For those that criticize apple bums.....

Kikke

Kikke

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Did you see the ultra healthy and fit Avebury and his beautiful apple bum?
I noticed it yesterday when watching Burghley.

I know it is also breed related but it is said far too often that a horse or pony with apple bum is fat and unhealthy!

Shows a horse and be fit and healthy (even when it is not a native) a have a lovely apple bum!
 
I didn't see him but I can confirm that my Westphalian Draft would have to be skeletal to not have an apple bum. She has been on a diet and I can feel/just about see her ribs but the apple is still obvious. It is a breed characteristic.
 
I'm sure I remember xenophon mentions a double bottom being a good thing when selecting a war horse - mainly because they were riding bareback, so didn't want a bony, thin horse!
 
Difference between a hard, muscular rump on a fit eventer and a horse whos health is being jeapordised because it is so obese.

I used to help with a Heinz 57 14.2hh pony that had an apple rump. We trained her well, to the point she qualified as an advanced endurance horse (which required passing 2 x 65km (40 mile) and 1 x 80km (50 mile) rides to get her advanced status). The vets sometimes took the mick out of her at the pre-ride vetting, but as they checked her over they found a hard, fit pony who NEVER failed an endurance ride. She carried her junior rider brilliantly, never giving in. A coin would have bounced off of that ponys rump, it was so hard with conditioned muscle. The fat blobbies who are this shape because of being obese are not in the same catagory. Many of them would loose them if they were in hard work.

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My Welshie's apple bum caused £800 of damage to a van while remaining unscathed apart from a singe mark on his winter coat. He was very fit at the time and I think he sensed it coming (van tried to pass us on a much too narrow stretch of road and side swiped us) tensed up his not inconsiderable muscles and bounced off. In fact I think his ample rump saved him as the van hit that rather than his legs thankfully.
 
My point is a lot of those that have the wobbly versions wouldn't have them at all if worked / fed appropriately.
 
pip6 said:
My point is a lot of those that have the wobbly versions wouldn't have them at all if worked / fed appropriately.
Click to expand...

True, but mainly depending on genetics, there are those who no matter how slim and fit will always have a 'problem area', just like humans.

My share horse is ridden far more and is much fitter (jumps, schools, hacks, competes - mostly just at local level - regularly) than my boy (happy hacker due to injury) and yet has much more of a belly. They're both fed exactly the same (just grass at the moment) and managed the same. If you were to look at the two and ask which was the sport horse and which was the happy hacker you'd get it wrong every time. Mine stays the same weight all year round, never changes whereas my share boy balloons with a bit of grass and loses it as soon as winter's here.
 
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