Slimming down

[Tracey & Mark <mwdodger@mweb.co.za>]

Sorry about cross-posting, but this is relevant to both of the sites, and I'd really like advice from anyone who can help.

 

I have always read posts on "fattening up" and with a little sigh to myself.  I have the opposite problem with Toc because he puts on weight at the whiff of hay.  He's been out of serious work now, for various reasons, since the end of November, and I am now wanting to put him back into work but have a problem : he no longer fits his saddle.  There is plenty of wither clearance, etc, but the fat on his shoulder means that as he brings his shoulder back, you get this bulge / spare tyre effect in front of the knee roll.  Most unbecoming.  He doesnt have that typical "gutter" effect on his spine of a truly obese horse, but I've faced facts : my horse is a chubby!

 

Tom : not one word about adipose tissue : I know!  I know!

 

Anyway, a friend has lent me a saddle, so I can ride him, but I need some advice.  I want to enter him into an endurance clinic ride, which will be 20 kms, on 8 April (so excited I could platz!)  By then he should be fit enough, but I need to slim him down, whilst maintaining the energy levels needed to work him up to that ride, and through it!  At the moment he gets the following feed:

 

6:30 am : 2 kgs grass hay and 150 grams of 12% maize-free ration.

5 pm 150 grams of 12% maize-free ration

When he goes into his stable (which is anywhere between 5 pm and 7 pm depending on weather conditions - it is our Summer so they're out longer but come in if there's a storm) he gets 3 kgs of grass hay.

Later at night, he gets a further 3 kgs of hay and about half a kg of lucerne.

 

(I'm a bit anal about weighing the hay, because otherwise he gets too much and pigs out on it - my groom prepares the hay nets while I'm at work). 

 

I add supercodlivine to his ration, and elytes, but no oil.

 

So in total he's getting about 9 kgs of food.  He is 15.3 hh, a TB but built like a QH.  He should weigh about 500 kgs, when he's muscled up and not fat!  The grazing in my paddock, whilst keeping him happily munching, is really nothing to get excited about : it is "veld grass" and has the nutritional content of my left shoe. 

 

Right now, he's being lunged for 20 minutes every second day and ridden about 4 times per week.  From next week, I'm upping the lunging to 30 minutes every day.  He is free lunged.  I can't always guarantee that I'll finish work in time to ride, and I also suffer from a chronic illness which occasionally prevents me riding, so I want him lunged every day in case I can't ride.  When I do ride, I school for btw half an hour and an hour.  I'm going to start doing roadwork to fitten him up, and I'll build up slowly.  As he was very fit before he rested, and as he's turned 10 and done the whole LSD and tendon / muscle build-up thing, I should be able to build him up quite quickly - he's a horse who tends to build muscle quickly anyway.

 

Do you think I need to change his ration or will the extra work trim him down?  Please note : this horse can't cope with too much grain as he becomes lethal.  When he was eventing fit, and competing, he only got 1.5 kgs of grain per day - and he looked good on that.  Should I cut his hay?  At the moment, he isn't finishing what I give him.  Should I cut out the lucerne, or at least cut back a little?  Bearing in mind my grass hay only contains about 5% protein, and he is on so little grain.

 

 

Any advice would be welcome!

 

 

Tracey