Conditon score my horse

Leo Walker

Leo Walker

Well-Known Member
Joined
19 July 2013
Messages
12,384
Location
Northampton
Visit site
I know you cant do it properly from a photo :) But based on the photos what do you think? Hes 14.1hh ish and the bloke holding him is 6ft3 which makes the midget cob look even smaller, but he is still a midget! I have caused a bit of drama on here before when I posted about showing him and was told resolutely he was a native type not a traditional, when in reality he was absolutely a big stonking traditional, just my photos made him look weedy

Hes got almost 10" of bone in front and 11" behind, but isnt as wide as he should be to ride. He wears an XW flat treed saddle but really doesnt feel like a lot of very flat backed cobs I've ridden. You could set a dinner for 6 on his back though :lol: Hes a lot of horse in a very small package and I am a terrible photographer, so it might be misleading!

Hes currently in a reasonable level of work. Hes worked 4 days a week by the yard, mainly lots of steady hacking with the hunt horses and I bimble about 2 or 3 times a week. He was out of work for 4 months and has been at his new yard for about 8 weeks or so. Hes now doing the odd canter and has done some trotting poles and tiny cross poles. So hes getting there fitness wise but hes only 6yr old and has never been fit before so its a work in progress. I'm thrilled with what they are doing with him and how well he is coming on. Hes a changed horse since he started working for a living :) He happily hacks out for an hour of walk and trot with the big horses without breaking a sweat, and having tiny stumpy legs thats no mean feat! I'm 5ft5 and a bit and my legs are longer than his :lol:

Dont worry about being harsh, I promise not to flounce! However having posted pics on Facebook and being a bit surprised by the responses more than once I'm intrigued to what you all think :)

12884461_10153610429443667_574533898_n.jpg


12803060_10153547205338667_937689685384135444_n.jpg


12717503_10153518964613667_1284553215403236650_n.jpg
 
I would say if your scoring from 1 to 5 he's a 4 to the top end of a 4 not just sneaking in .
But you really have to see a horse move in the flesh .
 
Looks like a 'very nearly 4' I was having this very conversation in my head about mine this morning. She is a 4 right now and it's crept up on me!

What did FB say about him?

What a beauty he is xx
 
Last edited:
yep. needs to lose weight before going out to grass, I like to see a rib or two, all I can see is a great big bum.
Nice tail pulling btw, but personally I would cut two inches off it, though this may be controversial.
And he has nice colour markings, evn though this doe not affect his performance.
Keep the weight off him as both in the long term and in the short term it will help him, you never know there might be a TB hidden in there lol.
He's not gross, but start weekly weigh tape, aim to lose a kilo a week, as he needs to lose at least 15 weigh tape kilos imho, then re assess your targets
 
Last edited:
Such a smart chap. And, yes I do agree with evyone else. But he's now 8 weeks in to his fitness and once the faster work is steadily upped you should start seeing some 'proper' weight loss.

What are you feeding?
 
I thought 4.......agree that is a lovely tail! What did fb say? I'm having mine weighed on a weighbridge thing tomorrow. I find it hard to judge correct weight now, my cob seems quite fat to me, no visible rib when moving and an apple bottom etc, but other livery's tell me that he is fine. We shall see!!
 
I think he looks pretty good....no crest, can see the line of the shoulder, no fat pad at top of tail, has a waist. The only slightly over bit might be his bum but I can't really see if the crease is a 'v' shape or a 'u'.
I find most cobs, especially if young have to be quite thin in order to actually see ribs, so I normally just feel for them.
I'd put him at a high 3.
 
I would say a mid 4. If he were a TB type I would say more wrong side of 4, but for a cob just a mid 4. I find cobs look too heavy as they are naturally stocky anyway.

If it were autumn I would be very happy with his weight, but with spring looming I would want him to diet (sorry).
 
He looks v smart and I'm sure the fitness programme is doing a grand job. Id agree he is still on the plump side so could do with dropping some more weight. I'm struggling with mine too so he's now on soaked hay and muzzled already.
 
I'm starting to think I'm going mad! With the exception of one person on FB, everyone thinks he looks fine. I posted the same pics in a FB group and got a ridiculous load of responses mainly saying hes lovely, hes perfect weight blah, blah, blah. Just had a similar conversation with my YO who also doesnt think hes fat.

He is fat! Hes less fat, but the tape shows him as going up 10kgs from last week. The weight gain is whats worrying me. I'm not sure how its happened as he has been worked HARD this week?! I had a really good look and feel of him today, his front and back end are very muscular, no fat pads or really any excess weight. His back feels relatively good as well. But I have to really push to feel his ribs and his belly is too big.

He gets limited hay and then has to eat straw when thats gone, a tiny token handful of nuts and thats it. Hes been out for 2 hours today, at the front, marching along with loads of trotting. Hes gone to bed very tired this afternoon!
 
I would def say a 4 - if it were me (and I will be in this position soon as hunting has finished and I too have a coloured cob who seems to inhale calories from fresh air!!) I would start muzzling him now and try and get some fat off before we get lots of grass. It's a ****** having a good doer - the miles I did last summer on mine and he was muzzled and he was still a fat toad. I think all you can do is be brutal on the muzzle front and keep racking up the marching miles!! And don't be fooled that NAF Slim would help (just in case you see it for sale). It does nothing!!!
 
That weight gain is worrying especially this time of year. I'd be cutting out the straw as it can be high or higher in sugar/starch than hay and also soaking the hay.
 
If he's working hard he will be putting on muscle which will make him look stockier...if the bum is muscle then what's the problem?
10 kgs on a weight tape is hardly something to worry about, they are highly inaccurate. Put the tape in a slightly different position and you will get a different reading, or the horse may puff himself out against it.
You say he has no fat pads. His belly doesn't look especially big to me. As for ribs, well sometimes they are very hard to feel on cobs. When I got my little cob he was quite underweight having just completed his driving training...he looked like a show pony with thick legs but it was still hard to feel his ribs and they certainly didn't show, despite the fact that his spine was visible.
 
cobgoblin said:
If he's working hard he will be putting on muscle which will make him look stockier...if the bum is muscle then what's the problem?
10 kgs on a weight tape is hardly something to worry about, they are highly inaccurate. Put the tape in a slightly different position and you will get a different reading, or the horse may puff himself out against it.
You say he has no fat pads. His belly doesn't look especially big to me. As for ribs, well sometimes they are very hard to feel on cobs. When I got my little cob he was quite underweight having just completed his driving training...he looked like a show pony with thick legs but it was still hard to feel his ribs and they certainly didn't show, despite the fact that his spine was visible.
Click to expand...

I know the weight tape is wildly inaccurate for him, but it does give me a point of reference to keep a check on him, and thats all its used for, monitoring :)

The yard are going to start pushing him a bit more now hes done a reasonable amount of steady work, and overall I am thrilled with him. I'm just a bit unnerved as he was losing weight and toning up and I assumed the work and diet would keep it going that way, but now he seems to have gone the other way a little bit.

But mainly I just wanted to confirm that I wasnt losing the plot as almost no one else can see a problem
 
I'd say he is definitely a 4 and I'd want weight off him, particularly at this time of year. But your feeding regime sounds sensible and I think when he starts faster work it will be easier to keep him trim. I find that is the case with my good doer pony.
 
Hi FrankieCob I love your posts! they are always interesting to read and have you noticed that we all look and reply to you--great member on this forum--more posts PLEASE X
 
FrankieCob said:
I'm starting to think I'm going mad! With the exception of one person on FB, everyone thinks he looks fine. I posted the same pics in a FB group and got a ridiculous load of responses mainly saying hes lovely, hes perfect weight blah, blah, blah. Just had a similar conversation with my YO who also doesnt think hes fat.

He is fat! Hes less fat, but the tape shows him as going up 10kgs from last week. The weight gain is whats worrying me. I'm not sure how its happened as he has been worked HARD this week?! I had a really good look and feel of him today, his front and back end are very muscular, no fat pads or really any excess weight. His back feels relatively good as well. But I have to really push to feel his ribs and his belly is too big.

He gets limited hay and then has to eat straw when thats gone, a tiny token handful of nuts and thats it. Hes been out for 2 hours today, at the front, marching along with loads of trotting. Hes gone to bed very tired this afternoon!
Click to expand...

You're not going mad - he's a lucky pony to have an owner with sense. That said, if he's definitely less fat than you know he was, but also heavier, then some or all of that 10kg could be muscle. Keep it up and good luck.
 
FrankieCob said:
I'm starting to think I'm going mad! With the exception of one person on FB, everyone thinks he looks fine. I posted the same pics in a FB group and got a ridiculous load of responses mainly saying hes lovely, hes perfect weight blah, blah, blah. Just had a similar conversation with my YO who also doesnt think hes fat.

He is fat! Hes less fat, but the tape shows him as going up 10kgs from last week. The weight gain is whats worrying me. I'm not sure how its happened as he has been worked HARD this week?! I had a really good look and feel of him today, his front and back end are very muscular, no fat pads or really any excess weight. His back feels relatively good as well. But I have to really push to feel his ribs and his belly is too big.

He gets limited hay and then has to eat straw when thats gone, a tiny token handful of nuts and thats it. Hes been out for 2 hours today, at the front, marching along with loads of trotting. Hes gone to bed very tired this afternoon!
Click to expand...

IMO fb is all about telling you what you want to hear, I'm no expert, but to me he looks overweight, as he gets fitter and muscles up, he should look slimmer, hill work is very good for building muscle at walk and trot, he is lovely by the way
 
I'm another who'd put him at a mid 4, although he's not massive and I cant see any visible fat pads from the photos at this time of year I'd like to be able to see a bit of rib and the dip in his bum would worry me a bit. Although with cobs I understand some just have a naturally apple shaped bottom, is that correct?
He looks very smart either way and it sounds like he has a decent workload currently so I wouldn't worry too much unless you find he is continuing to get bigger.
 
The problem i find is that to us, he looks a 4 from those photos. But he is a cob. They will never look like a tb, no matter how skinny they are. Body scoring is based on more fine equines, i don't think it works for cobs or heavy animals.
 
I would say a low 4 if that makes sense? Which has made me think mine might be a 5 in that case! Argh! I will have to post some pics and see what you all think.

I would disagree, equi, that you can't body score a cob/heavy. It is based on whether you can see bones, or fat pads, and cobs have these, just the same as any lightweight horse. Think of the poor little irish cobs that keep turning up emaciated - you can deffo body score them!

I downloaded an app on my phone called Horse BCS (Horse Body Condition Score) - it isn't the best, a bit clunky and slow, but I found it really useful when scoring my loan horse. Showed all the different areas to look at and feel, and what you should be looking for, tackling the whole body bit by bit. And you can take a photo of your horse and record the score for each area of the body, and obtain an average. It's the 1-10 system rather than the 1-5 we usually use but works just as well!
 
equi said:
The problem i find is that to us, he looks a 4 from those photos. But he is a cob. They will never look like a tb, no matter how skinny they are. Body scoring is based on more fine equines, i don't think it works for cobs or heavy animals.
Click to expand...

This is not so ,body scoring is not dependant on type .
 
You need to forget the back end on this one! Mine has been a three in the past, with ribs easily felt, and her back end didn't change one bit. I also know an event fit cob of very similar stature to this one and as a 2.5-3, she still has a cob bum (all the better for hugging).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top