Recaps, Part 2

Part two of my recap session may as well be titled: A Case of the Fats.

Hi awkward obesity.

It's no secret my horse is an easy keeper.  She always has been, and I'm willing to bet she always will be.  I am in absolutely no way complaining about this skill of hers to get fat on air, especially when it seems so many others have to work and drain their bank accounts keeping weight on their creatures, but it is a struggle to manage Mollie's weight.

As with anything, there are a few factors contributing to her current level of tubby-ness.

- She is out on gorgeous, lush grass from about 7am-3pm.  That's a lot of grass time for a horse who doesn't. stop. grazing.  Seriously, her nose is buried in the grass for about 8 hours straight.

Small horse, big field

- She is genetically designed to be on the "thick" side.  Yay for Quarter Horse genes.

The most solid little girl.

- Mollie is about the same length from the bottom of her barrel to her top line as she is from hoof to shoulder.  This is evidenced by the photo above, because you could literally fold her in half and her legs and barrel would be about the same length.  Therefore, any weight she carries looks a thousand times worse because she's not very tall.

- It's no secret Molls hasn't been worked regularly as of late.  Granted, now that I'm out of school I've been riding about 4x a week, but I haven't been doing that for long enough to make much of a difference.  Oh, and when we do ride, it looks a lot like this:

Whut is a bridle?  Whut is werk?

So while it's frustrating and mildly terrifying when my farrier mentions the "f" word, you know, the founder one, there are definitely some steps I can take to prevent this.

For one, Mollie is back in consistent work.  With a saddle and a bridle!  We're also really working on ways to cut back her grass consumption.  I did put her grazing muzzle back on her, but as highlighted in my photo recap she got some pretty heinous rubs.

Ow.

I plan on sewing some fleece on to her muzzle so once the rubs clear up (they're looking pretty good!) the muzzle can hopefully go back on.  In the meantime she continues to get next to no grain (just enough to mix in her supplements) and limited hay.  And anytime she can come in/get off the grass a little early the BO brings her in.

Fingers crossed she's a lean, mean, cow-pony dressage horse soon!