How much weight do I need to lose?

[Oggie]

Here's the latest story and question about Sunny the horse.

The neighbor lady (I'll call her Linda, 'cause that's her name.) who works at a feed store has been delivering bales of prairie hay and bags of grain for us to feed Sunny. Linda suggested that we call a guy she deals with that lives down in the river plain and get a big round bale of hay because Sunny eats what we give him each morning and still seems hungry.

Also, he has eaten almost all of the pasture down to nubs and she and my wife thought that, if he had something else to do, he'd leave the rest of the sprouts alone. They figured that he wasn't really that hungry, just bored.

So, Sunday I called the man down my the river and told him I wanted one of his $60 fancy indoor-stored bales of hay and went to get it.

I drive a Dodge Dakota extended cab. Not a big truck, but not as tiny as the Toyota I used to have. When the guy put the big bale in the back, it took up almost all of the space and the back end went down quite a bit. But it has a big engine and I could zip around pretty well.

There was a big mountain back in the bed and I thought it looked pretty funny. So, when I got to town, I rolled down the window and, when I stopped at stop lights, I wanted to wave at the driver beside me and say, "Hey!" But it was kind of cold and no one had their window open. I was a little disappointed. I did go to the grocery store on my way home because I needed some lemons and ginger for some honey teriyaki salmon I was making and it was pretty darned easy to find my truck when I came out. I just looked for the haystack.

Linda had told me that, when she wants to unload a round bale, she just puts the tailgate of the truck down, backs up and hits the brakes.

So, I did.

The bale rolled out. And rolled. And rolled. I guess I was going too fast because it rolled about 25 feet past where I wanted it to go. So, I just bumped it back where I wanted it with the front of my truck.

Then, I took the wrapper strings off and Sunny came running. He had a new best friend and now spends most of his time with the bale.

But, he's pooping a bit more than in the past, maybe 3/4 of a wheelbarrow a day. I think that, once the newness of all that available hay wears off, his eating will slow down. Anyway, spring will be here and all those seed catalogs have me pretty excited. Eventually all that poop will taste like ripe juicy tomatoes.

Then, I noticed that one of Sunny's hooves had a nick out of it and mentioned it to Linda. She asked, "When was the last time you had his hooves trimmed?" "Ummmm ... How often do we need to have that done?" I asked. "A while ago," she said.

I asked her who did her horses hooves and she said that her farrier is cheap, but only comes when she happens to be in town working on a whole group of horses and that we should probably talk to our other neighbor, who I'll call Betty (That's not her real name but she's a kind of private type and probably wouldn't want me to use her real name, here.).

So, my wife called Betty and found out that her farrier was coming in a couple of days, anyway, and could also trim Sunny. Of course, then my wife needed to call Sunny's owner and get the OK to spend money on his hooves. It was only $45 dollars, which seemed pretty reasonable to me because that's only like about Eleven bucks and a quarter a hoof and I'm not really sure just how I would hold him still, keep his hoof turned up and go at it with a belt sander or whatever I might have available.

And the owner said it was Ok, so I didn't have to really worry about it at all.

But, the owner also told my wife that one of the reasons her daughter hasn't been over to ride Sunny so much (other than the fact that they were out of town for the holidays) was because Sunny bit her on the arm. He tends to get cranky when he's bored and had tried to nip at me, but I just tell him "No!" and he settles down. We'll have to work with him a bit more to get him to behave. But, that's not really solely our responsibility.

The owner's husband is allergic to horses and that complicates things. They didn't know that when they had Sunny shipped in.

My wife's back is acting up and she can only ride him at a walk.

I think that it would help if I rode him some. I was worried that, at about 200 pounds, I might be too large for him. But, I lost 10 pounds last month and am losing more.

How much might I need to lose to really ride him? He's 15.2 hands.

[SFM in KY]

I know a lot of 15.2 hand ranch horses out west that work all day carrying a cowboy that weighs 175/ 200 lbs plus western saddle which is 40# more. They don't have a problem and they are being ridden anywhere from 3 or 4 hours up to daylight-to-dark. Not every day, necessarily, but 3 to 5 days a week.

[wr]

Oggie, you're more than fine to ride Sunny. You mentioned earlier that you planned to start riding bareback first, which I think is a great idea because you develop a much better seat.

The 20% guideline is just a suggested standard based on all breeds of horses but when it comes to QH's we look at it bit different because we consider bone and stout into the equation. We prefer to see an nice sized foot (dainty hooves are bad), good bone, a nice big chest, wide back (not Jenny Craig wide) and a nice big hip. Sunny more than qualifies.

[Linda J]

Oggie, you didn't disappoint me. I laughed. I was wondering how you were going to bring it around to weight, and I thought maybe you were in the wrong forum at first.

This horse needs a job. You are his employer. Ride him. He is going to get one big hay belly from that round bale, I have 2 hay bellies down in the pasture right now who think I work for them. Come Saturday, watch out, Joker and Whinnie. The grandkids are coming for the weekend.

[jill.costello]

Oggie, waaaay down here in the Equine forum, we require pictures. <-----period.

[Minelson]

Originally Posted by Oggie

Also, he has eaten almost all of the pasture down to nubs and she and my wife thought that, if he had something else to do, he'd leave the rest of the sprouts alone. They figured that he wasn't really that hungry, just bored.

I would take him off the pasture and let it rest for at least a month. Is the grass growing this time of year? If not, I wouldn't let him on it until 30 days after it starts growing...like 4inches high before you let him on it. If it's a real large pasture maybe you can section it off and do some rotational grazing. It would be better for your pasture and better for Sunny (worms)
I would also recommend this book...
http://www.horsekeeping.com/horse_bo...ll_Acreage.htm
Also, horses always act like they are starving unless they are sick or something. My 2 horses get about 3/4 square bale of grass hay a day (60-75lb bales) in the winter when the pasture is under a few feet of snow and it's very cold. I feed half in the am and half in the pm. They also get 1/2 a cup of BOSS in the evening as a treat. I don't feed any grain. Grain would just make them fat and freaky.

[Oggie]

A good basic horse book would probably be a good idea.

We tried using our son's copy of "Rabbits: Complete Care Guide" by Virginia Parker Guidry, and just multiplying the amounts stated by about 750. But, that amount of alfalfa pellets seemed as though it would be way, way too much.

So, our son was feeding Sunny about a nine-inch piece of a standard bale and a scoop of prepared grain pellets each morning. Sunny would graze the pasture for the rest of his roughage.

The pasture is mainly Bermuda grass that's dormant, now. Until it warms up a little and the clover and cooler-season grasses kick in, we'll be depending on the supplemental big round bales. There are also other pasture areas into which I can release him periodically to graze.

The farrier came by yesterday while I was at work and Sunny's hooves now look much better.

My wife says that we still need to have a vet come by while he's checking on other horses in the area and float Sunny's teeth. I guess that our water trough isn't deep enough for us to just do it ourselves.

[Minelson]

LOL Oggie! I never did understand why they call it floating teeth. I'll have to ask the vet tomorrow where that term comes from.
Talk to the vet about worming, vaccinations and sheath cleaning too.

[tinknal]

This is my friend Larry. He has in the past weighed over 350 lbs. He rides most every day. He has since undergone Lap Band surgery and is down to 257. You never see him ride in his videos because he is usually doing the camera work LOL.

YouTube

[beccachow]

You don't really need to grain unless you are working him hard, say, making him hoe the garden, cut down trees, take out the trash, etc.

I had a similar experience with a round bale in my goat pen, we call the goat field "Goat Hill" because it is so much fun to sled down in the winter, full of snow. It currently has a swath about 6 feet wide, from the top of Goat Hill, to the bottom of it, of hay. We have been unable to sled since it perfectl;y followed our sledding paths. We are lucky a goat was not standing in front of it. They are rather quick (both goats AND hay bales) once forward motion has begun. I half smile at a vision of a hay bale, rolling down a hill, with four little goat feet sticking out of it, but I digress. A great man (or woman) (certainly not cat) once said, "A hay bale in motion, once set in motion, will not stop it's motion until it comes to rest against a tree. Or fence. Or neighbor's pond."

If you are worried about your weight on this big fella, perhaps you should let him ride YOU a bit at first, sort of break the ice.

In all seriousness, a horse can pretty easily handle your weight. I am 160, 5'10" tall, and my Arab (14.3 hands) carted me around all day without breaking a sweat. It gets easier on them as well once you develop a good seat. As for the nipping, you're darned skippy that is a HUGE "no." You cannot even begin to imagine the damage a horse can do with those nasty teeth. Make sure you are all consistent in how you wish to handle his misbehaviors...even one person letting him "get away" with something can ruin the entire training process.

I have a Sunny, too! Check back in the archives, I think my post was "How much can one horse eat" or something. I hope someone recalls that link to that horse that was playing with his round bale, it was funny as heck. PS: I also pay $45 for a good farrier. Around these parts, it is hard to get one who shows up, on time, consistently. Added to her reliability is the fact that she doesn't need me to be there, well, SOLD. She tucks the lead rope in her belt and they just stand. She believes in letting them loose while she works; they all hang together and she takes them one at a time. Pretty impressive. She never has to stall them, or chase one down.

Any how, I can not comment any more as the Unspoken Equine Forum Code dictates that you are overdue for a picture of the horse.

[jill.costello]

Hmmmmmm..... Most folks would say it is best to feed a horse 2x per day.....if he was only getting a 9" flake once in the am to last him 24 hours....he may just have been a bit hungry! My horses get 3 flakes each 2x per day; I guess that would be about 16" or so times 2......

[ErinP]

Most folks I know only feed once a day But then that's usually with winter-kill pasture available, too... And like Becky, I'd skip the grain.

So far as the weight question, Oggie. I have a good friend who's a working cowboy and he's 260 if he's an ounce. No, he doesn't ride a particularly stout horse.