Condition scoring question

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WishfulThinker

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Ok, I just wanted to check this with you all.

Beau isn't thin, nor is he over weight and he has quite a muscled back end (hes a cob so its on the large and powerful side). I always thought that if they had a dip between the hip bones that meant they were over weight, and that if you can feel bones they are thin.

I cant see his ribs, but I can feel them if I feel and he has that line that runs down the end of belly to stifle -especially after working.
I can feel his hip, and i personally think it feel bony, and on his croup I can feel the bones there and there is a wee dip in the middle of them and you can see/feel his spine (but I wouldn't say any more or less than any horse on the yard)

So is he over weight if it is a negative dip but I cant see his ribs?
 
I don't think that the 'apple bum' theory can apply to all horses. At her fittest and leanest Amy always had that gutter down her bum - and there was no way at that point in her life that she was in any way overweight. She too was a little cob.

So no, from what you describe, he doesn't sound overweight to me at all.
 
Unfortunately don't have a recent one.

This is the most recent that I have and he is a bit thinner than this now:

DSC01117.jpg
 
When you do a condition score, you need to score all the relevant areas and work out an average from those figures. Some horses do have an apple shaped bum, but if he is a score of 3 everywhere else, and a 4 on his bum, you would still say he was a 3, if you see what I mean.

He looks fine to me in the pic anyway
smile.gif
 
Ok, I'll stop worrying, as personally I would have him a tad leaner as I know whats in store come spring (Muzzle time!), but I worry that he looks thin right now as he doesn't get that much feed (well its enough for his tummy to work properly - folk at yard don't seem to get that a HUGE bucket of feed is going to be wasted and needs to be split ans it looks like I feed him nothing).
 
With the rib thing, we were taught (by ILPH) that you should feel the ribs in the upper third of the barrell, so probably above where your saddle flap ends. As others have said its an average score. The crest is usualy the first place they put on weight and the last place they loose, then the bum, then the shoulders and back. From your photo he looks great, so probably being a little leaner at this time would be no bad thing as the grass will be coming through within the next months or so.

When I was doing my curse we were asked to condition score several cobs - we were all wrong, we all said 3's - they looked great and they were all over weight!. Current advice is that its healthier to be slightly under weight than over..
 
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