Before and afters - Condition

Oh, I know the pain of a ridiculously good doer. I have one who I've had to send off to livery as I can't maintain his weight here at home without being cruel. Sadly there are plenty of people who would DELIBERATELY make their horse that fat for the show ring. In fact it's pretty much expected :mad: My cob is very similar in weight and build to your first picture and I've been told many times in the show ring he needs more 'condition' :mad:
 
Here is Mollie just before I bought her, May 2011:

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And about six months after I bought her, autumn 2011:

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Mollie is lovely, a beautiful colour and gleaming

EMS love your cob, he looks really different trimmed up

Lovely that so many people here can spot a diamond in the rough :)
 
Roo before and after. Arrived at the end of winter from Ireland where he'd been running rough like cattle.

The pictures don't really show how lean he was as he's got such a deep girth. It also doesn't show quite how filthy he was. He STANK and it was caked on like concrete

This was as close as I could get for the first couple of days, he was so frightened

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After a couple of weeks of adlib top quality Haylege. And a LOT of brushing (thank god he was moulting!)

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Couple of months later after much filling out and growing

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And fairly recently

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Kallibear said:
Oh, I know the pain of a ridiculously good doer. I have one who I've had to send off to livery as I can't maintain his weight here at home without being cruel. Sadly there are plenty of people who would DELIBERATELY make their horse that fat for the show ring. In fact it's pretty much expected :mad: My cob is very similar in weight and build to your first picture and I've been told many times in the show ring he needs more 'condition' :mad:
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I have to be honest, it does annoy me when people just assume i keep him fat deliberately for the show ring, because nothing is further from the truth - it's the last thing i'd do, i hate seeing obese horses & it's a constant struggle with his weight. Funnily enough, i've never been told he needs more condition - i'd love there to be a need! Am glad you feel my pain & appreciate how difficult it can be with these types.

I think we need smellovision for that first photo of Roo, bless him!

Mollie looks to have come on really well FM12.
 
day we bought him
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After a few weeks
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aged three
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Final shape
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All done with feeding as he is not ridden in any of the photos
 
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Oh, Springy, your poor TB mare!! I've put a perfectly healthy TB out on loan before & had him come back like that! Never again! And that other girls wee Shettie - oh, the wee soul!

Most of mine have been "problems" - including "the fat cob" who was said to be a "bad horse only fit for the gypsies". There's nothing better than seeing them work things out & start to shine.
 
Wow toffee monster! The lunging pictures look like a totally different horse, and normall when people say that I think they are talking rubbish, but honestly, the change is amazing!
 
Not in a bad way physically but this is Georgie Pog the day we found him being smacked round the head with a big stick at the market
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About five weeks later
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Last spring
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He's still fairly useless but he looks a better class of useless!!
 
Oh Clava, what on earth? Could anything other than starvation have made a pony look like this? especially a Haffy! Poor mare and well done you for getting her to a much better weight.:)
 
The coloured cob,couple of pages back looks amazing now! Why would anyone think a thin cob is 'healthy? They are meant to have condition and an 'apple' bum. having kept and shown coloured cob for 25 yrs , none has ever had laminitis, or been 'unhealthy'. Theres ahuge difference between condition and fat , and the show cobs are worked daily, and horses in proper work dont get grass laminitis. Its a disease of couch potato underworked horses.
 
Crumpet said:
Oh Clava, what on earth? Could anything other than starvation have made a pony look like this? especially a Haffy! Poor mare and well done you for getting her to a much better weight.:)
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I bought her when I went to buy the foal,the herd had been extremely neglected, and fortunately the owner was selling them all. She was 5 and unbacked and is a sweetheart and now (last summerand 2 years on) looks like this...


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and this
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Some wonderful transformations on this thread. And some not so wonderful.

Sorry Eatmyshorts, as beautiful as your horse is, the second lot of photos show him to be grossly overweight. He looked wonderful in the first photo.
 
Agree amymay I'd be worried if he was mine and looked like that :(

Frank to start when I bought him (yes you could see cellulite) and I vouched I would never let him get this fat again which we did manage even when he was out of work and on grass last year (thank goodness for paddock paradise)
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some time later.. he always hangs onto his belly a bit but the ribs are always there

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and prob at his fittest as hunting (no worries about him ever looking skinny I think!)
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WelshD said:
Mollie is lovely, a beautiful colour and gleaming
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eatmyshorts said:
Mollie looks to have come on really well FM12.
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Thank you both. :)

eatmyshorts said:
FionaM12, if you didn't wish to sound rude, perhaps you might have tried to think of at least something nice to say surely, before going on to say he was fat!
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amymay said:
Some wonderful transformations on this thread. And some not so wonderful.

Sorry Eatmyshorts, as beautiful as your horse is, the second lot of photos show him to be grossly overweight. He looked wonderful in the first photo.
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Sorry Eatmyshorts, maybe I should have sweetened it a bit, yes he is a beautiful horse but I was in truth a bit shocked at his size. I agree with Amymay, I preferred him in the first photo.

There are some lovely horses on this thread and as Amymay says, some wonderful transformations. :)
 
cornbrodolly said:
The coloured cob,couple of pages back looks amazing now! Why would anyone think a thin cob is 'healthy? They are meant to have condition and an 'apple' bum. having kept and shown coloured cob for 25 yrs , none has ever had laminitis, or been 'unhealthy'. Theres ahuge difference between condition and fat , and the show cobs are worked daily, and horses in proper work dont get grass laminitis. Its a disease of couch potato underworked horses.
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Well we'll agree to differ on that! :o

When you say "meant to" what do you mean? Meant to by whom?

To me he doesn't look thin in the first pic, although he could do with a bit of muscle. And I think what you call condition I'd call obesity! ;)
 
cornbrodolly said:
The coloured cob,couple of pages back looks amazing now! Why would anyone think a thin cob is 'healthy? They are meant to have condition and an 'apple' bum. having kept and shown coloured cob for 25 yrs , none has ever had laminitis, or been 'unhealthy'. Theres ahuge difference between condition and fat , and the show cobs are worked daily, and horses in proper work dont get grass laminitis. Its a disease of couch potato underworked horses.
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No one has said a thin cob is healthy - far from it. And none of eatmyshorts' photo's show a 'thin' cob.

I can only conclude from your 25 years of showing that you have become somewhat immersed in the tradition of piling the weight on for the ring.
 
cornbrodolly said:
The coloured cob,couple of pages back looks amazing now! Why would anyone think a thin cob is 'healthy? They are meant to have condition and an 'apple' bum. having kept and shown coloured cob for 25 yrs , none has ever had laminitis, or been 'unhealthy'. Theres ahuge difference between condition and fat , and the show cobs are worked daily, and horses in proper work dont get grass laminitis. Its a disease of couch potato underworked horses.
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Thank God ,someone sensible! just because a show cob has condition and "top" on it for showing..never make the mistake they are unfit.Mine did full days hunting never running out of steam when in show muscled condition.Her stamina had the thoroughbreds wilting at the end of a long day!
 
FionaM12 said:
Well we'll agree to differ on that! :o

When you say "meant to" what do you mean? Meant to by whom?

To me he doesn't look thin in the first pic, although he could do with a bit of muscle. And I think what you call condition I'd call obesity! ;)
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this.... 'cobs are meant to be fat' I despise that sentence! Its just an excuse of lazy people who let their animals get obese rather than put MUSCLE condition on them.
Before and afters do annoy me when people take a slim horse and make it fat.

There is a huge difference between condition and obese, poor horses.
 
EAST KENT said:
Thank God ,someone sensible! just because a show cob has condition and "top" on it for showing..never make the mistake they are unfit.Mine did full days hunting never running out of steam when in show muscled condition.Her stamina had the thoroughbreds wilting at the end of a long day!
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So you genuinely think, East Kent, that that shows a fit horse, capable of a days hunting????
 
EAST KENT said:
Thank God ,someone sensible! just because a show cob has condition and "top" on it for showing..never make the mistake they are unfit.Mine did full days hunting never running out of steam when in show muscled condition.Her stamina had the thoroughbreds wilting at the end of a long day!
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see to me he doesn't appear to actually have that much bone and in his show condition his body does look large for his legs.

I know plenty of overweight but currently fit people.. doesn't mean they are at the peak of health either but what do we know :rolleyes:
 
Ester your boy looks amazing in the second pic! Gorgeous.

I used to let mine get overweight without too much worry before I got a rollocking off of my physio, now I'm really hot on weight management and knowing the effects being fat has on a horse, horses allowed to get fat are really a pet hate of mine.

My little welsh D in May 2011, last time she was allowed overweight 390ish kg (and she'd been bigger than that before, show ring would have liked her..)
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And after, more the weight she is kept at now-350kg-
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And my other welsh D mare when I first got her, and before the enforced time off due to the snow at her ideal weight. She has crept up from 385 to 391 kg but that will soon be coming off with regular work again.

about 425kg-
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and 385kg-
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