Overweight event riders- Discuss

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I would just like to add that latest studies have shown that 15-20% of horse own body weight is a "manageable" weight for the average horse to carry..............breeds such as TB's, arabians and warmbloods or their crosses (recommended limit 20%)

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That is the best piece of news anyone has given me for a long time......... I have stressed since I bought him that I am too heavy for Bob (15.2hh TB, approx 450kg) but I am well within the 15% margin
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However having taken him XC schooling last week and discovered how disgustingly unfit I am, I am also on a diet/exercise regieme before we start proper eventing!
 
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Well given that Hen weighs near enough 750kg, I can afford to at least double my weight
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Woooohooo, I am hitting the Easter Eggs hard (they're on special offer now Easter is over
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)

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Sainsburys sold out last Thursday - hence the fact I only had my one bunny
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Kissing spines are a tricky one as they can be hereditary, personally the way we ride them now forcing them into often false outlines can be very damaging especially on young horses that are not physically able to cary themselves in this way. Also horses that are pushed out of their natural way of going. The thing with subtle problems like kissing spines (in its first few stages) is the fact that often people (the owners or riders) don't listen to the horse, so when it starts bucking due to pain they put it down to a behavioral problem, and send the horses off to one of these 'problem horse dealers' for more intensive work which furthers the problem. If you have a good horse and it changes it's behavior there is something causing it pain, a good horses doesn't go bad just like that there is always a reason.
Better diagnosis is allowing us to be able to understand the problem. I had a horse that was born with one of his vertebrae impinging on another this problem worsened with working him out of his natural high head carriage and trying to work him deep over the back like vets told us to do. His natural way of going was out behind and hollow because of this kissing spine so we had Newmarket operate on him and he had that one removed and was amazing after that we got on YR dressage teams and did everything with no other problems untill he went mad in the field and damaged his hock joint beyond repair poor old boy. Operations etc are improving all the time so it is not the end of the world if your horse gets a problem like this. I agree that youngsters should not be ridden until they are ready. I hate to see them being ridden under 4yrs, by all means get them going on long reins etc, they have to learn the ability of their paces but i did mention earlier that warmbloods do not mature till they are 7 in their skeletal structure this often causes striation on the long bones which apparently feel a bit like growing pains no one knows what causes them they are a bit of an odd one but people get them too. If you have a rider on top it is going to be much harder for the horse to cope thats why i hate the YH dressage classes the 4yr old classes are ok but then when they have to do movements like half pass by the time they are six it seems a bit daft to me! Thats another debate in itself.
From my own personal research in Europe kissing spines seemed to be in every horse skeleton i looked at, these horses are mostly believed to be war horses (14hh-15.2hh) and were overloaded (over 20% of the horses body weight) with their riders in armour supplies etc It is not found in wild populations, as these animals would not survive well in the wild and thus wouldn't be able to breed. Trying to find some known riding horses in archaeology contexts that were not warhorses to compare them. Bamboo Spine is a a bit weird, it is believed to have a lot to do with repetative strain and irritation of the periosteum (surface of the bones) Ossification of the ligaments around the spine, ossification of the cartillage and basically fusing the spine together so that only the central nerves inside are not fused hence the term bamboo. But it is certainly caused by over loading the horse with too much weight for long periods of time normal bone turnover is 10 days so the above case you are talking years of bearing heavy loads. As soon as i go back to uni next week i will get them pics up of the modern cases, but for those doubters of the archaeology all my work is focused on the middle ages when your TB's and sports horse breeding was first being manipulated our horses today are aproduct of these past populations they hold alot of answers to modern issues.
 
fascinating KLM, thanks so much for all that info.
totally agree about young horses being worked too much too soon. it makes me cringe to see a totally together 4 year old doing a beautiful dressage test on the bit - HOW much work must it have done already to be that well trained at that young age?
and as for 3 yr old dressage horses with huge extended trot being flashed around under saddle... words fail me. these end up crippled or dead, they rarely make it to maturity i've been told by quite a few very experienced people.
i had a conversation recently with a very experienced horse person, who reckoned that the rise in popularity of the wbs compared to id x tbs (esp for eventing) was partly because the wbs mature quicker, so profit can be made faster etc. obv wbs aren't as mature physically as they seem...
 
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