Home News Eight steps to tackle equine obesity

Eight steps to tackle equine obesity

John Millar of VetPartners and Claire Akers of Dengie launch the campaign

Keep your pony at a healthy weight with these top tips 

The arrival of Spring – and its lush grass growth – means we’re approaching a high-risk period for equine obesity and, due to modern management practices, many ponies are coming out of winter already overweight.

VetPartners and Dengie have joined forces to highlight the dangers of obesity with the aim to reduce the number of ponies experiencing serious health issues and injuries as a result of being overweight. Launching on 1 March 2022, the campaign will offer online and face-to-face advice to help owners assess and monitor their pony’s condition, as well as providing support to help their four-legged friends get back in shape safely.

In the meantime, check out these top tips to help keep your pony at a healthy weight…

  1. Use a weightape regularly – once a week or fortnight – and body condition score your pony to keep an eye on his condition.
  2. Assess his weight and condition at the same time of day to give you a more accurate picture.
  3. Take photos of your pony at different times of the year to help monitor fluctuations in his weight. If you find body condition scoring tricky, share the photos with your vet, an equine nutritionist or your yard manager to get their opinion.
  4. Consider strip-grazing your pony’s field or creating a track system for him to reduce his access to grass. You could try a grazing muzzle, too, but keep an eye that he doesn’t try to eat more when he’s not wearing the muzzle – this won’t help with weight loss!
  5. Buy scales so you can weigh his hay ration – don’t feed less than 1.5% of his bodyweight in dry matter daily.
  6. Consider increasing the amount of exercise your pony gets to help burn calories – speak to your instructor to come up with a safe, effective plan.
  7. Soak his hay to reduce the sugar content.
  8. Use small-holed haynets or put one haynet inside another to slow down his eating time and make the hay ration last longer.

To find out more, visit dengie.com

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