Hi my first time posting here so be gentle with your answers. I'm getting back into riding after a long absence. I have a great horse, however I am ashamed to admit it but he is FAT. Before anyone calls animal protection our vets have ok the restricted diet and the walks. He and his buddies kept are in a large corral (dry lot), where they do have room to run around. They aren't on pasture because it contains a whole lot of clover and one has a history of laminitis.  They all are in their mid teens and chubby. Mine is a hybrid (grade) in case that could be a factor. I have been taking him for long walks to get him used to the exercise. Using suggestions for people who are overweight and starting to exercise again.  I don't see many mainstream horse magazines addressing this, but from what I've found online overweight horses are becoming more common. How do I know when he is back in shape enough to ride? What kind of exercies can we do to strengthen his back, hindquarters? How do you stretch a horse? He is barefoot, but can he walk across gravel for a short bit to walk upstream in a creek? I really want him back to his old self.  I have been told to lunge (longue?) him, but have never done that before so not sure about how to do that. My sister keeps telling me you just go out there and do it; I tried we both just looked at eachother and I ended up taking him for a walk.

It sounds like you need some books. First of all, one on longeing and long-lining. I used to have 101 LONGEING AND LONG-LINING EXERCISES, which starts by actually teaching how to do it. Longeing can be rather stressful on legs--especially if the horse is overweight--due to the endless circles, so I'd minimize the longeing and do more of the long-lining, which is more mentally stimulating and can involve working on the trails. Trails are great for conditioning a horse if there are hills on the way. Also, you can long-line--or longe--a horse over ground poles or cavaletti to increase the amount of exercise the horse does. I'm sure that the 101 book has cavaletti and ground pole exercises in it. Amazon has the book.

i agree whole heartedly.

i rescued a hugely fat horse once.  he had been my mom's horse when i was little and when she returned to school she returned him to my grandpa's farm where they believed a healthy animal is a fat animal.  this beauty turned into a whale with a huge ditch for a backbone as his fat poofed out from it.

i took him back.  he was still on pasture, but, we had some good hills, so, we did alot of walking up and down hills.  i am a huge fan of ground driving. 

some things of course depend on your condition.  of course it's easier to longe than go for a healthy walk.  but, then again if everybody needs conditioning, it'll be great to ground drive for a few miles.

unless the horse has health problems, you should be able to ride him some.  start out with 15 minutes a day for a week and see how the horse seems.  if it's okay increase it to 30 or 45 whatever feels comfortable for you.

and, what about the possibility of wearing a grazing muzzle and being turned out?  the exercise walking around would be good.  i think horses with free range travel 20-25 miles a day.

it's easier to get a horse fit than yourself, cuz, your doing what's good for him and you don't have to hear that devil that wants more food and doesn't want to exercise.

today, my animals are all fit, fit, fit. i wish somebody would take over my diet and exercise program.

 

Thank you for the ideas- we have a grazing muzzle, hope it will fit him. Should get two more for his buddies. They would get some exercise running back to the barn when the flies get too bad. (We do use sprays, feed thru, predators, the large horsefly traps- the works- it's still a problem).  I'm in ok shape but can always get better, and I think he likes the change in scenery.  My concern about riding him is that instead of a backbone that looks like a ditch, his is raised- like his belly is pulling it down and hollowing out his hips. The vet said that if he doesn't improve with exercise they would test for cushings (a pony and old T.Walker have it). 

His belly is rather large, none of our saddles will fit him and the bareback pad doesn't either. Until he loses some of that weight (or I develop some SERIOUS leg muscles) I think I'll walk him around. : )

 

 

Will be checking out those books, thank you. We have plenty of hills, we're in a valley, all kinds. I have been toying with the idea of rigging some kind of panniers so I can put some tools in it and get some jobs done.  Have been looking for other ways to strengthen our bond. I fell off of him two years ago, he got spooked by a rather humorous chain of events (involves a mini donkey surprising an old T. Walker and the resulting sound). I landed pretty hard and he hasn't been the same since. I led him back to the arena so I could get back on him and he was ok  but the closeness hasn't been the same. He came to us with some problems- mainly very head shy, flinches when approached on his right side in a stall- so who knows.

Will keep you updated.

 

Thank you

What kind of diet did the vet put the horses on?

 They are all candidates for metabolic issues and none of them should have any grain.  They do need a good quality vit/min supplement; a mineral block is not good enough and actually they should be eating white salt in their conditions.

 I heartily support the grazing muzzles and letting them roam your pastures.  If you have hills, believe me, they will get more exercise foraging with muzzles on than you can give them hand-walking and lunging or long-lining.

Those things, however, will re-build your bond and be good exercise for you - yuk - you're talking to someone whose barn is 450' from the house and I drive to it - lol

Hopefully you don't live someplace where people that know nothing about horses will stick their nose in your business.  When we opened up the last 9 acres, next to a sort-of suburban/city neighbor, I did call them to explain why two of my horses have to wear muzzles.

They are terrific folks but have to young sons that I just knew would be asking questions and I wanted their parents to have the right answers; that way when the boys went to school "tattling", they'd know what they were talking about - lol lol

Are you able to have your hay tested for sugar/starch value?  If you buy from the same source yearly or raise your own, you would be able to take samples and send to a lab for analysis.

If they are on a roundbale, they should not be.  If possible, they should be fed flakes (or chainsaw the round bale up) and scatter them about so the horses have to "forage" for them.  Many folks will turn their drylots into a "Paddock Paradise" where the horses are forced to keep moving to get their hay.

Here's a link that talks about insulin resistance, ems, & cushings.  It is very beneficial in terms of keeping these types of horses healthy.  Even though you haven't mentioned metabolic issues, they are headed that way if they don't take some weight off.  http://www.ecirhorse.com/

This is one of many hits when I Googled "Paddock paradise".  It will give some idea of how to make one out of your drylot if you would like to.  http://successful-natural-horsecare.com/natural-living/paddock-paradise-grazing/

Hope this helps some:)

 

The three boys get about 1/2 cup of L/S from Purina. Once a day with Vita Plus and their allergy med and the no-fly feed thru. They have two white salt blocks (the big ones) and a mineral one- which they do use. Our hay is usually a timothy mix, it goes to our senior horse and pony and our herd of mini donks.

My brother and I do scatter their hay around the paddock, we also have some "toys" in there for them to toss around. They will get around a flake each three times a day. They also get the leftover hay the seniors won't eat, which isn't much. Our old T. Walker is actually tauning them right now by grazing and rolling in the grass next to the paddock.

Can I brag about one thing? Our old guy (26) has been doing so well- we were afraid a few years ago that he wouldn't make it through the winter. Now he's in such great shape it makes me happy to see him.  Even with some missing teeth he's doing better now. 

I'm not worried about the neighbors tattling, it's guests that I'm more concerned with.   I don't think I have ever been so embarrassed about how they look. I am going to go out and take my boy for a walk. 

interesting article on paddock paradise.  i wish my horse had more land to wander on, but, i am going to put gravel in strategic areas for him to walk on, as we are working on keeping him barefoot.

3 naughty boys:

Can I brag about one thing? Our old guy (26) has been doing so well- we were afraid a few years ago that he wouldn't make it through the winter. Now he's in such great shape it makes me happy to see him.  Even with some missing teeth he's doing better now. 

Oh, and they way you described his weight makes me wonder. I would def look into all the metabolic disorders, but have you done a fecal egg count on them all? It sounds like it could almost be more of an issue of worms and/or poor hay quality than a true weight issue, which could actually be easier to fix if the worms haven't caused to much damage. Also, I would do a sand clear (human grade generic psyllium is cheaper and the same thing) on all the boys in the dry lot just to make sure no sand is caught in their G.I. tract!