Question
Esmee is my 16-year-old, 16-hand Canadian Horse. Even though I ride her lightly, I would consider her fleshy and in need of weight loss. All in all, she gets about 18 lb (8.2 kg) of first-cutting grass hay—not the good stuff!—2 cups of alfalfa pellets, high-quality fish oil, pure biotin, and natural vitamin E. If I back off the amount of hay I feed, she will chew on boards and pick at her manure, occasionally eating it. I put the hay in a slow-feed net with 1.5-in (3.8-cm) holes as a way to curb her rate of intake. How should I proceed to encourage weight loss?
Answer
The Canadian Horse breed is admired for its docility and for its thrifty metabolism, among other qualities. In her International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds, author Bonnie Hendricks describes Canadian Horses as “very hardy, easy to keep, and long-lived.” With this in mind, Esmee’s metabolism makes sense. Managing easy keepers can be challenging, though, as it is tricky to balance calorie intake with optimal health, both physically and mentally.
To start, the type of hay and the amount fed is appropriate. Using the slow-feed haynet is a great way to slow intake. More and more horse owners are using these haynets for horses like Esmee, and they’ve proven effective management tools.
Establishing a more concrete idea of the nutritional content of Esmee’s hay would be beneficial in balancing her diet. If the hay is purchased consistently from the same supplier, a representative hay sample could be sent off for testing by a reputable laboratory (Equi-Analytical, based in New York). The information from the hay analysis could then be used to fine-tune Esmee’s diet.
Soaking hay reduces its calorie and sugar content, and may be helpful for horses that resist weight loss. However, soaking leaches key nutrients, so it is important to consider overall nutrient intakes should you decide to soak the hay. A ration balancer may be needed to even out the nutrient specs of the diet. In lieu of a ration balancer, a concentrated micronutrient supplement may be used. Because you didn’t mention pasture intake in describing her ration, I assume your mare is not permitted to graze. This management strategy is frequently employed for easy keepers.
To optimize nutrient intakes while still providing a low-intake supplement, you may want to consider Micro-Max. If Esmee is suffering from hoof issues, as your list of supplements suggests, consider Bio-Bloom PS, which contains multiple hoof-support nutrients in addition to biotin, such as zinc, iodine, and methionine.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention an all-in-one supplement like Total Wellness here, considering the product dovetails nicely with Esmee’s needs and her current ration. Total Wellness provides joint support, natural-source vitamin E, biotin, and yeast culture in an easy-to-feed pelleted form. This supplement could potentially provide the same nutritional support as several of your current products, and would reduce the cost of supplementation.
Because you have already implemented many appropriate dietary management strategies, increasing the amount of exercise per week will likely offer the greatest weight loss results for your mare. Exercise will help ward off metabolic diseases, which increase in likelihood as easy keepers creep up in age.
