Underweight mare?! Advice please!

[immys]

We have just bought a lovely 16.2 thoroughbred mare. We know that she has sort of been pushed around from pillar to post and through the winter she was pretty much left in a field causing her to lose a lot of weight.

Another girl bought her from the field in January where she started riding her and feeding her up. She unfortunately could not afford to keep Celine any more and so now we have bought her and we have now had her around a week. Although she is a lot better than the previous owner said when she first got her, she is still underweight, her hip bone is quite prominent and you can see a bit of ribs and she is generally lacking muscle. She isn't dangerously thin just a generally underweight.

The previous owner gave her one meal a day. We are now feeding her routinely twice a day, she has 2 scoops of Allen and page calm and condition, 2 scoops of chaff, 1 scoop of pony nuts and a coat shine supplement in the morning and evening. She is also on 24/7 grazing which is much better quality than before and she is rugged up well over night. We have been doing about 10 mins of groundwork or light hacking each day as she is willing to work. She is also a very chilled out thoroughbred, not the type to worry weight off. Do you think this diet and amount of exercise will get good results and if so how long would you expect to wait before you see results?

Sorry for waffling on!! Thank you for reading, look forward to hearing your replies x

[jennifer lynnj]

Hi, the food sounds fine although I would if poss split it into 3 feeds instead of 2 as it would be easier for her to digest. Have you wormed her since you have had her as with what you have said about her background it is possible that she might have a worm burden.As for the work if you wanted to do a bit more it is sometimes better to keep it short but to do it twice a day as you would with a horse that had had an injury.I know all this is fine in theory but at the end of the day it comes down to wheither you have time to feed 3 times a day and work twice. Good Luck with her she sounds like she has had a lucky break in you taking her on.

[immys]

Thank you, I think we're going to reduce her hard feed and start feeding her ad lib hay to really start getting weight on her. Yes shes been all wormed and had her teeth done so we are all fine there, I think it's just going to take a little while to get the weight and muscle back that she has lost. Thank you for the advice!

Immy x

[nix123]

Im glad your mare has found an owner as lovely as you. I agree with the above message regarding the worms. As to your flatwork, the importance here is to do this correctly. 10 mins of good is worth more than 30 mins of bad training let it be groundwork or riding. You want to make sure your building up the right muscles eg. Lunging on a 20 metre circle:- a horse who has no rear end muscle will automatically pull him/her self with its front legs opposed to pushing him/herself with its back legs. You can see this as the back legs wont track up (the inside back foot will not step into or infront of the hoof mark made by the front foot). A similar thing can happen to his/her neck muscle just like us they will compansate and go for the easier option. Also just like us starting at the gym, they will ache so make sure you give them a day off too. Always make sure you dont do more than 10 mins lunge on either side and always do both sides equally.
I know its about £70 but a well worth long term investment get a passoa it works all the muscles in a correct manner from head to tail.

Good luck
nix

[immys]

Thank you for the great advice. We're just going to build her up slowly so all the muscle develops properly. Yes I may invest in a Pessoa, I've seen them used before and I think they're great! Thanks again..

Immy x