, but a body scoring and progress chart as well. Combine weigh taping with body condition scoring to determine at what weight your horse appears to be in ideal condition. Remember - if you can’t easily feel your horse’s ribs and they have a big apple shape bottom, then they are definitely overweight!

Weigh your Feed

It sounds simple enough, but when was the last time you honestly checked how much you actually feed your horse? It’s all too easy for portion sizes to creep up especially when feeding or estimating by volume i.e. the scoop. A prime example of this in our own diet is breakfast cereal. Pour your usual serving size of cereal in a bowl and see how much it weighs. Compare this to the recommended serving size on the back of the box and I guarantee you will be surprised, especially if you tend to have a ‘heavier’ type of cereal such as muesli.

Not all horse feeds weigh the same in a given volume and so it is important to know how much your scoop holds. Talking to horse owners on the Dengie Feedline we come across people using all sorts of containers to measure their feeds from old milk saucepans to the plastic measures you get with washing powder! For a rough guide, a large round feed scoop holds just over 1kg of mix, 1.5-2kg of cubes compared to only 300g of Dengie Hi-Fi range products.

Knowing how much you feed your horse including forage is also important before embarking on a dieting regime as it’s not advisable to suddenly restrict the amount of feed your horse receives. For dieting horses and ponies the first step is to gradually restrict their intake to 1.5% of their current bodyweight. For example, if your horse weighs 500kg this would equate to 7.5kg. If, however, you are currently feeding 14kg of total feed per day then it is important to gradually reduce this to 7.5kg rather than making a sudden change.

Avoid the Little Extras

Does your horse really need that little bit of mix or cubes? Chances are if you are feeding by the scoop this is where portion distortion can really come in to play as the amount you give steadily creeps up. If you are the owner of an overweight horse or pony it is important to think about what these little extras really provide and honestly asses whether you need to add them.

Generally these ‘sprinkles’ of mixes or cubes are added because from our perspective they make a meal more ‘interesting’ and because your horse finds them tasty. However, these extras provide quite a few calories and don’t last very long. From a horse’s perspective it is far better to provide something that encurages longer chewing time both for behavioural and digestive health.

One of the additional problems of feeding just a sprinkle of mix or cubes is that your horse will be missing out on valuable vitamins and minerals that these feeds would provide when fed at the recommended quantity. One alternative to make your horse’s feed appear more ‘interesting’ and provide valuable vitamins and minerals without excessive calories would to be to use a feed balancer such as Dengie Hi-Fi Balancer. Although the feeding rate of Hi-Fi Balancer at 100g per 100kg bodyweight is the same as many other balancers, as it has been extruded your horse gets approximately double the volume to eat thereby keeping them eating for longer.

Factor in Forage

In some cases haylage simply provides too many calories for good doers and if your yard provides haylage as the sole forage source you may need to think of a suitable alternative. One option would be to replace a proportion of haylage with a much lower calorie fibre source such as good quality oat or barley straw if available. Alternatively Dengie Hi-Fi Good Do-er or Dengie Hi-Fi Lite can be used to partially or totally replace forage.

Hi-Fi Good Do-er combines top quality cereal straw and alfalfa with a light molasses coating, mint flavouring and added vitamins and minerals. Dengie Hi-Fi Good Do-er is Dengie’s lowest calorie fibre feed and has a calorie level comparable to late cut hay.

Alternatively, if your horse or pony is prone to laminitis and you are looking for a low calorie and low sugar option, Dengie Hi-Fi Lite combines alfalfa and straw with a low sugar coating. Providing around half the amount of sugar compared to average hay, Hi-Fi Lite is the lowest sugar and starch feed approved by the Laminitis Trust.

Keep your Horse Occupied

Feed restriction means that overweight horses and ponies may inevitably spend some time without anything to eat. Ideally this time needs to be kept to a minimum and this means not only do you need to use as low calorie feeds as possible, but also need to be as cunning as possible to try and increase the amount of time it takes your horse to consume their feed.

For hay and haylage this can be achieved by feeding in small holed hay nets and if necessary one hay net inside another to make your horse work really hard for forage. If using a chopped fibre feed such as one of the Dengie range then feed in a large rubber bucket and put a football on top, or some very large smooth pebbles that your horse has to manipulate to get to the feed. If your horse is a playful character hanging up vegetables or chopping and putting in a foraging ball can also help to keep them entertained.

The physical form of the feed that you choose can significantly affect how long it takes your horse to eat it and the amount of chewing required. Mixes and cubes are eaten at a much faster rate than short chop fibre based feeds or long stem forages. To keep your horse occupied as long as possible it therefore makes sense to try and maximise the amount fibre in the diet in a form that requires more chewing. For example, a scoop of High Fibre Cubes could be replaced with one and a half Dengie Measuring Buckets of Hi-Fi Original for the same number of calories. Dengie Measuring Buckets are available on-line to make it easier to weigh your Dengie fibre feeds.

Of course eating is not the only factor in keeping horses occupied and company is also really important. If your horse has to be kept off grass if possible allow access to a companion - some yards even have specific weight loss areas or groups for horses that have to all be managed in a similar way.

Monitor Grass Intake

Many people who contact the Dengie Feedline report that they have horses that live on ‘fresh air’. Most of the time what they are actually referring to are horses that do very well at grass alone. For very overweight horses and ponies and those prone to laminitis it may be advisable to avoid grass access completely until weight is reduced.

A grazing muzzle is one way to allow your horse to have some grass access and free exercise whilst restricting intake. A muzzle should only be used for part of the day after which the horse should come off of grass either to the stable or no grass area and have access to forage. It is important to get your horse used to the muzzle gradually and ensure that they are happy to drink with them on. One of the main benefits of using a muzzle is that it still allows your horse to go out to pasture for some exercise and contact with other horses.

Increase Exercise

This is something that sounds easy in theory but is sometimes a little tricky to put in to practice. The good news is that if you are also on a get fit mission this will certainly help you to achieve your goal. Increasing exercise should be a gradual process and you’ll be glad to hear that mad galloping around is not ultimately the best exercise for fat burning!

One problem that owners of good doers frequently report on the Dengie Feedline is that their horse can be a little lazy. Firstly it is important to establish that your horse is fit enough for the exercise that you are trying to do and secondly to remember that being overweight puts extra strain on your horse that makes exercise much harder work, so give your horse plenty of time to gradually get fit.

If your horse is fit enough for the job in hand and you still find your horse less than enthusiastic then nutritionally there are two factors to consider. Firstly if your horse is on restricted rations it is important to consider if their diet is still balanced. If you are feeding a fibre only ration or less than recommended of a feed with added vitamins and minerals then it is important to top up with an additional source of vitamin and minerals such as Dengie Alfa-A or Hi-Fi Balancer or one of the Natural Vitality Vits & Mins supplements.

If you are competing your horse and it is ‘sparkle’ or ‘oomph’ that they lack then looking at the type of energy source used can help. Dengie Naked Oats are a type of oat grown without the husk and are very energy dense. Providing a concentrated source of starch, Naked Oats give ‘quick release’ energy that can help to promote ‘sparkle’. As Naked Oats are very energy dense they can literally be fed by the handful to get the desired response.

For more information…

If you’re really not sure what to feed your good doer then why not contact us for a personalised feeding plan. Either call the Feedline 0845 345 5115 or click here to e-mail us with all your horses details and we will prepare a ration that helps to promote weight loss but keeps your horse happy and healthy.