Can a 'rounded' show cob actually be fit & healthy?

AdorableAlice said:
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His weight in this photo look better to me. Stunning horse, I hope the Cushings is proving easy to control and that he has a wonderful retirement - I know you think the world of this horse and I can see why. :)

ETA

She never in her life had a gutter on her back or even fat pads
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Well done. :D
 
Vam I think your cob is super - nothing fat about her. Beautiful horse of AA's too. Totally different to those pics of the welsh cob and the dun one.

I bought H&H today and was looking at the pictures on the train. Sorry, but IMHO a good 70% of the pictures of show winners were of horses that were overweight. Now I should qualify that by saying that I am overweight too! But nobody would give me a red rosette! ;)
 
DabDab said:
He does just have the most perfectly set on head and neck, it is a joy to look at pictures of such a magnificent horse (even if I do think he looked a little better in the winter pic)
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You know what was the most disappointing day we ever had with him was a comment made to me after the championship at Hoys in 2009. He had made the final 9 for the second year running and we were the only amateurs in the arena. He took 7th again and we were thrilled. The judge told me had the horse been in professional hands he would have won. I thanked him for the advice and told him in my view, the horse has given us more pleasure by being at home, cared for morning and night by me and to just get to Hoys was an achievement.

I bought him as a dressage horse and it took me a year to realise he was smart enough to show ! We did a novice hunter with him and won. When we got into the open classes two of the best known showmen were very encouraging and offered advice to us. Others didn't bother to speak to us and one was overheard cursing us and saying 'who are those xxxxx amateurs taking our prizes, don't they realise we do this for a living'. - Charming.

After the Hoys judge comment I retired the horse because a) the horse was much older than most judges realised and b) it was obvious we would never progress any further. Frustratingly his retirement went wrong very quickly when he went daft in his paddock and wrecked a hind check ligament - that's horses for you !
 
The horsey world really is a funny one isn't it - particularly the showing world if this thread is anything to go by. Well I'm no showing judge, but if you ever come across another one like that feel free to give me the heads up.
 
The photo of him at winter weight is stunning and he looks good there weight wise to me. He is beautifully formed...
 
Hutchlou said:
A lbeautiful horse AA, nothing like the cobs I saw winning yesterday! ;)
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I have bought a cob for my retirement. It is as wide as it is tall, rather like me in fact. We are slimming together and this morning we puffed and shuffled up a few hills. We are work in progress !
 
AA can he have a thread all of his own? I would love to hear more about his exploits. You are a great story teller and he is the epitome of a noble steed. Love him!
 
Another one who thinks that horse is stunning. I'm fascinated by the gentleman riding him - he looks very gentle but firm, if you see what I mean. I watched the ridden heavy horses at our local show a couple of years ago and the ride judge impressed me greatly. Quiet but effective, made the horses look amazing.
 
Regandal said:
Another one who thinks that horse is stunning. I'm fascinated by the gentleman riding him - he looks very gentle but firm, if you see what I mean. I watched the ridden heavy horses at our local show a couple of years ago and the ride judge impressed me greatly. Quiet but effective, made the horses look amazing.
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He is a friend, a professional musician and has hands like silk, every horse he gets on loves him. He has the most natural balance. Here is the horse and him having a lunge lesson. The combined age of horse and rider is 83.

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Faracat said:
Well done. :D
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tobiano said:
Vam I think your cob is super - nothing fat about her. Beautiful horse of AA's too. Totally different to those pics of the welsh cob and the dun one.
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Thank you, oddly i never found her hard to keep the weight off. That said i think i did everything wrong back then (had her about 15 years and she has been gone 4) She was out on cattle grazing and would go from grazed down to nothing to lush fields, was out for at least 8 hours a day, didnt have muzzles so never had one on, didnt have soaked hay just damped down to get the dust out, fed comp mix all year round, would only have a couple of sections of hay at night rather than ad lib and i never fed from a haynet, had haylege as well as hay in the winter, all the things we are not supposed to do with a cob. What kept her slim was work, she was worked for at least an hour a day which included fast work, she was always made to walk out and work not matter what and competed most weekends. She did start to suffer a bit of middle aged spread when she was about 18 and wasnt worked as hard but still wasnt fat. Never had a sick or sorry day in the years i had her. I can understand that cobs can be hard to keep weight off, she would have been harder is she was heavier type i think as she was very lw in the grand scheme of things and would never have shown well.
I just dont think a horse of any type carrying excess weight can perform as well whether showing, jumping or even hacking.
 
vam said:
Thank you, oddly i never found her hard to keep the weight off. That said i think i did everything wrong back then (had her about 15 years and she has been gone 4) She was out on cattle grazing and would go from grazed down to nothing to lush fields, was out for at least 8 hours a day, didnt have muzzles so never had one on, didnt have soaked hay just damped down to get the dust out, fed comp mix all year round, would only have a couple of sections of hay at night rather than ad lib and i never fed from a haynet, had haylege as well as hay in the winter, all the things we are not supposed to do with a cob. What kept her slim was work, she was worked for at least an hour a day which included fast work, she was always made to walk out and work not matter what and competed most weekends. She did start to suffer a bit of middle aged spread when she was about 18 and wasnt worked as hard but still wasnt fat. Never had a sick or sorry day in the years i had her. I can understand that cobs can be hard to keep weight off, she would have been harder is she was heavier type i think as she was very lw in the grand scheme of things and would never have shown well.
I just dont think a horse of any type carrying excess weight can perform as well whether showing, jumping or even hacking.
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OH's mare is very similar in build to yours......she's 19 now and does ****** all but her ribs can easily be felt, she has a nice shoulder and isn't wobbly.
As you mention with yours...even at her slimmest/fittest when she was out team chasing.....she still had an apple bum. Its just her breed..
 
vam said:
Thank you, oddly i never found her hard to keep the weight off. That said i think i did everything wrong back then (had her about 15 years and she has been gone 4) She was out on cattle grazing and would go from grazed down to nothing to lush fields, was out for at least 8 hours a day, didnt have muzzles so never had one on, didnt have soaked hay just damped down to get the dust out, fed comp mix all year round, would only have a couple of sections of hay at night rather than ad lib and i never fed from a haynet, had haylege as well as hay in the winter, all the things we are not supposed to do with a cob. What kept her slim was work, she was worked for at least an hour a day which included fast work, she was always made to walk out and work not matter what and competed most weekends. She did start to suffer a bit of middle aged spread when she was about 18 and wasnt worked as hard but still wasnt fat. Never had a sick or sorry day in the years i had her. I can understand that cobs can be hard to keep weight off, she would have been harder is she was heavier type i think as she was very lw in the grand scheme of things and would never have shown well.
I just dont think a horse of any type carrying excess weight can perform as well whether showing, jumping or even hacking.
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I think that is exceptionally well put and a brilliant example. Like you I have never really been taught about keeping the weight off a horse, and in all the years on horse yards it never really seemed to to be something that was important knowledge. And I think that you are absolutely spot on about the exercise side of things - I certainly think the way that people view work has changed, what would have been considered light work as little as 10-15 years ago is now considered medium work.

And wow did you cob have a jump on it.
 
vam said:
Thank you, oddly i never found her hard to keep the weight off. That said i think i did everything wrong back then (had her about 15 years and she has been gone 4) She was out on cattle grazing and would go from grazed down to nothing to lush fields, was out for at least 8 hours a day, didnt have muzzles so never had one on, didnt have soaked hay just damped down to get the dust out, fed comp mix all year round, would only have a couple of sections of hay at night rather than ad lib and i never fed from a haynet, had haylege as well as hay in the winter, all the things we are not supposed to do with a cob. What kept her slim was work, she was worked for at least an hour a day which included fast work, she was always made to walk out and work not matter what and competed most weekends. She did start to suffer a bit of middle aged spread when she was about 18 and wasnt worked as hard but still wasnt fat. Never had a sick or sorry day in the years i had her. I can understand that cobs can be hard to keep weight off, she would have been harder is she was heavier type i think as she was very lw in the grand scheme of things and would never have shown well.
I just dont think a horse of any type carrying excess weight can perform as well whether showing, jumping or even hacking.
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I have found the same with my cob. I got him when he was obese, as in everything wobbled when he walked. and I am a novice. I didn't restrict his grazing as no option to and he was fed haylage as that was what the yard fed. He only got token feed. But I also found that the key was and still is exercise. Obviously took it slowly at first as he was straight out of a field and I was very nervous novice, but now he is worked 6 days a week and it is proper work. Vet and RI says he is in medium work with a wide variety. I now don't have to worry about what he eats in terms of weight gain, even on spring grass. He just does so much exercise that it seems to keep the weight off.
 
This is our next project, it took months and months to get her to this weight. She came out of work in July due to my health problems and in just one month she piled on a huge amount of weight. She is the first proper cob I have had, and is certainly an easy keeper. It is going to take ages to slim her off again and just last night I was warned about being very careful with her, the smallest hint of lami could see the end of her.

She has started again this week, the girth barely did up on her and I had to let her stop on one of the hills to get her breath back. She is not good enough to show, but if she was there is no way she would be able to canter around even a small ring.

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^^ and she's still far thinner than most of the show cobs!

Could some one please explain why these supposedly fit horses are really sweaty when their saddle is removed despite having hardly done any work?
 
Perfect_Pirouette said:
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! I want to squish him and kiss him :D
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and he is so soft he would enjoy every minute of it. He may look like a big macho horse under tack (he was a stallion until he was 8, not in my ownership) but in reality he is as daft as a brush.
 
AdorableAlice said:
This is our next project, it took months and months to get her to this weight. She came out of work in July due to my health problems and in just one month she piled on a huge amount of weight. She is the first proper cob I have had, and is certainly an easy keeper. It is going to take ages to slim her off again and just last night I was warned about being very careful with her, the smallest hint of lami could see the end of her.

She has started again this week, the girth barely did up on her and I had to let her stop on one of the hills to get her breath back. She is not good enough to show, but if she was there is no way she would be able to canter around even a small ring.

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See, that's what I would call a "rounded cob", and looks fit enough to do most ridden work in this pic, if not maybe hunting fit. If I saw this in the ring (and, no it's not a show cob) I would certainly consider it over the puffing, wheezing wobbletons that are normally presented.
 
Cortez said:
See, that's what I would call a "rounded cob", and looks fit enough to do most ridden work in this pic, if not maybe hunting fit. If I saw this in the ring (and, no it's not a show cob) I would certainly consider it over the puffing, wheezing wobbletons that are normally presented.
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This is her the day I bought her July 2012. She would be at least 50kg heavier today after her enforced lay off. So frustrating to have to start all over again.
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I don't show, I'd rather watch the grass grow but they are definitely mostly fat.

that palomino welsh is disgustingly fat :/ And AA your horse is stunning! What an adorable silly face in that last pic of him! :biggrin3:

This is my welsh D at her 'perfect' weight-can just see her ribs and easily feel them though she always has a neck and as you can see an 'apple' bum. Currently in the process of getting her back in work as due to a few yard changes and lack of time and summer grazing she's ballooned a bit.
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In this pic she weighs even less than in the above and still looks ok to me-though I was told she was too thin..(but my physio was absolutely delighted with her weight!)
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adorablealice said:
this is our next project, it took months and months to get her to this weight. She came out of work in july due to my health problems and in just one month she piled on a huge amount of weight. She is the first proper cob i have had, and is certainly an easy keeper. It is going to take ages to slim her off again and just last night i was warned about being very careful with her, the smallest hint of lami could see the end of her.

She has started again this week, the girth barely did up on her and i had to let her stop on one of the hills to get her breath back. She is not good enough to show, but if she was there is no way she would be able to canter around even a small ring.

martha26thapril13036_zps0410b7d7.jpg
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lush horse!!!!!!
 
I agree with the fat show horses, what I don't get is having had a native who can put on weight at the slight sniff of grass, is why anyone would deliberately put weight on their horse?! Also , when my boy was too fat he struggled to canter round with a showing class, so how do these people do it?!
 
I haven't read all the thread, I can guess the majority of posts though ;)

Well here goes- fat or fit? (Importantly for showing, they are never going to run the national or pop round Bramham are they ;))
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These are two (non-pro) pics I've picked at random...
 
Top one looks spot on to me, bottom one a bit better covered but not wobbly so I would say both in nice condition. Look as though they could canter round happily too.
 
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