Weight Problems
My horse will not put on weight, no matter what or when I feed him!!!
We are all different, and so too are our horses, tall ones, short ones, skinny ones and those who put on weight just standing in front of the feed bin.
A “round” horse is not necessarily a healthy horse.
There are also those who do not put on weight simply because they are fed too much.
Holistic feeding dictates that the horse is to be fed in a balanced manner so that energy utilisation of crude fibre and pectin is not reduced. Horses begin to lose weight despite bigger rations of concentrates being fed because the small intestine cannot cope with the quantity of feed. The caecum and large intestine cannot perform sufficiently because of the acidity caused by the amount of undigested starch.
There is a lot of information available on this subject from various universities and independent laboratories. The feed industry appears to have willingly overseen this on different occasions.
For your horse to gain weight, he needs a certain energy surplus in his diet, however in a controlled manner. Another important point is the appropriate use of vitamins and trace elements which have regulatory functions for the metabolism and are responsible for converting food into energy by enzymatic processes.
Should there be an imbalance in this regard, it can lead to metabolic problems and in general, negative results.
My horse is too heavy, cannot lose weight, or possibly has EMS....
It could be said that “the way to a man heart is trough his stomach”.
We all like our food but there is no point in “loving our horses to death”.
These kinds of problems are often encountered in, for example, native ponies and other horses which have not enough exercise and inappropriate diets.
We are not sure why but sometimes when riders don’t have enough time to exercise the horse, they feel guilty and don`t cut back his feed.
The consequences are that inadequate exercise and constant overfeeding leads to weight and metabolic problems. Fat is not only “an energy reserve”, but it is also a hormone reserve, the fatter the horse, the more hormones it stores. Hormones contained in this fat effect the organs and cells can become insulin resistant.
The result is that less sugar will be utilized and if blood sugar levels remain higher for longer periods, the sugar will be transformed into fat.
The horse continues to gain weight.
What can I do?
The horse must lose weight. This will only happen with more exercise and an appropriate diet in order to reduce sugar / starch levels. We need a negative energy balance which we can achieve by feeding the horse relative to his target weight, and not according to his current weight. From here on the horse will have this negative energy balance, because in his overweight condition he uses much energy during exercise.
A horse should not lose weight too quickly unless under medically advice. This places a lot of stress on the horse and the release of fat deposits could cause a hormonal storm. In this instance it is important to feed a good mineral balancer because a fully functional metabolism depends upon it.