The English language is once again messing me up.  “Heavy” can mean 2 things depending on how you pronounce it. Heaves is a respiratory issue and is said to be “heavy” or “heavey” depending os spelling and auto-correction and of course overweight = heavy.

What you do depends on if there is a high amount of insulin being produced from the glucose (starch) in the diet. If you want to get him lean then keep limiting the pasture until winter and soak the hay. It is OK to add the SBM during this time as it will be used for protein synthesis. However, if your horse does not lose body fat or actually gains body fat then the sources of glucose needs to be reduced (the pasture and hay) by elimination of pasture and soaking the hay. Increasing exercise will also help to dispose of excess glucose.

By the way, if “heavey” the same applies as a horse with heaves is now called equine asthma which is now associated with metabolic syndrome (in humans). So reducing glucose intake is applied here too.

Thanks for your question. Please feel free to add your observations to the “No Grain Challenge” forum so we can all access this. Otherwise any comments here will become buried over time but is still searchable.