Dear Martha,
I have a twelve year old bay mare who is a consistent 1d (when she is skinny enough) barrel horse, however, she is prone to gaining weight. If I don’t ride her hard everyday she starts to gain. Even when I ride her everyday she is never the weight I think she should be.
I feed her half a gallon of whole oats morning and night (so one gallon per day) along with electrolytes, vitamins, a chip of coastal hay and probiotics when needed. Is this what is making her so fat? My mare is in pretty good shape, she can long trot about 2 miles without getting winded, but I think her belly is weighing her down.
I think she could be better if she didn’t have to haul that weight. How often do you ride your horses and what conditioning methods do you use? Please tell me how you keep your horses at competition weight.
Andrea
You should take your mare to the vet and have her palpated to make sure that she has no problems with her ovaries, uterus, etc – no infections, make sure that she is sutured and is not sucking air as that can be very painful for a mare.
Has she been wormed lately and have you had her teeth checked and floated? It could be that she is just a very “easy keeper”. You might also want to have your vet run a thyroid panel on her to be sure that her thyroid function is correct – that might possibly cause her to carry extra weight.
I ride my horses at least 5 days of the week – not necessarily working them on the barrels but just exercising them and keeping them fit. I like to do equal amounts of trotting and loping.
Martha Wright
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