Will I be able to get him in show shape?

[littlebigspots]

I recently purchased a 5 year old stallion that was once a halter horse. He has been well cared for my his owner and is a bit on the large side. His neck is particularly large. Have any of you brought a horse back into show shape from being butterballs. Do you have any before, after and after pictures? Even if he never gets back to how he was I have fallen in love this this guys quirky personality.

 

[Lil Eowyn]

I have two different horses and one was embarrassingly fat:

http://s9.postimage.org/upfuppd1b/003_3.jpg I worked with her and exercised her all spring;

http://s14.postimage.org/wwr2x8qlt/IMG_3175.jpg

and by the time the shows were here when I barrel raced her and showed her, here's her and now I got the fence working again so she won't be sneaking an y more hay now!

http://s9.postimage.org/x75e27133/017_2.jpg

http://s2.postimage.org/74nyvks6h/100_3377.jpg

Now here's when I bought Éowyn, she was a bit overweight:

http://s1.postimage.org/cbypw4ddb/mini_3.jpg

http://s13.postimage.org/vuycutvp3/mini_4.jpg

And here's her summer 2012 after almost a year with her (right now shes too fluffly to take a demonstrative pic )

http://s9.postimage.org/4uacv3wan/Eowyn_14.jpg

http://s1.postimage.org/4krn8f4xb/009_3.jpg

What I did, what cut there feeding schedules; For Peanut (my big horse) I brought her in the stall during the day (the summer days were really hot too) and I took her out every few hours for exercise. For the first few times I just rode her at a walk for about a half hour to an hour. She wasn't nearly in shape and I didn't want to overwork her. Later on I started increasing her work and rode her at a walk, gave a break for a couple of hours, then took her back out and lunged her for 1 minute each way. Later the lunging increased more until I lunged her 5 minutes each way or more. When she was getting alot better and in shape, I brought her to the arena with her barrel saddle on and walked her around the arena and then trotted. Pretty soon she started loping and the more we went around she got faster and faster. Finally she was ready to barrel race again and we won 4th place!

With Éowyn, obviously I can't ride her but I did sort of the same. She doesn't have much grass in her pasture, so I let her out in the yard and she mows our lawn. So during the night shes in her pasture, and in the day I take her out. Once in a while I'll take her on walks and lunge her and she's in pretty good shape. =)

So I hope this helped at least a little! Good luck! =)

 

[disneyhorse]

How competitive are you wanting to be? There's a lot more work involved to get him in shape for a local show versus competitive at Nationals.

Photos could help us assess, too.

 

[littlebigspots]

Thanks for the pics lileowyn. Im hoping diet and lots of exercise will help. I would like to try the breed shows here in michigan and maybe at least be competitive at local show. I will get pics of him when we get him home pobably later this month. Right now I'm getting is new diet plan in order. He's going to be unimpressed with his new dry lot lol

 

[littlebigspots]

I'm sure you can figure out what ones are before and after. I wish I have a better current picture but it was so cold when we went to see him my sisters camera was doing strange things so sorry bout the lines in the picture.

 

[Lil Eowyn]

Wow--hes a beautiful stallion--congrats on getting him and good luck with showing this year! =) I'm going to be showing Éowyn for the first time in local shows too this year =)

 

[ruffian]

Most minis look huge in their winter coats. I think he will be much slimmer when he loses that hair. He's cute, what's his name?? Are you keeping him a stallion or gelding him? Gelding him might take a little neck off him, but at 5 not much. Good luck!

 

[shalakominiatureshowhorses]

My jazzy is a bit on the larger side. He has a fatty neck and some gut fat LOL. Around our area, we use neck sweats, but I call them a neck wrap. They are used to pretty much "sweat" the fat off. It really works, my 9yr old gelding doesn't have nearly as fat of a neck as he used to :/

I bought him in 2009 to be a pet. Prior to me buying him this horse went to nationals. He was in tip-top show shape. I lunged him, but didn't have enough area to actually work him. Lets just say I kind of let him let himself go! He was FAT! Anybody who knew him that is in this forum knows what I'm talking about. When we moved to the new house, we had 5 acres. We made him a bigger pasture and got a round pen. Round penning really melted the fat away. Loaping burns fat, trotting builds ab muscles. Bentley was originally a driving horse, and when I learned to drive, I drove him a lot. That really made a difference in his stamina. He is a little chubby because its winter, but come daylight savings time we are getting back into the show-workout routine. I'll post pics in a sec, I can't off of my iPhone yet.