Cross Breeds

How can you treat a horse that is fat and wieghs 500 pounds?

I have a nine year old girl horse she is really fat and slow na dI do not think that I can show her next year? Please help! Oops, she actually weighs 1,200 lbs and is 15.2 h. she is an Appaloosa mare.

Public Comments

1. If your horse only weighs 500 pounds, that's a bad thing. Unless it's a really tiny pony. So hopefully you just made that number up. First of all take her off any grain. She probably doesn't need any. Most horse don't need grain unless they're doing a lot of work, they're old, or they're hard keepers. Try to restrict her hay. Horses should get at least 1% of their body weight in hay a day, but if she's really fat I would maybe stick with 1% exactly. Give her grass hay instead of alfalfa. And if you're worried about her being cold outside in this weather give her something like straw or really stalky hay. It's got less nutritional value but it'll keep her digestvie track working and that'll help keep her warm.
2. 1200lbs isn't that overweight for 15.2h horse. What makes you think shes overweight?
3. Ya you could show her that sound about right
4. You need to feed her foods that she can eat a lot of, but not get fat off of. When we have horses that gain weight easily, we give them bermuda grass, and dry grains that don't contain molasses or anything real sugary. She should be exercises slowly at first, then steadily more and more until she gets a nice steady workout everyday. Her muscles will tone up, and the fat will trim off.
5. Thats not that overweight. Although she may look staulky you want to see the ribs but not be able to count them. I think she sounds about the right size actually. Then again I am from the south and we like fat animals around here.
6. Treat her with love....lol not treats. Even if she gets more slender she may still be slow. Are you sure you have the right horse for your needs? Stay away from high fat products like strategy or equine senior. High sugar may cause weight gain as well...so perhaps enough crimped oats to satisfy her work requirements. You may also wish to keep her on a more "poor" type pasture so she is not gorging herself on lush grass. Stay away from alfalfa hays as well. She still needs alot of hay to supply the roughage required by horses. A regular excersize program is a must. Just be kind to her and dont push her longer or harder than necessary. 15 or 20 minutes of walk/jog either riding , round pen or lunging should be good to start... gradually increase the time. Remember you are not punishing her for being fat! She is pretty plump, when I compare her measurements to my 16.2 hand TB who weighs 1,200 lbs. Slow and steady is the way to weight loss for horses and humans:)
7. She doesn't sound fat to me. That weight is normal.
8. take her off grain and only a little hay and exersize her alot
9. try some whole oats start slow and make the change buy substituting oats in the place of regular feed it will move that weight to the right places help her look trim without being skinny.
10. put her on a diet with less fatty food, if its really bad even put her only on ruffage, exercise her more.