{"id":1037,"date":"2021-04-28T15:12:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T15:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horseycounsel.com\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2021-04-28T15:12:06","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T15:12:06","slug":"horse-is-not-gaining-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horseycounsel.com\/horse-is-not-gaining-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s Why Your Horse Is Not Gaining Weight and How to Fix It"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
I’ve said it plenty of times: caring for a horse requires work and know-how. Apart from making sure our horses have shelter, food, and water, we need to keep an eye on their overall health, fitness, and body condition. As far as having a normal weight goes, some horses can be incredibly difficult keepers.<\/p>\n
Some of them will have difficulties putting on weight or keeping a normal weight. It’s up to figure out what’s causing the weight loss, and what we can do to help our horses get back to normal.<\/p>\n
Weight loss in horses can be influenced by several factors such as:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
Traumatic events causing a reluctance to eat.<\/strong><\/li>\n
A poor eating environment.<\/strong><\/li>\n
Poor food quality and a bad feeding program.<\/strong><\/li>\n
Parasites.<\/strong><\/li>\n
Bad teeth.<\/strong><\/li>\n
Gastrointestinal issues.<\/strong><\/li>\n
Various diseases.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Up next, we’re going to have a look at a few steps that we can take to help our horses gain weight safely and healthily.<\/p>\n
Look for signs of past trauma.<\/h3>\n
The first thing you can do to figure out why your horse is not gaining weight is to inquire about its past. This step is incredibly important if you bought the horse from someone else, or weren’t particularly involved in its upbringing. Horses are kind and sensitive creatures – they’re influenced by our emotions, and they take things to heart.<\/p>\n
A mismanaged horse or a traumatized horse will have a difficult time eating properly and gaining weight, particularly if its trauma is food-related. Anxiety can also play a part here, especially separation anxiety<\/strong>. If a horse has been separated from another horse or from a handler that it has bonded with, this may cause various problems including eating disorders.<\/p>\n