Maintaining a healthy weight on a horse is important for the horses overall health. Excess weight can cause increased impact on their joints, tendons, and ligaments, and make it difficult to achieve any training goals riding the horse.
If a horse is overweight for a long period of time (over a couple of years), the belly weight can cause their back to start sagging. If they do not have sufficient topline muscles to support their excess weight, they can start to develop a swayback where the spine starts to curve upside-down.
How To Tell If A Horse Needs To Lose Weight
Signs that a horse needs to lose weight are:
1. Excess belly fat right in front of the flank
2. Rolls of fat on the horses barrel
3. Unable to feel the horses ribs when touching their body
Some horses have ribs showing, but will have a hanging belly. This is a sign of lack of muscle and doesn’t require losing weight, but rather an increase in muscle.
First Steps To Take Toward A Healthy Horse Weight
The first step is to an equine vet to confirm that the horse is overweight and there isn’t an underlying cause of excess weight. In some cases, a horse may appear overweight, but it is a lack of muscle which changing their diet and amount of food they eat will not help.
Before starting a diet and exercise program to help a horse lose weight, take the horses measurements to have a base of where you started. Use a horse weight tape and measure around the horses barrel.
The weight tape isn’t a fully accurate measurements as it doesn’t take into account the horses confirmation or muscle, but it will give a solid base to start from. Take photos of the horses confirmation from all angles to compare in the future.
The next step is to discuss the horses current diet and exercise amount with a vet to come up with a new diet and exercise plan.
Important factors of the horses current diet are:
1. How often do they eat? Do they live out on a pasture with access to graze on grass 24/7? What is the condition of the pasture grass during different times of the year? Does the horse live in a stall or pen and are fed during a regular schedule?
2. What supplements, grains, oats, or minerals does the horse eat?
Horses that are fed high calorie grains are typically working and exercising a lot, such as racehorses. A horse that isn’t being exercised regularly won’t need that type of grain.
3. How often does the horse exercise?
Think of how often the horse is worked into a sweat and an increased heartrate. Daily, weekly, or monthly.
4. What other food is the horse eating?
Does the horse receive treats of any kind? How often?
Now that you have an understanding of your horses exercise and diet that are impacting their weight, it’s time to take action.
How To Get Weight Off A Horse
To get a horse to lose weight, there are two major factors that contribute to weight loss; exercise and diet. A combination of working those two factors can help a horse lose weight.
It’s very important to not do anything too quickly as horses have very sensitive digestive systems and changing their food or how much they eat suddenly can cause death. Any changes in exercise and diet need to be done over a months time very slowly increasing exercise weekly, and decreasing or changing the food over a month.
Creating a calendar for the horses exercise regiment, their diet, and any other changes will help keep track of what to give them.
Increase Exercise
Increasing the horses exercise amount and duration will help turn the horses excess fat into muscle. Movement is medicine in horses as well as humans.
Keep an exercise planner to start recording any improvements your horse makes and to slowly increase the workouts per week.
Create an exercise plan for the horse.
1. Track how many times a week the horse is worked and for how long.
2. Track how many laps around an arena at a walk, trot, then canter, the horse makes before starting to breathe hard.
Changing The Horses Diet
Managing the horses calorie, sugar, and amount of time eating will significantly make a difference in your horses life. Remember all diet changes must be done very slowly and introduced in increments combined with the old food as to not shock the horses digestive system.
A horses diet should support the horses exercise and activity level. A horse that was once active then goes into retirement will have a different diet for each point of it’s life.
The diet the horse is on when you are trying to get a horse to lose weight will be different than the long term sustainable diet of a healthy and fit horse that doesn’t need to lose weight. Talking with a vet or an equine dietician will make this process simple for first timers.
Here are some important diet changes to get a horse to lose weight:
1. Limit the horses pasture and fresh grass grazing time. Grazing muzzles help restrict how much grass the horse can grab at one bite and is the easiest way to manage a pasture horses diet. Putting the horse in a pen or stall at night also helps manage how often they can graze.
2. Limit the horses treats. Just like humans, a cookie a day adds up quickly… Apples, carrots, sugar cubes, peppermints and other treats all contribute to a horses weight gain. Decrease the amount of treats you give the horse.
3. Decrease the amount of grain or oats they are being fed. Do your research of the grain you are feeding them and see what it provides the horse with. Decreasing their food will be the easiest way to manage their calorie intake. Remember to decrease the food in increments over a period of time to avoid causing gut problems in the horse.
4. Choose a simple hay. Look into what type of grass or alfalfa hay the horse is being fed. Alfalfa is a high calorie food and wouldn’t be the best option for an overweight horse. Grass hay that is less nutritional will be best for an overweight horse.
With an increase in exercise and a fitness program to follow with the proper diet to support them, the horse will be on the right track towards a healthier lifestyle overall.
Losing weight takes time and remembering to be patient and keep track of the horses progress helps keep the momentum moving forward. If the horse does not lose weight after several months of work, it’s time to reevaluate what is going on and talk to the vet.