SARAH: What's the best exercise for an overweight horse?
She'd like to have something she can do that doesn't take too long, but she wants to be
able to do it every day.
She's at the barn every day, which I think is fantastic.
And she very sweetly says that her horse is a little chubster, and she'd like to have
an efficient exercise that they can do so that she can make sure he's maintaining or
achieving a healthy weight.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Well, I looked-- again, the Horse Health Library - great articles, if
I say so myself.
SARAH: And they're written by you.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, they're written by me.
And then the Ask the Vet blog has good stuff.
And so I-- that's where I go for information because this is not the first time I've been
asked this question.
And so I have two blogs.
One's called "Exercising the Easy Keeper," and the other one's "Turnout Time vs Exercise."
Let me start with that one because that one actually shocked me a little bit.
And I answer her, buy a lottery ticket!
This is your day!
So there was a study out of Virginia, and what they found is that horses turned out--
not in dry lots or paddocks-- but in a pasture.
So big, large, rolling, pastures.
And I know not everyone has that, but it's a start.
Horses turned out on pastures have the same fitness as horses that were stalled and exercised.
So they had three groups.
They had the just pasture turnout over the winter.
SARAH: No riding.
DR LYDIA GRAY: No.
Group number two was stalled and then daily exercise.
And then group three was just stalled.
So clearly, group three went down in their fitness and other parameters they measured,
but groups one and two were the same.
I thought that was really interesting.
SARAH: So your horse will sort of take care of himself left to his own devices.
DR LYDIA GRAY: When you make his environment more like nature intended.
What we do though is we stall them, and sometimes we stall them with runs.
And better, we stall them with runs and paddocks.
But it's still a small, flat, contained area.
And they really do better when they can walk at their own pace and walk up and down and
around and run a little bit because somebody was chasing them.
SARAH: Or they thought they heard a treat bag.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yes.
And I'm guessing maybe her horse would do that.
SARAH: It seems like maybe.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The other one, "Exercising the Easy Keeper" - you should read this one
because there's too many studies for us to go over today.
But they did find-- a key thing was you have to keep exercising.
So daily is good.
You don't have to go for hours and hours.
A lot of these were 30 minutes of walking and trotting.
But when they quit exercising-- I think it was after nine days-- the horses went back
to their original level of fitness.
So the important thing is daily, short, intense-- if your horse is ready for it-- but keep up.
Don't stop.
SARAH: OK.
I think one of the things that I want to give Jessica credit for is I think there are a
lot of horses-- you say you get these questions a lot because there are a lot of horses out
there that are overweight.
And Jessica's doing a great job being conscious of knowing that it's important for her to
help her horse lose that weight.
What are some of the impacts if people don't take that as seriously and think, oh, fat
horses are cute horses, and they're happier.
Well, when you're carrying too much weight, it's hard to dissipate heat.
So they're going to struggle more when it gets hot in the summers or in Florida, California.
They also are more prone to laminitis because their hooves aren't increasing in size, but
yet they're carrying more pounds in that square inch.
And you can set yourself up also for some actual conditions-- not diseases so much--
but like Equine Metabolic Syndrome, which includes Insulin Resistance.
And that's a key factor in exercising.
Exercise has been shown to make your body more sensitive to the effects of insulin.
Your question's a good one because by exercising and by keeping the weight off, you're scientifically
helping your horse from the inside.
And you're seeing the effects on the outside.
SARAH: Right.
So it's not just about vanity so your horse has a nice beach body, but it's for his long-term
health and wellness and soundness.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah.
Keeping your metabolism working right and your musculoskeletal system and just everything.
It's good.
Oh, can I say one more thing about this?
SARAH: Yes.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Small hole hay net.
SARAH: Also the good friend of this guy, the easy keeper, the chubster if you will.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And he won't hate you for it.
They actually like having to go get their hay from the bag because it simulates grazing.
SARAH: Sure.
Absolutely.
OK.
Well, there you go.
Small hole hay nets for everyone.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Not me.
SARAH: We don't need that.
We can control ourselves.
We can convince ourselves of that anyway.