Any advice? Condition of new horse (+ pics)..

[Marnie]

I have had Poppy for 2 weeks now and done very little with her, letting her settle in. Bit of background, she came from a dealer, she is 6 and has been backed and driven.

Yesterday I spent some time starting to tidy her up, so hogged her mane (had been done previously, but grown to about 2 inches). I rather wish I hadn't as it shows exactly how little neck she actually has and makes her head look massive

. I took some pictures so that I could compare over time, and would love some thoughts on her, particularly relating to her weight and muscle - I think that her weight is ok-ish, but she has absolutely no muscle. My plan is to ride her gently, starting with 20ish minutes walking, slowly building up over time, but would love some ideas on feeding and exercises that we could do to help her. I rode her out by herself for the first time this morning, only 20 minutes but she didn't put a foot wrong and seems pretty bombproof in traffic!

I've also just noticed that she looks really miserable in these pics, not sure what was going on, she is usually a really happy little soul

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[em21xx]

she looks really good weight-wise. personally i would grow her mane to bulk up her neck a bit but it will go through that really irritating awkward stage

. with regular excercise she should look really good!

 

[xnaughtybutnicex]

I probably be using build up cubes, sugarbeet and some sort of chaff and exercise would be long reining and just walking up hills for now to help build some muscle.

 

[Keltic]

Oh she is going to be a corker!! lucky you...

 

[Kallibear]

Her weight looks perfect - how an unfit cob SHOULD look (as opposed to those that wobble about their field

)

All she needs now is muscle. I'd be weary of feeding her a huge amount more (esp sugarbeet) cos unless she's doing a lot of work, she's just going to get fat.

She's been lovely once she's muscled up!

 

[custard]

She looks an absolutely healthy weight and just lacks muscle. I wouldn't feed her anything atm apart from decent grazing/hay, get to know her first.

 

[Rocky01]

She look like a really great weight. She is, as you know, lacking muscle, but that will come and she has all the basics there. I would maybe start with some loose schooling initally if you can and if not some big circle lunging, getting her to work over and through her back before you work her too much with you on her as her back isn't up to it yet. But she looks lovely, you have really lucked out and she should be lovely when she's muscled up.

Good luck