Fat Pony

[BinhEG@aol.com]

Last year I bought a POA pony from a relative for my daughter to show in 4-H.
As soon as the pony came home, we called the vet to check him out.  The
diagnosis was he was fat and foundering.   We did float his teeth when the vet
came.  The vet said their are 3 kinds of ponies:  Ponies that have foundered,
ponies that are going to founder and ponies that are foundering.  He taught me
how to care for our pony.  He was 11.1 hands and 75 pounds overweight.  In a
nutshell this is what he told me:  Ponies are not horses and should not be
treated like horses.  Most obesity and foundering in ponies is because the
owners treat them like horses.  A pony only needs 2-4 hours  of pasture time a
day.  Also, at most I was to only give a handful of grain in the morning and
again at night.  By following those 2 simple instructions (we bought him in
early May) he was fit as a fiddle by the show in July.  He looked so good that
he won the class of aged geldings 56 " and under and then won Champion gelding
56 " and under.  I rode him about 30 minutes every other day (walk and trot)
when I was overweight and weighed almost 180 pounds.  My concern was not for
his respiration but his feet.  The overweight body was too much stress on his
feet and we had to take care not to be on him too long.

Hope that is some help.
Elaine