So my mini, Beluga, has been with his lessee's for about 6 months now. I went to go visit him again last week and got some good progress photos of him. He has lost an amazing amount of weight. And while it sucks that he's so far away from me now, I know that this really is what was best for him. He seems so much happier with his little girl then he ( Read more... )

I changed my boy to a diet consisting of just speedi beet (300g/.66 pounds dry + water twice a day) and a small scoop each of lucerne and oaten chaff (they're there, may as well use them up). Volume-wise, it's MUCH more than he was on pre-speedi beet. He also gets 1 - 2 biscuits of lucerne and/or grassy rhodes hay ( Read more... )

Sooo, I'd like to pick your guys' brains about feed! I brought my mare, Andie, home from the boarding barn I had kept her at all spring and summer last year around December 31st, 2011. She was probably 50-100 lbs. underweight, which she has gained all back already and she is looking FANTASTIC. She gets a 5 quart bucket full of feed twice daily. It' ( Read more... )

We have a 15 yr old Appendix QH mare with an old injury that resulted in a fused bone in her pastern. We put her on Dumor MSM and it worked great, she wasn't as stiff on that leg. Unfortunately, she started losing weight. The vet said MSM did this to some horses, and suggested we rotate it one month on one month off. The problem is she's ( Read more... )

So awhile back I posted asking about how to exactly get it through my mothers head that a mini horse/pony does not need as much food as a big horse, and you guys helped so much!!! Countless vets have been out told her the same thing and it seemed all was going fine for a while.

And then more time went by, and I realized he still was not dropping any ( Read more... )

I am one of the lucky ones who doesn't need to worry about putting weight on her horse. My 14 yr old, 13.3hh, Arab mare, Sashay, is a little on the round side, and the vet would like to see her slim down quite a bit. I have cut her grain completely, per the vet's orders, and increased her workouts. She currently is in a stall with a run attached. I ( Read more... )

 So, after the vet failed AGAIN to tell my mother exactly what she needs to be doing with Mr. Beluga, my little 11 year old mini, I'm coming to you guys for help. My pony is incredibly overweight. The picture of him below is old, about 2 years or so, since that photo was taken he has gained probably 8 inches around his girth. 
He is only 36inches at ( Read more... )

I went to the barn yesterday for the first time in a week or two because I've been so busy. Boyfriend moved 1500 miles across the country and I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible, plus I had a lot of other things going on that prevented me from going to the barn much ( Read more... )

I have a soon to be 29 yr old TB mare that I'm struggling to keep weight on.  Her weight was perfect until my mother took over her care around the end of October, for the three weeks my mom took care of feeding- the mare lost over 100lbs.  I, of course, flipped out and moved the mare to the place where I have my other horses by mid- November.  We ( Read more... )

A friend at my stable directed me to this very helpful link to assess horse weight and help prevent your horse from getting too fat over the summer grazing period. The video on fat scoring is very helpful.http://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/information/