Hi Everyone,
I just recently had to ask myself that question because my 17 month old mini suddenly exploded. I mean it seems like overnight his belly got huge. I knew I had to do something about his weight or he could have some major health problems.
I talked to my vet and they said to cut out any extra food he may be getting. I knew he was getting something from cleaning up after the beef cows ate but I didn’t think it was much. But the vet said that what might seem a little to us is big to a mini. She said their digestive system is very efficient unlike their bigger counterparts regular horses. If things didn’t change to call her and she would come out to look at him.
She also said if that didn’t make a difference then I might have to cut back his grain and then hay. When she said cut back his grain and hay I wasn’t to keen on that since he got his supplements in his grain and winter was coming. Plus his grain is Nutrena SafeChoice a forage based pellet that didn’t have a lot of calories associated with it.
His diet consisted of a flake of hay and cup of grain in the morning and the same at night. This diet has helped him maintain his weight in the past and didn’t put any extra weight on him.
So I asked myself what should his weight be for his height. I needed to find out what my goal was even though it was a guideline. I thought there should be some kind of chart on the Internet that would show this. I mean has anybody done research on mini’s concerning their weight as it is related to nutrition. But I was wrong. It wasn’t going to be easy finding the information I needed online.
After hours of looking on the Internet I found a few sites that could help but didn’t give me the exact answer to my question. Here are some them I hope they can help you with your mini too.
Kentucky Equine Research (KER) had two articles that were helpful one is called “Mini Weights” and the other “Feeding the Miniature Horse”. The links are:
http://www.ker.com/library/equinews/v1n311.pdf
http://www.ker.com/library/equinereview/n08.pdf
I hope these links can help you and your mini.
My plan with Max is keep him in another paddock were there is no extra food for him to get too. Add some light exercise like walking. After two weeks see if he has dropped any weight then cut his grain or hay back. I hate to do that but his health is important.
If you have any information that can help me and my mini please leave a comment.
Thanks,
Horse Mom Mary
