Weight Management Program
At Sunrise Stables we do not guess what your horse weighs, we have a scale to accurately keep track of your horse's weight. Friday morning is Weight-Watcher time and all the horses get weighed as they come out of their stalls. The data is then entered into the computer and each month you get a weight history of your horse(s). Here is an example of how we keep track of our own horses weight.
This information is the basis of our weight management program. It lets us follow a horse's weight over time to see if any trends are developing in weight gain or loss. Our mares tend to gain weight and our geldings tend to loose weight. There are several factors which contribute to the weight of your horse: Work level, temperature, stress, and feed. It is our objective to balance all of these factors to maintain a healthy horse.
To understand the impact of work level on our horses we can weigh them before and after a workout and the weight loss will indicate what shape they are in. On a ten mile trail ride we have seen one horse loose 20 pounds while another horse would loose 40 pounds. The weight loss during exercise is a good example of how hard the horse has to exert itself. As the horse gets into better shape you can measure a reduction in it's weight loss for consecutive exercises.
Temperature is a big factor in keeping your horse in shape. To keep warm in the winter they will burn extra calories. Blanketing can help in reducing the energy needed to keep your horse warm. In the summer the major issue is fluid loss due to sweating during exercise.
Stress can cause horses to stop eating or overeat. We must pay attention to what makes our horses feel uneasy and minimize their impact. Moving a horse causes major stress. During the first weeks a new horse arrives we have always noticed weight loss of 20 to 40 pounds.
Obviously, feed will have a major impact on what our horses weigh. We stress accurate portioning so that we can minimize the variation in weight due to administering the feed. One thing that we have learned is that each horse's digestion is different. As an example we added corn oil to the feed of two of our TB geldings that we wanted to add weight to and one gained 30 pounds the first week and the other had no weight gain. After a week we knew to cut the ration of corn oil to the first gelding and change to another feed for the second gelding. Our feed philosophy is to feed all the high quality hay that the horse will eat and to use grain as a secondary source of weight gain. This produces slower weight gain results but it is much healthier for the horse and provides a more stable weight level for each horse.
The sample chart above is updated each week and posted by the scale so that everyone can see what is going on with all the horses. It is typical to see that the majority of the horses gained or lost weight in a particular week. It is not uncommon for a horse's weight to vary +/- 25 pounds in a week. What we are looking for is that there are no trends of consecutive weeks of loss or gain for individual horses that might indicate a need to change that horse's weight management program. All of our horses have a target weight that is reviewed with the Vet and the owner. Ultimately it is the owner's choice to set that target. If the horse is above target the ration will be reduced. The first things to be reduced or eliminated are the weight gain agents such as corn oil, beet pulp, or rice bran. We use a variety because horses are just like people, some will eat one thing and other will eat another. The base grain is whole oats that is used to balance the calcium / phosphorus ratio in the horses feed from the alfalfa portion of the hay mix. If a horse develops a trend weight below his/her target we will increase the ration in small increments until the trend is reversed.
First trip across the scale for Flex 1172 pounds (left) and Andy 1008 pounds (right).
Ace and Skip with Christian checking the weight of his horse 1088 pounds, Ace weighed 1077 pounds.
At last our long awaited horse scale has arrived (April 6, 2005)! We no longer need to estimate the weight of your horse. We can now know to the pound what each and every horse weighs.
This is a picture of the scale being deinstalled from the shed row at Chabboqussit Farm.
And now it is installed in the wash-rack at Sunrise Stables.
Here is an example of a weight management in action, We got Wrisque on lease in January of 2007. She had been in the pasture on R&R for a while so she was a little out of shape and a little under weight. She gets weighed daily before and after exercise. This gives us an idea of what kind of shape she is in by looking at the weight loss compared to the amount of exercise she gets on a particular day. In addition, we are looking to muscle her up to about 1400 pounds from her initial weight of 1220 pounds. This program will take several months but the progress is in the right direction already.
