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Some people can eat whatever they like, even in large amounts and remain lean. Other folks must be careful in the amount and type of foods they eat and may even need to add an exercise program to maintain a desirable body weight. Just like people, some horses gain weight even under conditions where other horses will lose weight.
A horse is considered an easy keeper when it can maintain an optimal body condition on less than average amounts of feedstuffs. Such horses are less demanding on the budget than a hard keeper that requires a more substantial diet, but feeding an easy keeper presents a different nutritional challenge. The challenge of maintaining the easy keeper is meeting the nutrition requirements (besides calories) while managing to avoid obesity.
The tendency to become obese is one of the most common issues with easy keepers. Obesity is detrimental to horses for many reasons. The biggest problem facing the athletic, obese horse is decreased performance due to heat stress. Excessive fat acts as insulation and decreases the horse's ability to cool quickly, which causes increased sweating and reduction in physical performance due to fatigue from overheating. Additional body fat will also increase oxygen needs due to the extra weight, but the ability to take in oxygen is also more restricted in obese horses. Extra weight may also induce joint problems in horses, which could shorten the career of a horse involved in a performance activity. Obesity may increase insulin resistance or dysfunction in some horses, which is called equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), and is known to be associated with a higher incidence of laminitis. Obese horses are also more prone to lipomas, which are fatty tumors that can develop in the abdominal cavity. The intestines can become entangled with a lipoma, resulting in strangulation colic. Strangulation colic is a serious life-threatening condition requiring surgical correction.
Weight loss can only be accomplished by reducing the number of calories going in and increasing the number of calories expended. For best results, hay consumption must be limited, and pasture access must be restricted to dry lot only to prevent overgrazing. To start a weight reduction program for an overweight horse, provide moderate to good quality grass hay (no pasture) at 1.5% of the horse's target body weight, not the current weight if the horse is overweight. Adjust the horse’s target body weight by subtracting 50 pounds (22.7 kg) for every body condition score over 5.0 for good health (e.g. 1,200 lb [545 kg] horse with a body condition score of 7.0 would have a target body weight of 1,000 lb [454 kg]). Provide a diet Ration Balancer like Optimal or Equilizer to utilize a low-calorie source of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to provide all of the horse’s required nutrients for good health and maintenance of coat, hoof and topline.
Diet ration balancers are low-intake, nutrient-dense horse feeds designed to be fed along with a forage-only (hay or pasture) diets. They are formulated with concentrated amounts of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to be fed at a lower rate than regular horse feeds (e.g. 1-2 lbs/day [500 grams-1000 grams] per 1,000 lb [454 kg] horse) per body weight, per day. This minimizes calories for easy keepers and is suitable for horses requiring a low NSC diet.
If weight loss doesn’t occur in a few months, and you have a horse with a history of chronic laminitis, consult with your veterinarian about medication to increase the rate of weight loss, and reduce the possibility of recurrence.
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