Happy New Year!

Weight loss – a resolution for many and always a journey for the “easy keeper”.

We have Haflinger and miniatures horses.  In the horse world, they are called “easy keepers” which means they can sustain (or gain) weight with very little food.  With the cost of hay being high, this sounds like it would be a good thing, but it is misleading.  The horse’s digestive system is meant for it to basically graze most of the day to stay healthy.

So, the challenge is to meet their nutritional and behavioral needs without weight gain.  One of the common items to use to slow eating is called a grazing muzzle and looks like a medieval device of some kind.  Regardless, I invested in a few goods ones and gave it a try.  My herd would not be deterred by such madness and quickly figured out how to destroy the muzzles.  Don’t underestimate the power of the herd – they even helped each other get the thing off.

This year I’ve decided to try out a few of the “slow feeders” on the market.  My first purchase was the Hay Pillow.  Same concept as the grazing muzzle, except not physically attached to the horse’s face.

So far, so good.  Naturally the horses go for the hay that is laying around first (less work), but they do have the hang of how to get it out of the Hay Pillow.  I’ll be trying other slow feeders throughout the year until I have a good mix for everyone.

I’ll stay on my journey to maintain a good weight for my horses, until then #fatponiesunite