Before and afters - Condition

[AmyMay]

Nice Kalli.

 

[tiga71]

Well I am well known for not doing coloured and hate fat cobs but I think he's lovely and you look fab together.

Completely and utterly impressed!

He looks and sounds absolutely fab, and I'm very impressed by how busy you are and how much you are doing, especially considering you have been riding a relatively short time. He is VERY gorgeous too, have you thought about trying a little bit of showing? I bet he'd do well in coloured classes and cob classes and maybe things like riding club horse or family horse/pony classes or even working cob.....

Thank you for the lovely comments. I have fallen off quite a lot but luckily I seem to bounce. He has a tendency to bronc when excited so it was either improve my seat or send him back to the rescue. He still has a good buck in him but I don't fall off anymore.

As to showing, my YO would love me to show him but there isn't much excitement and we like a bit more action. I did do a Handsome gelding class once but it was a bit boring. Maybe now he is better behaved - might have a go if there is nothing else to do one weekend.

 

[Jill Crewe]

.

That's incredible! What a lot of work you must have put in

All of the horses are a credit to their owners, I love seeing these before and after photos. It just shows what can be done and I find it really inspiring

 

[weesophz]

this is fox a few days after i got him, getting a bath cos he had horribly dry scaly skin and such a dull coat this was in may, he held his winter coat for most of summer poor git

start of summer that year

winter time, cant rememember if this was the same year as the above photos or the next year, but anyway

and summer last year

i love looking at these comparisons. first one is when i got him, second one is a summer the next year

ETA sorry pics are huge, photobucket isnt playing this morning!

 

[AmyMay]

Wow, wow, wow weesophz. Amazing!

 

[weesophz]

Wow, wow, wow weesophz. Amazing!

hehe thank you hes hard work but worth it, my pride and joy!

ETA to put into perspective, i took him a wander to the local show a year after i got him, a woman who was at the yard when i first got him then moved away refused to believe he was the same animal, had to get YO to vouch for me!

 

[Crugeran Celt]

Megibo your second horse is lovely but I think he needs a bit more weight on him in the second photo, it could just be angle of the photo. I have a large boned 15.2hh sect d who weighs in at 645kg which I am sure many would say is gross but spoken to vet and he says he looks fine at the size he is, just a big boy. Cobs do tend to look more 'round' than other breeds but thats no excuse for them to be fat.

 

[GinaGem]

My boy a few years back now:

 

[Lucy_Ally]

Spring before she came to me (wintered out and unworked) in 2006 aged 7 years.

Before clipping this winter:

Summer working shot:

Most recent so shows her current shape (excuse the scary looking bandage - an acute case of cellulitis on Saturday, but on the mend now!). Aged 14 years.

She is a nightmare to keep weight off, but looking ok weight wise at the moment I think (especially as haven't been able to rude as much recently due to the weather).

 

[Lucy_Ally]

*ride not rude - stupid phone!! I'll not talk about how rude I've been!

 

[Kat]

Thank you for the lovely comments. I have fallen off quite a lot but luckily I seem to bounce. He has a tendency to bronc when excited so it was either improve my seat or send him back to the rescue. He still has a good buck in him but I don't fall off anymore.

As to showing, my YO would love me to show him but there isn't much excitement and we like a bit more action. I did do a Handsome gelding class once but it was a bit boring. Maybe now he is better behaved - might have a go if there is nothing else to do one weekend.

Working cob classes and riding club horse classes include jumps Search for a star have a riding club horse class, you have to jump two fences and the final is held at HOYS.

 

[kirstykate]

Scrawny 3 1/2 yr old

And 5 1/2

 

[HufflyPuffly]

Here are mine.
Doodle is my first horse, but when I got her she was a bit .
She had stressed all condition off in her previous owners care, and to ride...well she would would tank off, had zero communication and one of the worst upside-down toplines I've seen .
The first picture is at my first comp with her, a very local dressage test for our local charity, she had put some weight on here but you can see my riding and her resistance clearly , it is one of the worst picture ever!

The second picture is how she should be and has taken years of hard work and learning on my part to transform her into the goregous creature I knew was lurking beneath and also a willing partner as that was the key and probably took the longest to overcome .

Then came Topaz, the first pics are pretty much as she came off the lorry and don't really show just how poor she looked. We could see all her ribs and even her vertabrae . (Oh and even though she looks huge next to my mum she is actually only 15.2hh ).

Here is how she looks now, her flat work leaves a lot to be desired but we are getting there .

I hope you can see the huge improvements we can, we are very proud of how our girlies have turned out .
x

 

[nikkimariet]

Fig, a year and a bit of hard work:

 

[edgedem]

my dolly when i first got her and after 6months

After her first clip this winter

excuse the mud!

and finally arching her neck to get some topline!! (She's never worked in a proper outline before but after putting side reins on for a lunge she now wont stop standing like this, even will no pressure!!)

 

[tiga71]

Working cob classes and riding club horse classes include jumps Search for a star have a riding club horse class, you have to jump two fences and the final is held at HOYS.

Now you have got me thinking. If there are jumps involved we would definitely be up for that. Will have to get looking for something to have a go in. My YO will be sooooo happy! Thanks.

 

[samleigh]

Amazing, well done you..tell me you secret..I've a thoroughbred (owned 4mths) who could do with a bit of your magic..

 

[forever broke]

Have posted some of these on another thread the other day but here's my lad. He's had a few condition transformations in the time I've had him:

When I first got him at 15 months:

As a 3yo:

And not long after, the day he came home from the vet after chronic grass sickness:

And about a year after that:

 

[CobsGalore]

and finally arching her neck to get some topline!! (She's never worked in a proper outline before but after putting side reins on for a lunge she now wont stop standing like this, even will no pressure!!)

She looks great. However, if she is working with her neck like this then that is not an outline, sorry! Getting a horse to work over it's back comes from power from the back end, not arching it's neck

 

[Jools1234]

Have posted some of these on another thread the other day but here's my lad. He's had a few condition transformations in the time I've had him:

When I first got him at 15 months:

As a 3yo:

And not long after, the day he came home from the vet after chronic grass sickness:

And about a year after that:

WOW

i am not usually keen on predominantly white but there is something about him thats really eye catching, he is lovelly

 

[edgedem]

She looks great. However, if she is working with her neck like this then that is not an outline, sorry! Getting a horse to work over it's back comes from power from the back end, not arching it's neck

like i said we put side reins on her to lunge her in the correct outline where as before she would work horrible with her head stuck up and out! and SINCE then she likes arching her neck off her own accord! such as just standing in the barn lol obviously its doing nothing like this i think she just likes looking fancy!

 

[FowlerstoneArizona]

 

[Toast]

There are some lovely looking transformations, a credit to you all.

But it baffles me that some people cant distinguish between a blatantly fat horse, and a fit, well muscled horse. No cob should have an 'apple bum', and Laminitis is not contracted just by 'couch potato' horses. That kind of ignorance is what is making the horses of the showing world so grossly overweight.

 

[JFTDWS]

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.

I'm sorry but scientifically speaking you are just wrong. Many horses in work do get laminitis, particularly if they are obese. Furthermore, obese horses have higher risks of numerous health issues from osteoarthritis to heart disease. Cobs are not subject to a different condition score - if they are as fat as that cob, they are fat - it is relative to conformation, but not to breed. It is people like you who are holding back the revolution in the understanding of the general public that fat animals are not healthy. Feel free to do a little research, either in the appropriate vet journals, or if you can't hack those, on the charity websites where they desperately try to educate people like you.

!I have explained how extremely difficult it is to keep weight off him - but how many of you have sympathised, compared to how many have condoned and accused?

A horse does not get that fat without serious overfeeding and under work. No sympathy from me, I think his condition is a disgrace (though I think the same of many cobs in the show ring). If any of mine looked like that, I would not be proudly posting photos on a forum - I would be mortified.

And yes, I would (and have) said this to people's faces, I do not use the anonymity of the internet, and I do actually have a HW cob and two highlands myself so I do understand the issues keeping weight off good doers. None of mine have ever looked like that though

And to prove it:

3 year old last week:

6 year old this morning:

Don't have an unrugged shot of the cob. They're not perfect, but they're not welfare cases either


eta the chestnut 2 posts up looks fab

 

[patchwork puzzle]

Cruise when I first got him

and a year later

His back caused him issues and the fitter he became the more it caused him problems so he has gone back to the lady that I had him from and lives a very leisurely life
Jazz when I first had her

and again about a year later (this poor girl had a brain tumour and after much time and money trying to get through and work out her problems (obviously didnt know it was a tumour) she was sadly PTS.

Sally when I first got her

and now

My first pony and also Teddy that I have now were both in a good bodily condition when I got them so there isn't much of a difference with their pictures.

 

[patchwork puzzle]

Haha, I am actually amazed at how much different Sally looks

Sorry piccie overload

 

[Beausmate]

No cob should have an 'apple bum'

Going to disagree with you there. When I picked up my baby cob he was about as lean as I'd like, could have got away with a bit more weight on him and looked perfect. He had a perfect apple bum, still does and he's about right at the mo. Got a bit podgy over the summer, so is wintering out in the day on a sparse field (too wet for 24hr), naked, with a minimal fast fibre feed to stick supplements in and haylage over night. I'll take a pic later, there's an autumn photo on the 'does nature get it wrong?' thread. I think he's a bit porky in it, but going the right way.

 

[AmyMay]

Sally is a total poppet!

 

[spottybotty]

This is K the day after I bought him .He was 5 and 16.3.

two years later

and two years ago, he finally stopped growing and is 17.3hh

 

[AmyMay]

Completely beautiful Spotty.