Grrr! Mild rant, horse's weight.

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Cruiseonamiro

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Just a quick rant, basically my young horse is event fit, and everyone keeps telling me he's skinny! It's driving me absolutely mental because i'm not neglecting him at all... he's not on much grass, so I give him hay on the basis that I can monitor his intake. He gets half a scoop of mix, half a scoop of oats, and handful of chaff and supplements twice a day - you can see two ribs, and he's fit as a fiddle. It just drives me mental that people keep talking about me, saying that my horse is thin. He's not, he's fit, and there's a difference! Grr!
 
Ignore them I would love ours to be in that condition. Most are okay, one is definitely overweight so we are having to bring in at night, feed soaked hay etc. Problem is we have got way too used to seeing fat horses in the UK and think that is the norm.
 
It's because everone is used to seeing fat horses. People have forgotten what horses should look like. I would much rather see a rib than an overweight horse, it's just as cruel in my opinion as being too thin.
 
Exactly! And horse's weight is relative to the job they do as well - it's not going to be too bad to take a fat horse hacking, but one which is overweight and eventing most weekends is going to suffer! Problem is, then you get a bit of a complex about it and start feeding up... which I am NOT going to be doing.
 
No don't do that, I know it's tempting. I had this when my TB came out of winter, someone remarked how he'd 'dropped off'. Bloody cheek, he looks great and she's used to looking at a very overweight sec D. Tell them to pi** off.
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Just tell them he's not too thin - their's are just too fat!

Missled is right - many people have lost sight of what correct condition is - they see so many fat and obese horses, esp in the show ring where they should know better, that it become the 'norm'

We, as a livery, work hard to keep the weight off our horses - a bunch of good doers. One novice owner in particular has been 'converted' and now likes to see her horses slightly on the lean side - orginally her cob was just obese, mostly because at her previous yard she had been told that's what the horse should look like
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Yet we regularly get told they're 'too thin'. 'They don't have enough grass' We need to 'start feeding them up' and more of that rubbish.
 
Don't worry I'm sure your horses are in lovely condition, you can see that from your sigi!

Have they ever been to the races and had a good look at the at the race horses, looked at the weight and immaculate condition that they are in? its because they are racing fit, or course you are going to see there ribs, of course they are going to be tucked up behind (like whippet) this does not mean the horse is half starved, let alone it being a TB that are slender equines anyway, in fact the quality of food they receive may be far better than most of our neddies receive on a daily basis.

Marathon runners, sprinters etc you see there ribs, perfectly toned stomachs, but they have to eat to fuel there sport, you don't see top athletes running around with a couple of spare tires do you.

Its the same with eventing, every horse I've seen you can just about see there ribs, their not underweight and the superb condition that there kept in is blatantly obvious, its staring you in the face lol.

Even my non horsey OH knew that when someone said at a horse trials that the horses were thin and explained its the breed and work they do.
 
I am on a yard witha lot of show hunters and it makes my new horse look soo thin, I knew he lacked conditioned well I thought I did until yesterday when the vet came.

I mumbled something about his weight and he said that condition and weight wise he wouldn't want to see him with much more, what he lacked was muscle.

We have a hang up on seeing horses slightly on the lighter side and are so used to seeing hunter types which I suppose are slightly too well covered.

We have a well known and respected show producer on the yard who says that our horses whilst they are at the correct weight would not be looked at favourably in the ridden show hunter classes as they are not weighty enough. My friend has a lovely fit gypsy cob who is so well schooled and she recently went into a county show and did very well, the judge explained she would have been placed higher if her cob was fatter, she has now stopped showing at this level because she would prefer to have a healthy horse than a fat one. Insane !!
 
God it's so annoying -- people thing you are neglecting them and can't see that actually in keeping their horses fat they are the ones who are abusing their horses. I hate being talked about too
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Just send your friends over to one of our polocrosse games, our horses have to be superfit like your eventer to do the job they do. If they are carrying too much weight they can't perform properly. Ignore theam, your horse looks super in the photos you posted in the PG.
 
I have the opposite problem. People keep saying how well my boy looks whilst I think he is definitely a bit chubby. He is fit and he is muscled but it wouldn't hurt him to lose a few pounds (or kilos)
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I agree with this too. I would much rather see a horse slightly undeweight than overweight any day.
 
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