Obese horses and ponies- slight rant

[bex1984]

The Blue Cross's new poster, featuring a coloured cob and the words 'looking well?', followed by a statement saying he is 150kg over weight has appeared at my yard.

Last night people were discussing how they didn't think the horse looked overweight, which I think really highlights the main issue. People don't know what fit, slim, horses and ponies look like. I constantly get comments that Murphy looks really slim - he's almost the right weight now but I'd like a bit more off him.

I think that on an average livery yard, at least 75% of the horses, if not a lot more, will be overweight. In general we are totally out of touch with what a horse should look like, and in particular, how native ponies should live.

To say a horse is a 'good doer', or 'it's just the way he is' or 'he's supposed to look like that' is just not good enough. It is not impossible to get the weight off a chubby horse or pony, but there's no excuses, it's hard work. If it means you have to move yards, or get up earlier to ride, or set up electric fencing in the p*ssing rain, then that's what you have to do.

Now is the perfect time of year to get cracking with it. two years ago this week, Murphy started his diet. He's now over 150kg lighter, has gone down a rug size, and has gone down through 3 saddles. If your horse is looking porky, get it on a diet!! Now!

 

[stencilface]

I think this also adds to the feeling people get when they see 'skinny' horses abroad and think the owners are cruel - yes they may be skinnier than your average UK horse, but then most horses probably are skinnier than your average UK horse!

 

[chrissyc]

yeah you know how much i agree with you , by the way i think your boy is looking gorgeous lately

my vet paid sun a compliment as thought he needed to lose a 1cm off weight off his belly yesterday afternoon

until he had his sexy new clip from his aunty and he changed his mind and said he is good as he is

 

[ISHmad]

We are so used to seeing fat horses that yes, when they are the correct weight they really can appear too slight. Really worrying trend isn't it? I struggle to recall one fat pony when I was a kid, we were always too busy riding them for them to get fat. But these days they seem to be everywhere.

 

[Montyforever]

Mystis perfect as shes is

But she was v.chubby when i got her!!
Honeys piled on the pounds after a few weeks off even tho her feed was cut down.
Shes gotta shock coming this weekend!!

 

[ester]

It has become the norm.

I do it myself I will look at someones horse and think they maybe look a bit lean but tend to pull myself up on it and say actually they look fine and I would prefer them like that!

I do think that compared to 'back in the day'- that I dont remember

most horses are doing a lot less work, less frequently than they used to and IME work is the key to keeping the weight off. Thats what I told Frank when I got him out of bed to ride at 6.30am 'think of the calories

' I think he likes me really.

 

[stencilface]

[ QUOTE ]
Thats what I told Frank when I got him out of bed to ride at 6.30am 'think of the calories

' I think he likes me really.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think my horse is only capable of blinking, eating and pooing at that time in the morning - think he'd lie down if I dare try to ride him!

 

[JDChaser]

I also hate seeing overweight horses and ponies. I work with racehorses and have an ex-racer myself who is still very nearly race fit! so overweight horses and ponies always make me gasp in comparison to the thoroughbreds i spend most of my time with. There's plenty of overweight horses on my livery yard, but the owners just don't see it. They often gasp themselves if a hint of rib shows on my horse, thinking this means he's underweight - it doesn't!

 

[pottamus]

I totally agree and also have (had) a horse that is a 'good doer'. I always struggled to get his weight down to below the point where he had no slight gutter to his bum or loose the padding behind his shoulders...even though he has lost 90kg since I have had him.
I am of the club that was getting up at 5am throughout the spring and summer to ride before work, moving electric tape every day in all weather and sourcing year old hay wherever possible....well let me tell all those with fatty horses...it was NOT enough!
He got laminitis in late Aug when he was being ridden 6 days a week and has only recently been given the all clear to start strip grazing again. He was very poorly during box rest as he got so depressed and fed up he stopped eating on and off for some weeks.
The result is a horse that has shed serious weight to the point where he has lost all excess weight and his ribs are clearly visable through a winter coat and looks a bit tucked up if I am honest...BUT my vet says I am to maintain this weigth as this is his ideal weigth!!!! A hard sight to come to terms with I can tell you.
My OH was horrified when he saw him after not having been over for a few weeks whilst he was poorly in the stable...but the vet assures me this is how he needs to stay all year.

 

[K27]

I don't like seeing overweight horses it's not good for their wellbeing and also their joints- horses need regular consistent work and management and not "kill em with kindness"! - My horses are doers and I monitor their weights closely, I prob should weigh tape them, but I really have been working on their fitness levels and been getting them fit over the summer as if they were going eventing and by now they are fitter than ever with shiny coats! I write down their feed amount and hay on a board and if they have been doing less the hard feeds get decreased(not that they are on that much anyway), and all of their hay is measured out too.

 

[MontyandZoom]

The classic on my yard is 'I've upped his feed since he is so thin I can feel his ribs"

You're supposed to be able to feel their ribs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MrMeldrew]

IMO you should be able to just see thier ribs too

 

[BayJosie]

Couldnt agree with you more.

Recently, we saw some horses from another yard and someone said 'oh my god they all look absolutely starved'
No. those horses look perfect, I said. It's our horses that are overweight. When Josie came to me she was so fat and when I was getting her weight down (as advised by A VET) I swear people were putting things in her feed behind my back becuase they thought I was starving her.

It's so irratating.

 

[minkymoo]

I totally agree. This is going to be really controversial but in a recent horse magazine there was a big ILPH thing about obesity, a few pages on a story about a mare that got stuck in a bog and she was a fat horse. You could plainly see it.

I know I am going to get gyp for that, but then isn't what this is about? What is considered acceptable and what is considered fat. My opinion was that she was too fat and if that was my horse, I would be horrified if I saw my horse look like that.

 

[SnowPhony]

Urgh don't get me started on fat horses. I took on a fat highland earlier this year who's owner had him on a ten acre field, was giving him hay and hard feed all through the summer even though he had been out of work for 2 years!! Disgusting. How he never got laminitis I will never know!

Mental. Some people shouldn't be allowed horses.

 

[Rowreach]

Here goes, I've been longing to say this for a while:-

You only have to look at the showing pages in Horse & Hound to see humungous horses with titchy looking riders on board with their legs practically stuck out sideways because they can't get them round the horse, festooned with sashes and ribbons and receiving large shiny trophies, because that is what judges like to see

And in the same magazine we are told that obesity is a huge welfare concern.

Do you think I will get struck off now?

 

[SnowPhony]

Now that is very true. Makes me so angry seeing 'show condition' horses who are, quite frankly, grossly overweight.

 

[minkymoo]

Well it really annoys me too actually. What are people going to think? Fat does not mean healthy be it horses, dogs or children.

I hate it. Hypocritical IMO, did think I was going to get shot down for my fat mare comment though! Phew!

 

[Charmaine18]

[ QUOTE ]
Here goes, I've been longing to say this for a while:-

You only have to look at the showing pages in Horse & Hound to see humungous horses with titchy looking riders on board with their legs practically stuck out sideways because they can't get them round the horse, festooned with sashes and ribbons and receiving large shiny trophies, because that is what judges like to see

And in the same magazine we are told that obesity is a huge welfare concern.

Do you think I will get struck off now?

[/ QUOTE ]

I absolutely agree, it drives me insane! Scooby is still obese, but he's thinner than he was when he arrived a month ago. The poor animal was so uncomfortable - not only was he horribly unfit and the slightest exertion made him puff like a train, but he was also a hairy cob wearing a heavy-weight, full necked turnout rug all day in a very mild autumn!

He must have been sweltering - the sweat on him was disgusting.

We're going to have him slim and perfect in time for show season, I hope! I will not be seen dead with him at a show if he's still all wobbly and gross.

 

[katie_and_toto]

bex1984 - Agreed!
Toto piles weight on so quickly in summer, and it can be very difficult to slim him down again. However with soaked hay, bringing him in from grazing earlier in the evening and upping his work, overall he's lost 50kg and looks really good right now.

I think some people are unwilling to put in the hard work needed

 

[MrsMozart]

[ QUOTE ]
Here goes, I've been longing to say this for a while:-

You only have to look at the showing pages in Horse & Hound to see humungous horses with titchy looking riders on board with their legs practically stuck out sideways because they can't get them round the horse, festooned with sashes and ribbons and receiving large shiny trophies, because that is what judges like to see

And in the same magazine we are told that obesity is a huge welfare concern.

Do you think I will get struck off now?

[/ QUOTE ]

I concur!

So we'll both be gettin struck off....

 

[Ginny24]

Don't even get me started on fat horses!! Its one of my pet hates.
Everytime I see a fat horse for sale, on forums etc. I cringe. People even think these horse look 'good' and 'healthy'.



You see obese horses on Horsemart with 'gentle', 'plod' etc. in the description - I bet half of them wouldn't be if they could blumming move without having to catch their breath.

If you can't be bothered caring for a good doer then DON'T GET ONE!! Its doesn't take a genius to work that out !!

Anyway, I will stop before I start offending.

 

[Coffee_Bean]

Ah funny you should mention this- I know the horse on the poster (have ridden him actually

) and as you say, he's the perfect example of not looking HUGE but still massively overweight. He looks fab now and is enjoying himself much more now he's not a fatty bum

 

[Moggy in Manolos]

I am totally with you bex, I think alot of peoples ideas are warped about what is healthy, I have had plenty of comments about my girl being slim, I think she is normal as does the vet. Some of the horses on my yard are plain obese but the owners just seem oblivious to it! I just hope their horse don't pay the price for their ignorance

 

[Ranyhyn]

I agree. It took a lammi scare to wake me up, now I'm constantly managing Ed's weight, I got him a sharer, he gets worked 5 days a week and I want him skinny going into summer

 

[PennyJ]

I can't tell you how proud I was of the praise I got from the vet last week when he came out for annual jabs particularly regarding my grey gelding. My two are pretty much spot on this year - they are in training for the NF point to point and have been doing a few of the drifts - so they are slim, fit and healthy. His reaction was simply "wow, what have you been doing to get him looking so good? I'm now in the rather weird position of worrying he doesn't lose much more weight otherwise he will be thin and he's just happy he gets as much as he wants to eat (that's a lot by the way)

At his fattest, August 2006 ironically winning a class at the NF Breed Show, definitely in "show" condition

October/November 2009

 

[WishfulThinker]

I think folk think I am obsessed with my horse being slim. Im not as its more to be with him being HEALTHY!

He was about 200kg over weight when I got him - so fat a XXW saddle and a 56" girth just fitted him.
Took me 9 months for him to lose the weight over the winter and spring.

I have had him down to a Wide saddle with a 48" girth and I think that he was in great shape then - but some would have said he was too thin! But we were doing lots of lessons and lots of jumping. He had about 5-8 ridden hours a week and at least 2 of them were strenous (as in he sweated up lots!) like a jumping lesson or focused schooling:

He is a cob x shire.
This is him just back from loan where he did get V porky:

This is him in July 2008:
He looks like a differet hore - that is him at a safe and healty weight but I was told he still needed some 'condition! If I am honest I do think that he could have been slimmer still/fitter but for a cob in summer I was pleased:

And this is what I would say was a very good weight/fitness. From when he had been doing lots of proper work with a loanee a few years ago. I think how healthy he is is evident from having that shiney a coat at the beginning of feb!