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Thanks.

To clarify, I took her *off* the beet pulp once I got her.  Former  
owner had been giving it as a way to make sure she got enough fluid.   
She drinks fine, though.

The LMF Super Supplement is billed as being "for easy keepers" just to  
get the trace minerals in.  She didn't like the trace-mineral salt  
block.  She has a white salt block now, which she uses.

I just got on my scale with my clothes/boots on and holding my tack,  
and she carries a grand total of 136 pounds.  I've been told I don't  
look too big on her.

She was last wormed in July and I'm going to give her a worming today.

I talked to the vet about doing blood work, and he didn't seem to  
think it was necessary.  I'm starting to wonder about the vet,  
though.  For now, i'm going to go with what he said and assume she's  
just suffering a little from too much food and not enough work.

The Barn Ladies I talked to said not to decrease her feed until the  
winter was over, as she might lose weight on her own.  But I wanted to  
run her diet past you folks.  I did just get a weight tape and if her  
weight stays the same over the next few months, or increases, I'll cut  
down her hay.  The barn-meal-plan hay is pretty awful and sometimes  
she doesn't even eat all of it.  The lunchtime hay is my own, and I  
was raised to feed horses three times a day so I feel weird skipping  
"lunch."  If she doesn't lose weight I'll probably have them cut down  
her breakfast or dinner to half a flake.  But the lack of energy,  
sheesh.  I am really hoping it's just lack of fitness.  I imagine that  
will become more clear over the next few months as well.

Betsy


On Nov 30, 2007, at 7:00 AM, Betsy Thomas wrote:

> Hello again,
>
> So, I've had my Pasture Puff Pony for about six weeks now.  In that  
> time my kids got the flu, I got the flu, and I had to go visit  
> relatives for a week.  But now we seem to be over all that.  Pony  
> has been ridden lightly (walk with a little trot, totaling an hour  
> or so) most days during this time.
>
> She is a 13 year old BLM mustang, who I bought as 14 hands but I  
> just tried to measure her yesterday and I'm not sure she's that  
> tall.  I'm putting her at a 6.5 or so for body condition score (vet  
> described her as "moderately overweight") and she has very little  
> muscle tone.  I taped her yesterday at 880 pounds.  She has been in  
> better shape during her life, but she's never done endurance.
>
> When I got her she was on a flake of grass hay morning and evening,  
> and about a pound of beet pulp (Farmer's Friend ShowSweet) soaked  
> and fed sloppy for lunch.  It seems to have a lot of sugar in it (it  
> smells so sweet) and seemed sort of excessive once I got her, so I  
> transitioned her to having a few pounds of grass hay and 12 ounces  
> of LMF Super Supplement for lunch instead of the beet pulp.  She  
> used to be on pasture at her old place, and now she is in a small  
> stall/paddock.  The hay she gets for breakfast and dinner is low- 
> quality timothy, probably about 10-12 pounds total.  Then for lunch  
> she gets 2-3 pounds of high-quality orchardgrass and the LMF Super  
> Supplement.  I don't have a scale at the barn but I practiced  
> holding hay on my bathroom scale.  I have a deli scale for the  
> pellets.
>
> This poor pony is so out of shape.  I rode her yesterday for a total  
> of 5 miles.  After 4 miles we averaged 3.8 mph but the last mile she  
> was SO TIRED she barely moved, and we finished up averaging 3.5  
> miles.  I have a GPS but no heart monitor yet (it's on my Christmas  
> list) and I have a stethoscope but by the time we walk out the last  
> mile and head back to her paddock/stall, she's pulsed down.
>
> So, my question is, is the feeding regime okay for now?  I had  
> figured not to feed her any more until the fat was better.  She has  
> a terrific hay belly, but I'm looking more at the fat over her  
> tailhead and twist and her crest.  She has a nasty crest.  I wonder  
> if she might end up cushingoid when she gets older, she just has  
> "that look".  I don't see any patchy fat right now, though.  My  
> worry about the hay belly is that her feet, while they are round and  
> pretty nice, are on the small side.  (As the farrier put it, she's  
> on the small side too so not to worry.  But the tummy is horse-sized!)
>
> She has a thick but not cushing-ish coat right now, and we live in  
> California.  Many people at our boarding stable clip and then they  
> have a blanket service where a Nice Lady takes off the blankets in  
> the morning and puts them back on in the evening.  It gets wam here  
> during the day but the temperature drops a lot at night.  I'm  
> considering going the clip-blanket route but just not quite  
> organized enough yet.
>
> Getting her fit enough to do an LD seems like such a huge  
> undertaking right now, but at least if we ever get there I can think  
> about how much progress we made.
>
> Betsy
>
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