TCJp24 Weight Watch

Tom & Henry are on a diet!

Content with spending their day wandering about in the now mud and munching as much haylage as they can eat Tom & Henry appear unperturbed about our soiree with diets!  Admittedly we’ve only been at it a week but they already look more gorgeous than they did last week..but I would say that wouldn’t I?

The test will be to see if their girths still fit in the same holes as before, after their rest over winter (it’s been windy).  But rather than head indoors to browse the inter web for the newest most comfortable straps, I am being strict with their diets, there will be no more girth-buying......this time!

Exercise is the next thing, which of course will help me with my own mission to get to the same body shape I was in the summer.  After a long autumn and Xmas of eating rubbish (my Dad died suddenly and all I wanted was to eat was junk), so I’ll endeavour to ride whenever I can. Except of course, in the wind!

Tom and Henry when they were a little slimmer!

Without realising it the winter is nearly over and it didn’t get cold (what happened there?), and in all likelihood the weight horses are supposed to lose over the cold snap now won't happen.  Leaving my 2 supremely gorgeous but a little chunky. they haven't even come in at night yet, and in all likelihood won't now unless we get some late very bad weather.

It's difficult to have a view on your horses body shape if he is always wearing rugs, when you swap them over, take a minute to check him.

Of course its natural for horses to have periods of feast and famine, the lush grass to mud scenario, alongside the cold snaps.  That’s why their weight fluctuates more than ours, but if I order another new girth (I won't), it would do my gorgeous boys an injustice.  They are big, and judging them by how they simply look isn't enough because they appear to me to be perfect.  There is a condition scoring chart which can help but like anything visual, it's open to interpretation.  Not forgetting that different breeds of horse have different characteristic body shapes:

CONDITION SCORING: Tom & Henry are a 3.75 (me too)

They look perfect. They have shiny coats when they’re not covered in mud (they love to roll), and have the most gorgeous rounded bums.  There's no ‘gutter’ along their spines and I put Tom’s massive neck down to sheer power rather that fat: he can lift me clear off the ground by the front of my Puffa with just his teeth!.  But I love those boys, I want them to live forever, so I’m being very careful.  I should do the same for myself... but my horses don’t have a stressful job like I do...and curry's and crumble are just too tempting. Horses, they just wouldn’t understand!!

Already (because I’m doing it too), I have cut back on all the treats, and they only have one carrot julienne in each dinner.  Instead of any old sized scoop of chop they now have a strict flat one and I’ve cut out the mush too today.

I am doing it all gradually, my mush was only soaked at the recommended ratio during the 2 days of cold we’ve had in Essex.  I make it slushy so it waters down the feed, so cutting it out was easy and quick.

They keep looking at me as if I have betrayed them, but I think they’ll be happier living longer and they’ll be able to gallop faster around their field too, won't they?

Why is this my new obsession?  During a bored moment waiting for the kettle to boil I used the weigh-tape on them.  Admittedly they are super furry and caked in mud (that has to distort the measurement by loads don’t you think?), I was alarmed by how much bigger they were than last time I did it (last year in the summer). They look fine to me, but I don’t want to take any chances, not with my boys.

So, I’m making them finish all the hay in the 4 haybars before topping it up.

Because it's has been so mild, the boys haven't been wearing rugs, so checking their appearance daily becomes an easy task.  but if your horse wears rugs, you'll have to make sure you give him a good eyeball every day just to check he is OK.

It’s week 2, so I’ll keep measuring their waistlines and let you know what happens:

UPDATE: 22/01/12

Already the diet appears to be working, I weigh tape them every Sunday and they lost weight in the first week, and again some more in the second.   They share an apple once a week at weigh tape time. 

The grass is growing now too so they have new tufts of this to concentrate on, and are giving their Spring turnout hungry look over the fence!.
I have harrowed and seeded the bare patches in my top 2 fields too now, and they look to have survived quite well from all the rampaging my boys do.   As the days mostly are consecutively above 5 degrees now in the middle of January, the grass will continue to grow, once spring is underway (my Daff's are already 8cm out of the ground) and the fields are dry enough, I will turn them out. then they won't be interested in hay at all and they'll spend a lot of their day moving about.  This will burn the calories... now if it were only as easy for me...?

SECOND UPDATE:  29/01/12

Today I taped them for the end on the third week on diets, and again, the notches on the tape are going down  the correct way, each week they have lessened their girths by a notch, and I'm very happy that they still don't seem to mind.  Of course I have ridden this weekend, so beginning more exercise will definitely help.  I'll keep you posted.

THIRD UPDATE: 30/01/12 


TRAKEHNER NEWSLETTER STORY:

 Tom&Henry are on a diet!

 My strategy for Diets, was hastily planned, but thoughtfully and carefully executed: It was quite hard to begin with, because convinced they are perfect the way they are, concluding that it was my management of Tom & Henry’s life that was to blame for this situation, was hard to admit. But the tape does not lie...unless somehow it’s shrunk – that could happen couldn’t it??!!

I try to keep them as close to a 'natural' life as possible, and let’s face it, they don’t get high calorie diet, they live on air and haylage!  But  my routine needs adjusting to be suitable for them in this new world.  So, determined to succeed, I began to change the way I do things.

Now Tom & Henry like nothing better than swaning around their yard, or wandering in the now mud, and rolling about in it and eating lots of haylage.  A perfect life which has allowed extra weight to creep up on us.

I took a long honest look at them both, with extra emphasis on their behinds because they are so amazing, and whilst not in the category of obscenely overweight horses, they – like me – could do with going back to slimmer times, when our girths and favorite jeans still fitted us.  So like it or not, we three are on a diet!

I used the weightape on them both after Xmas (something I should really do on myself!) during a bored moment waiting for the kettle to boil.  I was shocked though, at how much fuller their figures have gotten since I last taped them in summer.  Nice curvy frames and some extra girth not due to Xmas indulgence like mince pies, but a combination of things:  We have had a very warm winter and the mild autumn meant the grass lasted longer and the land fared better than usual.  Meaning they stayed out on grass to well into December.  I should have made dietary changes then, but, like everyone, I assumed winter would come - it would just be late.

It’s been much warmer than usual here but it’s been very windy, so exercise accidentally dropped to nothing.  We haven't had winter down here in Essex, and the weight horses naturally loose over the cold period to keep warm hasn’t happened either.  I have rugged them a lot less than before therefore.  I bought them lightweight rain sheets with neck covers, and only twice have they needed a heavier weight one this winter. So they haven’t lost any condition in the cold.

Also not ignoring the fact that perhaps feeding them their carrots and apples ad-lib when they look at me cute – which is all the time – well, that had to help too right?  But this time, I’m not going to believe their curvy and voluptuous figures are ok and I’m not going to buy new girths or jeans either!!

So, I started by cutting out all the treats, I identified several categories:

1, those I give willy-nilly just because I love those boys...they get a scratch instead now – no calories in that!

2, those I am persuaded to give them by the boys themselves, they have such hypnotic stares and communicate in no uncertain terms what they want. Saying no is hard.

3, those I give as a reward for excellent behaviour while being asked tricky questions or for being good and getting me back to the yard in one piece!

The reward treats remained, they really are the perfect horsey gentlemen.
So next, I did the dinners:  I cut out the fibre-beet firstly.  I feed the ‘mush’ (British Horse Feeds: Fibre-Beet (from the Speedy-Beet stable)) at the recommended ratio during very cold weather for extra slow release energy, then after to replace the grass in winter, or when the temperature drops below 5degrees consecutively, and the grass stops growing.  Then in autumn and early spring I mix it very sloppily with twice as much water as before so it waters down the feed and adds extra flavour and nutrition.

Then the carrots got cut, they are down to a single carrot julienne in each dinner only (depending on the size of the carrots)! They have 2 meals a day. And, as a treat, the share an apple at weightape time on Sunday.
This was hard, because I like to show Tom & Henry I love them, so I am giving them extra scratches now instead, as Tom is now beginning to lose his winter coat, so he loves the scratching under his neck.

I plan to weightape them every Sunday, this will keep a measured track of our progress as well as lending some consistency as to where on the body I lay the tape, because it’s very hard to get it in the right place every time. And Tom is so tall I’m on tip-toes, and Henry is so fidgety I have to wander around with him!
We have had 5 cold mornings here in Essex so far this winter, hardly any hardship at all, and mine have kept and added to the weight, and I haven't brought them in at night either because I haven’t needed to (the first time since I’ve had them), which I believe keeps them healthy in mind and body. As for my diet...that’s not going quite so well....

Horses are designed to have reserves in fat to survive the winter and lack of grass, but we are getting so good at feeding ad-lib forage for that natural trickle-feed diet, that that scenario doesn’t really happen anymore, eating for 18 hours a day keeps their guts healthy and keeps them warm too.
Any extra feed we give them on top of that, for the extra nutrients the little emerging tufts of grass or haylage don’t adequately provide. We need to be careful what this consists of.  And be honest with ourselves exactly how much our horses actually NEED.  Tom & Henry don’t have hard feed at all.  They have Dengie Hi-Fi Lite (one scoop), Dodson&Horrell Ultimate Balancer at supplement quantity, a carrot and water to moist or British Horse Feeds Fibre-Beet during winter only.  And that’s it.  Plus as much haylage they can eat. Trakehners, or at least mine, seem to survive on very little, and they have LOTS of energy too, so they don’t need any extra.

Cold weather takes its toll on condition too, it takes a lot of energy to keep warm, but the rugs we use mean our horses don’t really ‘suffer’ a winter like they do in the wild either.  This could be another reason why so many of our horses are overweight, we’re treating them like humans...not like horses.

So I just need to be careful about the condition they go into winter in, they don’t need to be ‘cuddly’, and actually, it’s bad for their hearts and joints to carry too much weight (as it is with us), so to keep them tip-top, I will try make sure they are the correct shape all-year-round, perhaps I can cut feed out completely like my neighbour does during summer, just give them a handful of balancer for all their vits and mins....and as for me....well, that’s work in progress...

thanks,

Shelley, Tom&Henry