# Unfit pony



## gunslinger (Sep 17, 2011)

Well, you could work him on a lunge line and focus on ground work, or put him on an exerciser if one is available.....

Not sure what he's eating.....but I slowly changed from a 12% protein feed to a 10%....and saved a little money too....Have you studied his diet and considered what changes need to be made?

I think the biggest thing is to slowly change his diet....cut him back a little at a time.....or, if changing feed....mix it with his old food for a few days....and allow him time to adjust....don't make abrupt changes.


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## kewpalace (Jul 17, 2013)

If you are interested in a book, I found Jec Ballou's Equine Fitness a good book for that.


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Standard advice is to transition to only grass hay (no legume or grain hay, I don't know what's available there), and ration balancer (no grain, just vitamins and minerals to balance your hay nutrients), and start riding. Use his pulse and respiration return time to gauge how fast to push him. I hope experts will weigh in here.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

If he's overweight then little and often is more beneficial and safer than trying to rush into long rides or schooling sessions
If you can break it down into just two short work outs a day, maybe one of them on the lunge, he'll progress faster and remain willing. Unfit horses aren't that different to unfit humans - you do too much in one go and you make yourself ache so then take a few days off to recover - you want to avoid that.
Welsh cobs are 'easy keepers', they don't need a lot of food to keep weight on unless you work them hard. They're also very prone to laminitis so you might have to look at restricting grazing if you have a lot of grass


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## jesscorc (Mar 12, 2017)

jaydee said:


> If he's overweight then little and often is more beneficial and safer than trying to rush into long rides or schooling sessions
> If you can break it down into just two short work outs a day, maybe one of them on the lunge, he'll progress faster and remain willing. Unfit horses aren't that different to unfit humans - you do too much in one go and you make yourself ache so then take a few days off to recover - you want to avoid that.
> Welsh cobs are 'easy keepers', they don't need a lot of food to keep weight on unless you work them hard. They're also very prone to laminitis so you might have to look at restricting grazing if you have a lot of grass


He's in a large paddock with lots of grass so I have a grazing muzzle, I read up on cobs and discovered the laminitis risk
so I wanted to be precautions! If he starts to lose weight too rapidly I may wean him off the muzzle!
Thank you!


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Speaking from experience of laminitis prone cobs and ponies, if he does start to lose weight too much I would supplement his feed with hay if you can rather than give him more access to grass - that would mean taking him off the grass and keeping him on a dry lot or stabled for X amount of hours. Another way to restrict grazing but still allow enough to maintain weight is to strip graze using step in stakes and electric tape but cobs are usually such easy keepers that they'll stay in decent weight on very little - just be sure he's getting enough Vitamins and minerals


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