very very good doer!!

[hottoddy]

Hiya
Hoping I can pick some brains here! I have a 16.3hh full irish draught - big chap 10" bone so he is built well but he is definately what you would call a good doer! He lives on fresh air!!

Over the summer he has 2 flakes of hay at night and 4 hours out maximum! He has brekkie and tea of alfa a and a bit of leisure mix. The winter is pretty much the same but he has haylage added to his hay - for several reasons, I cant afford to keep him in hay and its what happens on the yard in winter - he doesnt get much compared to all the others.
He gets exercised at least 5 days a week either schooling, lunging or hacking. I really want to slim him right off over the winter so that I am prepared for the inevitable come the summer! But so far he looks no different than he did in July!
I have always kept him on a corn mix because he is bone idol however, now coming to the conclusion thats cos he is too fat! I am gradually weaning him off that so thinking of a feed balancer instead.
He has never showed any signs of lammy and showed all last year and didnt look out of place but thats because half the horses in the show ring are obese!!
Thanks for any help Im at a loss!

[ponymum]

Hi try lo - cal, our fr only had to sniff grass and she got really cresty and had lumps of cellulite , these all disappeared after putting her on the lo-cal..we used to tell her it was slim -fast!!

[hottoddy]

Thanks ponymum who makes it? Or is that the brand?

[ponymum]

Think its baileys...not got the pony anymore so not using it at the moment, but I will next summer for our 12.2 sp

[sg]

I'd say you need to plenty of low quality forage down him, straw can be very successfully fed or hay soaked for 12 - 24 hours (as long as you are feeding a balancer/ vit & min supplement as well)