Potbelly, Color, Registration newbie questions :)

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Cupcake

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It's been 3 weeks since the accident and my little girl has recovered SO WELL! I'm so glad as the vet had no idea if she would, he flat out told me that if she had hurt her abdominal wall, it would most likely be fatal. After the first day fever scare, she got better every day and is now all healed up and back to her normal self - spoiled from recovery time and has developed a "biting for fun" attitude so I've been doing lots of groundwork with her, backing up, yielding, leading, standing for patience etc.

I clipped her yesterday mainly for the 105F that have now started here, but also to practice my clipping, here are some pictures and "mini newbie" questions that I'm hoping to get help with from you guys...

(I know her feet are too long, but they've just been trimmed 4 weeks ago - they grow like weeds!)

Body:

What do you think of her confirmation? Weight? Particularly her belly. She was underweight (10 months, 27", 90lbs) when I got her in February, but she did have a potbelly. I wormed her regularly since, she's been on coastal hay, grass, some alfalfa and Total Equine feed (4cups a day). Since her accident I've reduced her feed to 3 cups per day and switched her over to 90% alfalfa, 10% coastal and little to no grass. I"m thinking about getting her a grazing muzzle before I let her run on her own again. She eats out of a nibblenet, mainly to reduce the waste (sky high hay prices here), also to give her something to do.

She has gained weight and looks healthy to me except for the huge belly. She almost looks pregnant! When I compare today's pictures with the ones from when I clipped her wintercoat the end of March, it definitely got even bigger... any advice on how to get rid of it?

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Color: Would you consider her a grey, a grey pinto, a silver dapple or a silver dapple pinto?

Her sire is a "dappled grey/white mane and tail", her dam is a silver dapple pinto. (both registered as these colors). She has 2 socks in the front and two stockings in the back, when her stockings are wet, you can see some dark spots and she has black stripes on all 4 hooves. She has dapples which were most visible when I clipped her after the wintercoat.

Here's a pic of her color before clipping her:

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Registration: She was sold by the breeder at 5 months with papers filled out to get her registered, however, she hasn't been registered, the previous owners gave me these papers, is it as simple as sending them off to get her registered and what is the cost? Or is it not possible due to her now being 14 months? Also, it says "brown" for color as her foal coat was light brown and her wintercoat is palomino colored, can I change this?

Thank you in advance for any replies
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Are the papers AMHR or AMHA? Either way, calling their offices is your best plan of action. Both registrations have great people in their offices and they'll guide you in what to do with the paperwork to get her registered. I think you can and should change her color as she's definitely not brown! Do you have a winter coat picture of her? My silver bay girl clips gray but is sorrel in color when it grows back. That doesn't look to be the case with your girl.

I think she's looks great. How much protein is in the feed you're giving? Weanlings/yearlings tend to need more. I kept my little ones on a 16% protein feed until they were two and it greatly helped with the "haybelly/potbelly" look. Like you I wormed mine monthly until a year and then bi-monthly on a rotational basis (blessed by my vet based on our current configuration).

I can't comment on conformation as I'm not an expert in that area. I do thinks she is a lovely little girl though!
 
The papers of both parents are AMHA. I agree with the color! Especially since I've never even heard of the description "brown" in the "big horse" world... and even then, she's not it!
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Here's a pic of her when we got her and after clipping the wintercoat - I've been told she looked like a mix between a Great Pyrenees Dog and a mountain goat with all that fuzz...

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Total Equine feed has 15% protein. I read about the potbelly/lack of protein in foals/yearlings on here and someone gave me the advice to feed only alfalfa to up the protein and reduce the belly... so far I haven't seen a difference.

I've been worming her on the schedule like my paint 6-8 weeks, so can I actually worm her every 4 weeks/monthly? Won't hurt her?

Thank you for your response
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(not an expert in the confirmation department either here as you can tell
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)
 
I'll be listening in on this thread - my stallion looks the same, I'm happy with his weight but his gut looks like your minis. And i don't want to lessen his food for fear he'll starve lol. Lack of exercise might be the problem, I'll just have to train him to lunge.
 
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My guidelines for worming were to worm weanlings up to a year. After a year (and I went to the actual year, not "January 1st"), they went to the same bi-monthly worming as everyone else. You might want to have a fecal count done. How many horses do you have total? If its just the one or two, I'd definitely do a fecal count to check her worm load to tailor her worming schedule better. And I wouldn't purposely "exercise" a yearling either, again based on much information I've read here. Their muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones are still growing and its easy to over exert them. You might some daily walking to see if that improves things at all.
 
She looks Silver Dapple to me. As for her belly, it could be her confermation. I have a mare that has always had a belly. I call it a brood mare belly. She is my country pleasure mare so a belly just doesen't matter.
 
Wow judging by the photo that you posted of her when you got her it looks like she is doing wonderfully in your care. Good job! I would think her belly is due to a lack of protein, try uping her to a 16% protein and I bet it will disappear, other than that she looks great. I am no good at colours so I will leave that to the experts.
 
Conformation wise her neck is short and set in low to her shoulder/ chest. Her front legs aren't straight and seem to be over at the knee. In my opinion she is not breeding material,but she could make a lovely performance horse.
 
Thank you! Can you recommend a feed? And amount so she doesn't even gain more weight on her belly? Should I limit her alfalfa or free feed (in the bag), she can EAT, this girl will stuff her face with anything she can get her mouth on... And gets very irritated when she can't have it.

I'm not planning on breeding, my main reason for her purchase was to provide my paint with a buddy and he loves her to death. I do plan on eventually cart training her and due to the fact that she can be registered I would like to keep the option open to show her, just not sure if she would even stand a chance confirmation wise. I fell in love with minis when I first visited Tony's ranch in buda in 2009. And now already playing with the thought of eventually getting another one. I also just found out that my neighbors sold their house to someone who owns several minis
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I can't see the pix here at work (blocked- *sigh*) but I would recommend you get her some Enrich 32 and put a cup of that in her feed. It's a high protien supplement that we gave our babies and it works.
 
I feed Purina feeds, so do highly recommend them, and agree too, that a higher protein might be what she needs. The only time I had a young horse with a pot belly, the only thing the blood work showed that was "off" was his protein levels...and after putting my youngstock onto a 16% pelleted feed, they all looked great, and I put them back to a 14% when they are a couple of years old.

One thing that stands out to me, is her feet. You say she was only done a month ago...which lends me to think that your farrier is not taking off enough heel. She is beginning to "buckle" over at the coronary bands, and if this is not stopped ASAP, it will affect her way of going, and possibly her soundness.
 
I would try and find a jr feed and go by its feed guidelines and instead of going by volume go by weight. I'm currently feeding JuniorGLO to my mare and she is doing awesome on it, she gets 3 lbs a day which is like 4 1/2 scoops and 6lbs of orchard grass which is like 2 1/2 flakes. Of course she is like 300 lbs so yours would get quite a bit less.

http://www.admani.com/horse/Products/Horse%20JuniorGlo%20Feed.htm

She could still be showing the results of her condition when you first got her. It can take a while. Also I agree conformation may possibly be affecting her as well. I would also for sure get a fecal done and I wouldn't hesitate to give her a PowerDose of Safeguard. I would for sure find some type of JR feed.
 
Do you know if there are any resources, guidelines for farriers online regarding minis? I'm looking forward to the new neighbors, I'm sure they'll be able to tell me a thing or two when they see her in person. I don't have anyone near me who knows anything about minis.

I will check into the feed for sure. I thought the total equine would be good since its already higher. In protein than some. But of course it's not feed specifically for minis, I feed it to my paint also.

As I said she did have a potbelly when I got her but it did also get bigger. I just wormed her yesterday, what do you mean by a "power dose"? I will also do the fecal count and it would probably be a good idea for the paint, I only have these 2, but there are other horses down the street from me. Thank you all for all the good advice! I grew up with horses, my family bred for generations (German warmbloods) and have been riding since I could walk but never owned my own until a year ago, lots of things I learned since then and continue to but absolutely living my dream with these 2 babies in my "backyard"
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Do you know if there are any resources, guidelines for farriers online regarding minis? I'm looking forward to the new neighbours, I'm sure they'll be able to tell me a thing or two when they see her in person. I don't have anyone near me who knows anything about minis.
Any GOOD Farrier can help you out. Mini feet are horse feet too, and done exactly the same as the big guys. I do find they can tend to grow a heel faster, but think that has more to do with the weight of a mini compared to the larger horses and ponies, and is attributable to not being worn as fast. that said, I have a mare here that I have a hard time growing enough heel on. LOL!
 
I'm attaching a feed guide chart that I rec'd from a Purina rep. I've found it helpful in the past. I also use this measuring cup which has marks for pound measurements of both sweet feeds and pelleted feeds. Its so easy to use for those of us who want to be sure how much we're feeding. http://www.sstack.co...oop-feed-scoop/

This is a link to the feeding guidelines on Purina's Miniature/Pony feed that's not on the attached file: http://horse.purinam...D2-0051041.aspx

For instance, in the Mini/Pony feed, a yearling weighing 150-225 should be getting between 1.6 and 2.3 *pounds* not cups. I'd bet your girl is between the 150-175 range.

One of the things I do that is really helpful is to get my horses weighed once a year. That way, I have a true idea of how much they weigh, how much to feed them based on their weight, how much to give them in terms of medicines (i.e., wormers) and many other things. I am lucky that our feed mill offers this service for free. Their equine specialist will bring out their portable scale to our place. In fact, everyone is due for their weigh in next month.
 
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I think she's as pregnant as she can be
I don't think so. Highly unlikely that she got in foal as a weanling even on the off chance she was bred. Not impossible, but very unlikely. I do agree with the others that a high protein diet at her age will likely improve her condition dramatically.
 
One thing that stands out to me, is her feet. You say she was only done a month ago...which lends me to think that your farrier is not taking off enough heel. She is beginning to "buckle" over at the coronary bands, and if this is not stopped ASAP, it will affect her way of going, and possibly her soundness.
+1. She looks like she's having to stand up on her tippy toes. I'd see if your farrier can come back asap and correct that angle.
 
I will try to take some pics of her feet while standing on asphalt. She was standing in loose granite in these pics. One of the known "side effects" of the total equine feed is that the feet grow better and faster. I'll also try to get my farrier out sooner than normal this time. He's a good farrier, a soldier of the cavalry here, so this is his 24/7 job. My paint has a club foot and other hoof issues and he's been dealing with them well. He's done other minis but from what I know, all "backyard minis" where some had so much hoof, he showed me what he cut off one and it looked like an ENTIRE hoof! As I said, if there is a guideline I can help my farrier out with for minis, that would help.

That would be my biggest fear if she indeed was pregnant given the fact that she's so young, I got her at 10 months, and also because she had the accident, was sedated, stitched up, had shots, antibiotics, pain meds, ulcer meds 3 weeks ago. She also wasn't wormed at her previous owner, from 5-10 months.

Do you know if feed stores sell the mini feed? TSC doesn't, at least not where I'm at. I do feed her by weight not volume now, as I weighed the feed before determining the cups. I just don't feed the alfalfa by weight, I feed through the nibblenet and just add when she's low on it.

Problem is I have no idea how much she weighs now... She was 27" and 90 lbs when I got her, the wintercoat and potbelly hid the fact that she was underweight and you could feel her backbone and her neck was tiny. I measured her yesterday and she was 30", if I subtract some hoof, I would guess about 29.5". How much would you guess she weighs for the feed measurement?
 
I would not feed her the mini/pony feed until at least next year. She needs more protein than that will give her. I would find a 16% feed. Also, i would start putting some oat flour in her feed to help with ulcers, which could be the cause of her bloating.
 

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