> I would say she probably needs to lose a fair bit, but not too quickly > as she will still be growing (maybe not so much in height, but filling > out). It's not good for her to be going into the spring overweight, it > just makes life harder as the good grass comes through. You say she > has one and a half hours grass a day - what happens to her the rest of > the time?
She has hay (2% Body weight) and just a handful of alfa lite(with vitamin powder) with 4 carrots. She is out in a 1/2 acre bare paddock but is probably getting too much with that. That is why I will be glad of some winter turnout without grass. She was good at 336KG last year. Her condition score was 3. I can't tell what it is now because of the fur. > > You could try switching some of her hay ration for straw, I do that if > I get any fatties in here. I'd like to but that means separating the two of them all the time. Keeping her stabled or in the yard seems mean but I may have to resort to that to keep her weight right. My problem I think is that Ofeig eats more than Corrie when it should be the opposite. I have reduced the hay to 9kg between them and giving Corrie 45ml of oil in her 6pm larger feed and small feed of alfa lite in the morning. I shut them in the stables for that or Ofeig would eat Corries. > > Grazing muzzles are great too - perhaps she could spend longer at > grass so she's moving around, but wear a muzzle so she can't pig out. > That sounds like the perfect answer to me. If I put it on before I let her out on grass she will get to tolerate it. I stripgraze and they get limited turnout on the grass. Since I will have very little grass this year the problem may solve itself. I have only one acre of grazing until the large paddock recovers. Having horses is easy. you just put them in a field of grass heh! Sue Coombes
