Fionn and Odin are getting a tad bit chubby! They have to get back to a healthy weight asap! I would like them to be like this. This photo was taken in May 2022. Fionn (right) looks a bit chubbier because he has a different build than Odin (left), who is more elegant.
I started to develop ways to teach horses to offer movement in 2016, when Kyra got laminitis and was a 9 out of 9 on the body score index.
Kyra even got rain puddles on her back when it rained. Yet, I told myself she was “OK”. After all, she was (fat and) healthy for the first 8 years of her life… So, I postponed doing something about it. Because I just didn’t know how!
I started exercising her, but I got discouraged… I stopped. I told myself ‘It isn’t that bad…She’s a barok horse.”. I did what I could: slow feeders and less food at night…
Exercising enough with positive reinforcement was hard. It “didn’t work” and I didn’t kept going with it. In hind sight I expected too much, too soon (‘lumping’) and quit. I wish I had known then what I know now.
Little did I know that EMS shows itself between 9 and 12 years of age. She just turned 9 and one month later… Laminitis! I won’t let that happen again.
Fionn and Odin gained a bit of weight in August and I’m doing everything I learned, in order to reverse that. I’ll d get them back at a healthier weight, before it’s too late. I know now how to do this with clicker training. I don’t have to worry about damaging the bond I built with both of them in the past 10 months, since I got them.
Here’s what I learned training overweight horses back to health
- Laminitis can be prevented! And healed.
- Obesity in horses can be managed (even when horses suffer from diseases like EMS)
- Most regular weightless advise damages other parts of the welfare of the horse (like putting them in solitary confinement and/or on a crash diet that the vet advised me for Kyra)
- You can get them healthy and HAPPY while helping them to lose weight with exercising and management changes
Most important of all:
What you have to do when your horse gets sick (laminitis) is only temporarily! I spent 2-3 hours, 7 days a week during the first 6 – 8 weeks or so to get Kyra back to health!
It’s important to realize that, when you’re in a similar situation: This is not forever! And… when you prevent your horse from getting sick, you’ll save lots of time, effort, money and worry!
You have to put in a huge amount of time, effort and money to nurse your horse back to health once he gets sick.
Once I got Kyra to a healthy weight and laminitis free I could change back to my regular amount of spending time with her. It was devastating to see her suffer! The amount of worry and sleepless nights (apart from the financial burden of a sick horse 😉 ) is huge!
Mini’s and laminitis
This time I will do anything to prevent this from happening. Especially because I know miniature horses/ponies are prone to EMS and laminitis.
I’ll keep you posted with some of my training. I’m so happy that I know exactly what to do now and I don’t have to look the other way, until the vet would confront me with some bad news. I won’t let that happen again!
Videos of Movement Training with Positive Reinforcement
From the blog R+ Movement Training for Overweight Horses
Here’s how to start. This doesn’t look like anything of the goal behaviour! After all, this is not negative reinforcement! Watch the second video of training day 4 to get the idea what it will look like eventually when we built duration.
Fionn at training day 4: the target is been faded out and my body language is getting smaller and smaller already.
More reading
Do you really need to stop giving treats in training when your horse needs to lose weight?
Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses
Is your horse overweight? Did the vet recommended: No more treats!” or “More exercise” to get your horse in shape? Join my R+ for Overweight Horses program. We’ll address your biggest struggle in getting your horse to move with positive reinforcement. You can only join after a personal conversation, so I can tailor this 2-week online coaching program towards your horse, your situation and your needs! You can book a call here.
If you want to get better at things like:
- Building duration in exercising your horse with R+
- Getting your horse in shape and lose weight without a crash diet
- Creating fun in movement training so you don’t have to keep running along
This is for you. Check out the information page here!
Sandra Poppema, BSc
Founder of the HippoLogic and creator of Force Free Movement Training for Laminitis Horses
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HippoLogic -> Clickertraining.ca 
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