Helping her lose weight

[LovingHoneyLots]

I started sharing my friends 9 year old Welsh Cob, Honey, with her last Autumn. Over the winter Honey put on quite a bit of weight, she lives out and we don't have a menage to exercise the horses in, we use a field, so when it was wet or icy we struggled to exercise her. She has lost a bit of weight since Christmas, but her farrier says she is still overweight. At the moment she gets an hour of exercise, either me riding or lunging her, almost every day and then her grazing is alterated every day between our less lushous field and a field with much better grazing. I find balancing her exercise and grazing difficult, could you recommend a diet or routine that would benefit her. Thankyou.

[Expert_NAF_Nutrition]

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry, and I can certainly sympathise with the issue of keeping weight off the natural good do-ers. Losing weight in horses, just as with ourselves, is really very simple - they need to burn more calories than they take in. In reality, achieving this can be much harder! There are three areas you need to look at, her turnout, exercise and diet.

Turnout
You need to try and allow her as much time at grass as possible, but to manage that time effectively. Firstly I would avoid anything with rich grazing, but also 'horse sick' over-grazed paddocks are not advisable as they are likely to be high in weeds which are actually quite fattening. Ideally you want fairly short, but evenly growing grass. If you also use your paddock for riding one good idea I would recommend is a system called Paddock Paradise. An internet search should find you more information on how to set it up, but basically you fence off a strip around the outside of the field and allow Honey, and her friends, to graze in that strip. If you then make sure that the gate, water, salt lick and maybe a haynet are all at different points it will keep them moving around all day - just as they naturally would in the wild. This is so much better than restricting grazing with a corner fenced off which tends to encourage them just to stand still and eat all day! Plus it leaves you the central area to ride.

If she has to be turned out on rich or lush grazing then I would suggest a grazing muzzle is an essential. Research tells us that the good do-ers in particular can actually adjust their feeding rate and bite amount to take in as much good grass as possible! Most will accept a grazing muzzle well enough, and these allow her to continue to eat and drink - just not gorge herself silly!

Exercise
It sounds like you're doing the right thing here in exercising daily. Just make sure that she is really working. So if you're out for a hack make sure she is marching out and not just dawdling, and take advantage of any hills for a good trot to the top! The more active the exercise the better it will be for her.

Diet
One thing that is important when we're trying to get some weight off the good do-ers is to ensure we don't starve them. The horse's gut is designed to always have food trickling through, and this applies to those on a diet just as much to the others. So make sure she has fibrous food available. If the track or grazing available becomes sparse then provide a haynet with well soaked hay. By soaking the hay overnight you will leach much of the sugars out, which leave a high fibre but low calorie feed. The other consideration is to ensure that the diet is not vitamin and mineral deficient, which can be a risk for those on a restricted diet. I would advise feeding NAF Slimline. Slimline is a unique product in that not only does it naturally provide a broad spectrum of vitamins and minerals to balance the diet, but it also provides unique nutritional support for a healthy metabolism. Nutrients such as magnesium, which helps the good do-er with glucose metabolism, and herbs such as tumeric and seaweed extracts which are proven in human nutrition trials for controlling obesity. Slimline will support Honey in her goal of a slimmer waistline, but like all products for dieting will only help as part of a calorie controlled diet and exercise regime. If Honey doesn't currently receive a bucket feed Slimline can be easily fed in a small feed of high fibre, low calorie chaff such as Dengie Hi-Fi Lite.

I hope this has answered your question, and please do get in touch if you need any further information. We'd love to know how Honey gets on with NAF Slimline, so do send us pictures - and don't forget to take the 'before' shots too! Further information on Slimline and reports from good do-ers using it, can be found on our website www.naf-uk.com .

Kind regards,

Kate Jones
Snr Nutritionist
NAF

[LovingHoneyLots]

Thankyou so much for this, I've found now that having her in a good quality field with the soaked haynet means that she's not over-eating and isn't anywhere near as bloated or over-stuffed as what she was. Thankyou, i'll be sure to try the Slimline product soon. Honey is equally greatful for the new changes in diet

[Expert_NAF_Nutrition]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, and I'm glad to hear Honey is on the road to a new slimline, self. I can't wait to see the pictures!
Kind regards,
Kate