A Weighty Issue....

I have the Roddlesworth prefix and own heltondale Emma, Roddlesworth Octavious (by Townend Samuel out of Kerbeck Night Music who was foundation mare for Kerbeck stud we owned her till she sadly passed away a few years ago) Roddlesworth Briar Rose and Annabelle (no prefix because a friends name was on the mares passport along with mine and as she wasnt on the prefix couldnt be registered as roddlesworth) and Roddlesworth Just Ted who is out of Annabelle and by Hesket Jock whom is brother to Hesket Willow
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
if you google anorexia it is an eating disorder where the person is unable to maintain a normal body weight. i am interestested how you can be diagnosed as anorexic if weighing 11 stone? cos you would have to be super super tall and broad to be anorexic at 11 stone. maybe i am anorexic too???? although i know mine is from having my nose in the trough a little too often!!!!
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I really like that, as i was asked this evening from my child minders husband if i was pregant again, (but not that nicely)! Good job i know him!!!!! just fat, not pregnant, as far as i'm concerned, 2 is eouugh for me!!!!
 
jesstickle said:
Well you would expect a bunch of scientists, who know perfectly well what chlamydia can do to you, to have at least taken one test in their lives but apparently not. I felt like a right weirdo explaining no, women don't have to go to the doctor an have a cervical swab, you can do it yourself. What must people think of me?!
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:p I'm worried about what to think about my brother now!
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
if you google anorexia it is an eating disorder where the person is unable to maintain a normal body weight. i am interestested how you can be diagnosed as anorexic if weighing 11 stone? cos you would have to be super super tall and broad to be anorexic at 11 stone. maybe i am anorexic too???? although i know mine is from having my nose in the trough a little too often!!!!
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You don't diagnose an anorexic by their weight, but by their attitude to food.
 
SusannaF said:
:p I'm worried about what to think about my brother now!
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He wasn't actually one of them. Although I bet he doesn't know either! I'll ask him when he comes back.

And at least someone understands about eating disorders apart from me. How do people still think in this day and age you have to be thin to have one? Aghh. I thought I'd already explained it was to do with your perception of yourself and nothing to do with your weight.

And OP I am terribly sorry to hijack your thread to get on my soapbox.
 
To go back to what this thread is about....
Highlands ponies are the same. They are really short but wide. I rode one out for someone last year (as someone who mainly works with TB's) thought it was really fat, the owner slimmed him down a bit but he is still 'wide' and clsoe to the ground. I have a shireXDales, and she has gone through phases of being fat and last winter 'thin' yet compared to my 17hh TB she always looks 'tubby' even if she isn't!!
Having seen plently of fell ponies they always will look tubby next to, say, a 14hh show pony type.

I think the OP's pony looks pretty average to me, though when you got it, it was FAT!! :D
 
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Mine maintain weight quite well :) yours look much better than when you got them :D x
 
Sorry, m house sitting and only just worked out how to use the computer! Duh!
To those who asked about my eating disorder, I was anorexic, going from a size 22 to a size 10 in 6 months is vastly unhealthy! I 'achieved' this by drinking black coffee, diet coke, smoking 20+ a day...oh, and NOT EATING. You could put your clenched fist in my clavicle and see each one of my ribs. I am 5'9 and a broad, stock build. So yes, I was anorexic, but in a very different way to the more 'standard' perception of what an anorexic looks like.

Back to topic, thank you very much everyone for the nice things you have said about my girls! :) I bought Melly (Fell) un-passported for meat money when she was written off as dangerous and her owners decided that they wanted shot of her. She had been in a 10 acre dairy grass field for 2 years with no care and no restriction, with walkers/hikers (footpath through field) giving her mars bars and ham sarnies. One chap would cycle 4 miles every week to bring her a big bag of carrots and have a chat with her - she's a very special pony!
Unfortunately as I was lied to about passport ("oh yes, we will post it to you" etc etc) I have no way of knowing her breeding, she could be a cross for all I know! Although I think she has a real Heltondale stamp to her...what do you experts think?

Thanks again for all the comments, and for confirming that it's not just me that feels this way!! Any pics of all your supposed fat horses? I'd love to see them all!

Oh and Starzaan....***SQUISHYSQUISH**!!
 
Yaboopah to them :)

Your girls are fine.

:D

Chill and enjoy them and threaten the next donkhead that comments that you have a weigh tape and you're not afraid to use it! :D :eek:

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Disclaimer: not that I condone violence in any way of course.


:D
 
Horses weights are partly down to science and partly down to opinion. It should be measured at to how much fat covering the horses has. The opinion part is what an acceptable fat covering IS. Arguments come up when one person sees one covering as acceptable whilst others think another. Esp for 'show condition' - what they see as 'condition' most see as just plain fat.

I personally would like to see your mare carrying a little less weight, esp if she's a good doer. I perfer to see horses a little on the lean side as its healthier. The 'rounderness' of her bum and neck etc should be made up of muscle, not fat, which unless she's doing a lot of work, it won't be.
 
i just wanted to say she could easily be 11 stone and be anorexic as i am only 5,7 and i am a size6/8 when im 11 stone. people are just built differantly

also with horses i think its really difficult to judge and should be up to the person who handles them everyday within reason. why i say this is that on my mare who is the perfect weight you can never find her ribs without more then a bit of pressure and her neck looks heavey as its really well built but her bum is miles of being an apple and her shoulder is a very good shape with very little fat on it.

my point being that you really cant judge all horses the same and that you have to trust what you have learnt to be right for your horse
 
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I know exactly how you feel. We have a section c mare who was very fat when we bought her - just over three years ago. She has gradually lost the weight but for the last 18 months we seem to have hit a platform and although I would love her to lose more it seems very reluctant to shift! We have to work around the fact that she is too small for me to ride and it is difficult for my sister (whose pony she is) to fit in lots of work around school and other commitments (she does a lot of music). I lunge her a couple of times a week and take her for walks in hand when I have time but despite keeping her fit this doesn't seem to help much with the weight loss. She is fed minimally and not on good grazing but we can't muzzle her - she can take anything off and used to be seriously headshy so we don't want to go back to that. Anway, enough rambling - sorry! - but I do know how hard it can be. I really want to get her properly slim but for the moment I am pleased that she is looking how she is - as it really is such a big improvement on how she used to be.

This is a couple of weeks after we bought her:

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And the end of this summer (her 'fattest' time - she will lose a little over winter):

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Sorry if they're huge!
 
Wow Celia! You have made huge progress! She's a lovely looking girl!
Kallibear, I absolutely agree that horse need to be weight taped and scored correctly on a regular basis, Im sure that all horse owners eye their horses up and 'weigh by eye' every time they see them, but I think the pressure to have every 13hh the same weight and every 14hh the same weight regardless of breed to be a step too far. As I (and madelaine1) have shown, not everyone fits the mould!
I agree that Melly's bum is ather round, but show me a healthy Fell that hasnt got the head of a lady and the arse of a cook? Even the hill mares an stallions, who pretty mush fend for themselves have big old apple bums, its the way that are designed, just like the majority (Please note I said majority, not all!) of welsh A's and B's have the propensity towards a cresty neck, and holding fat around the top of their dock.

MrsM, I mean business with this weight tape!!(and I can be quite violent!!)
 
Well I have given up caring what people say!
For years I had a TB who could be a gold medalist at eating and being thin and now I have Welshies who have no feed, are out 24/7 on nothing and hold their weight 'just in case'. That said, they can go far ages when ridden without getting out of puff or tired.
I know which I would rather have...Welshies that cost me nothing but are good doers, rather that the TB whose feed bill was paid by direct debit every month!! That said I have loved having them all equally, fat or thin.
Bryndu
 
Hi Emm0r, I dont know how she is bred, or even if she is a full Fell! Her previous owner was a bit of a dodgy one and despite all the lines and the promises, I never got a passport for her - makes me wonder if they ever had one for her either! - so I had her jabs and everything re-started by my vets. :( Its a real shame as I think she looks very much a Heltondale stamp, but have no way of knowing really! x
 
if you know the year she was born look through stud book as her markings would be easily identible (also what is her name did u name her or did she come with a stable name)

Not a very good pic but this is my gelding out of a kerbeck mare (he has one white back foot and a bit of a sock)
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This is my heltondale mare
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We only have an approximate age, but it would be a start - I didnt realise I could do that - winter project me thinks!! She came to me with the name Melody, but I dont know if her previous owners gave her that...I dont think they did though - wracking soggy brain cells!!!
I love the loo of your kerbeck gelding, he has Mellys stance!
I might just get searching! x
 
I owned kerbeck night music for that last 7 years of her dear life :(
She had a foal called Melody I assume Kerbeck Night Melody but not 100% sure anyway Music had 4 white socks and a start and my gelding is out of her ??? maybe she could be one of hers??
 
emm0r said:
I owned kerbeck night music for that last 7 years of her dear life :(
She had a foal called Melody I assume Kerbeck Night Melody but not 100% sure anyway Music had 4 white socks and a start and my gelding is out of her ??? maybe she could be one of hers??
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Oh wouldnt it be fantastic if I could find out!!! Have you got a link I could go on to start looking? x
 
FPS has a stud book online ! You have to be a member though ! I can look in the week if you like pm me as much as you know x
 
Oh thats great!!! I know nothing really! Vet estimates she is 11, 2 owners previous to me, and really just the white to fetlock on both hinds, star and a snip on the left of her muzzle. She has a big scar on her left fore, that runs from chest to armpit just on the line of a clipper line, vet thinks it was barbed wire, and that whoever stitched her up did a relly good job! Approximately 5/6 years old - previous owner didnt even know she had it! Its only properly visable when she is clipped though, you have to look really closely to see it other wise!
I have emailed kerbeck stud to see if they recognise her, or can give me any advice too, oooo this is exciting!!!! x
 
Dont think she is out of my mare can u give me a list of her whorls too will make it easier :) also she shouldn't be hard to find as she will be in section x of stud book due to excessive amounts of White :) I will look
 
Contact goytvalley stud it doesn't say markings on the online studbook however if u contact them they had a goytvalley melody ! :) also ring the fps and explain what has happened they should be able to help !!! Would love to know if she is goytvalley melody as that would make er full sister to
My gelding :)
 
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