How can this be the same pony!?

[TwyfordM]

Before

http://s967.photobucket.com/user/mo...0_14_53_55_Saved_Picture_zpssczwzrrk.jpg.html

Now

http://s967.photobucket.com/user/mo...oads/wp_ss_20160210_0006_zpsc1hgyrjw.png.html

After 7 years, colic twice, laminitis, a cushings diagnosis finally solving the puzzle. Slipping stifles, silly injuries and dramas worthy of a thoroughbred not a welshie we have got to this point
She's happy, healthy, bursting with energy and I think we've finally managed to get everything right for a long enough time for it to start paying off! Touch wood ....

 

[twiggy2]

Which Photo is the one of a pony you are happy with?

 

[TwyfordM]

Which Photo is the one of a pony you are happy with?

They should be direct links to the photos....?

 

[TwyfordM]

Here we go

Before

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Now

]

Obviously happy with her looking less like a whippet and more like a welsh pony!

 

[twiggy2]

Is her current weight not a concern?

 

[eahotson]

She is fine in first muscled in first photo,nicely muscled in second.Well done.

 

[Goldenstar]

Too fat for me in the second picture .

 

[twiggy2]

She is fine in first muscled in first photo,nicely muscled in second.Well done.

What does this mean?

She is far too fat for me in the second

 

[zigzag]

Second one far too overweight

 

[Gloi]

We've got two with Cushings and it's surprising how the things just thought of as 'starting to look old' resolve when the condition gets treated.

 

[MurphysMinder]

If she has Cushings I would personally want her slimmer than in the second photo. She looks to have quite a crest. Midway between the two pictures would be ideal for me.

 

[fatpiggy]

If she has Cushings I would personally want her slimmer than in the second photo. She looks to have quite a crest. Midway between the two pictures would be ideal for me.

Cushings or not, I would say if she was mine I wouldn't have her that well covered. Her neck is pretty huge now and she definitely has an appley bottom. I know how hard it is to get a good balance with native ponies, but I always err on the lighter side. The fat you see on the outside reflects the invisible fat on the inside.

 

[TwyfordM]

Can still feel ribs easily, try to remember her coat is incredibly thick so makes her look fatter than she is. Had vet out last week for check up for prascend and she has absolutely no concerns over her weight.
She had absolutely no muscle in the first picture! She had just gone out after a long period of complete box rest!!

Wont deny the neck though ..

 

[twiggy2]

Can still feel ribs easily, try to remember her coat is incredibly thick so makes her look fatter than she is. Had vet out last week for check up for prascend and she has absolutely no concerns over her weight.
She had absolutely no muscle in the first picture! She had just gone out after a long period of complete box rest!!

Wont deny the neck though ..

She looks to have a huge fat pad over he butt i the photo

 

[Bernster]

You'll have had the wind taken out of your sails with the replies above, so I won't anything about her current weight. Just wanted to say that I hope things improve and you have some illness free time to enjoy your horse, it sounds like you've had a rough time of it.

 

[Wagtail]

I am saying this from the bottom of my heart after sadly losing my horse of a lifetime a couple of years ago. Your mare has some dangerous fat pads now, just like my mare did before her cushings diagnosis. I thought she looked great at the time. I didn't 'see' her fat pads until it was too late and then despite three years of getting her weight down and fighting the recurring laminitis, I was forced to put her down. Seriously, your lovely mare needs to lose some weight.

 

[sarcasm_queen]

Might just be the angle, but that looks like one hell of a crest there. Very sweet looking pony though.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I am really glad that she's over all of her tribulations (I know what thats like!) and hope you can get to enjoy her this year. I do think she is too fat though, I have two Exmoors and I would be very concerned if they looked like that (ie cresty, fat pad over rump) especially this time of year.

If she's now up for ridden work I would be walking the legs off her hacking as much as possible-or ponying her off another.

 

[_HP_]

I'm sorry to say that I would actually prefer to see her like the first photo if she were mine especially coming into spring ☺

 

[lindsay1993]

This is my little cushings welshie Bonny. For me this is an ideal weight for her. This was taken late in the summer and she is about the same weight still now, just a heck of a lot more hairy!! She was only diagnosed in the summer after reccurent bouts of lami. I wouldn't like her any heavier than this going into spring. http://s1077.photobucket.com/user/l...82_3568591640970569646_n_zpslfthwdsg.jpg.html

 

[Orca]

My girl arrived with me so podgy, that she looked bum high. To this day, we aren't sure if her bum pad has reduced or whether she's grown an inch at the withers

It can be hard to strike a balance OP. It's taken a good two months to get my girls crest to *start* reducing and her shoulder pads reduced to the point we can now fit a saddle (they were that immense). It's wonderful that your girl is feeling spritely again and that must be a relief to you, after what you've been through with her but I would start working on her extra weight before the spring grass arrives. There is still time

 

[Llanali]

Although lacking in topline in the first picture, I too prefer that weight than her current weight; she's rather fat in my opinion.

I also want to say how pleased I am that she is coming out of woods now on terms of her health best wishes for it to continue. I'm having a hell of a time reducing daughters pony, who arrived with me at +375kg! So I do sympathize.

 

[TwyfordM]

I appreciate what you are saying but I do think its just the photo making her look worse than she is. She's on the CARE study so I keep a very close eye on her weight, I'm not denying she looks a little too well for this time of year though!

As far as exercise goes she's lunged in a pessoa or side reins at least 3 times a week in fairly hard work and she doesn't even sweat up. As well as being walked out inhand hillwork anywhere from 30mins-3hrs on the other days of the week plus out on a bare field on a hill with 3 other horses so keeps moving well.

Another photo taken at the same time ..

]

 

[bensababy]

Sorry if I come across patronising but please do not be so blasé about a "bare" field, my old boy was out on a bare field and caught it this time of the year, I assumed to my own fault that no grass = less risk - I couldn't have been more wrong.

 

[Wagtail]

She is a beautiful pony. I completely understand how her weight looks good to you. This is my mare shortly before she developed laminitis for the first time and was diagnosed with cushings. She'd been retired for three years because of a shoulder injury but was feeling so well and sprightly that I was considering working her again. I thought she looked a good weight back then. I certainly don't now! The arrow points to one of her fat pads (she had others) which you can also see though the picture is not that clear. But your pony has fat pads in the same place as my mare did.

I slimmed her down to this (a weight loss of 150kg):

 

[JFTDWS]

I appreciate what you are saying but I do think its just the photo making her look worse than she is. She's on the CARE study so I keep a very close eye on her weight, I'm not denying she looks a little too well for this time of year though!

As far as exercise goes she's lunged in a pessoa or side reins at least 3 times a week in fairly hard work and she doesn't even sweat up. As well as being walked out inhand hillwork anywhere from 30mins-3hrs on the other days of the week plus out on a bare field on a hill with 3 other horses so keeps moving well.

Another photo taken at the same time ..

]

This photo is equally concerning, looking particularly at the neck. People do have very skewed ideas about "good" condition these days - so many leisure horses are overweight, it's very easy to see things from a perspective which isn't really right.

Good luck with everything though. It doesn't sound like you've had the best time lately.

 

[sarcasm_queen]

Yeah, she still has a huge crest.
Our Welshie gets a HUGE crest just as the grass is coming through, and that's when we really have to start watching out for a resurgence of her laminitis. Just a heads up to keep an eye out

 

[eahotson]

If you are at all concerned having read the replies on here, call the vet who has obviously helped you care for your pony so well.If he/she is concerned ask their advice.If the vet not concerned don't worry.

 

[ycbm]

If you are at all concerned having read the replies on here, call the vet who has obviously helped you care for your pony so well.If he/she is concerned ask their advice.If the vet not concerned don't worry.

Send the pictures to them as well though. It wouldn't be the first vet who had missed things on a pony by looking down on them instead of at a side view.

I have to agree OP, having had an insulin resistant horse and seen another. She has a very worrying crest fat pad, and my friend's vet, supervising the starvation of her horse as treatment, told her that it didn't matter how thin the horse was, all the time that fat pad was present the mare would continue to produce too much insulin

Try squeezing it, a lot of EMS horses apparently find the fat pad painful and it shouldn't be.

 

[MDB]

She is a very lovely pony OP and I appreciate photos don't always show things as they really are. But, to me, in both 'after' pics she looks somewhat overweight, especially her necks looks very cresty. All the best though, I wish you well