Overweight horses - would you report?

Spudlet

Spudlet

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Just following on from another thread - if you saw a horse that was hugely, massively fat, would you report it to the animal welfare charities?

We all know that fat is worse than thin, that being fat can lead to laminitis and long-term health problems, right? But - would you actually report it?

Am curious!

Oh, and yes - I would and in fact I have done so on one occasion, not that anything could come of it but wanted the owner to get some advice (which they did).
 
Yes i would having owned a overweight horse when i brought her and got the weight off it can be done yet some owners dont care or dont think the horse is fat. Before i left a yard that has many overweight horses on i told a women what i thought of her overweight cob (when she was away someone used a weight tape on him and ended up needing 2 as one didnt fit think it was around the 800 mark he was 16h cob type horse). Think more things need to be done for people to see how much damage they are doing to horses.

However i was told one of mine was overweight by horse charity when they were doing home visit for pony i have now got from them and the said horse that they classed as overweight soon as i took her rug off you could feel and see ribs and tucked in on back end just has a typical highland neck that makes you think she is big when she was not. So think the people who judge need to understand breeds and what weights they need or should be.
 
I would, but tbh I wouldn't know who to report to? When I have reported to the rspca in the past, nothing has come of it so I don't know if I would bother with them in the future.
I think we are much more used to seeing horses overweight, so even a fit horse can be seen as too skinny, even though I would consider it healthy and not fat! That said, I do struggle to keep the weight off my girl - I do prefer on the slimmer side of 'normal'. She is rather a good doer so fatty paddock and lots of exercise are the order of the day! Hard work for the both of us in this hot weather!
 
is there much point? Some of the fattest animals I've seen are show animals (some at the Highland show the other day were disgusting :( ) and their owners aren't going to take the blindest bit of notice of the RSPCA or whoever.
 
I did read an article (think it was in H&H actually) that having an overweight horse is actually a lot more damaging than having an underweight one. To the extent where critically neglected/skinny cases are actually easier to get healthy again than a grossly overweight animal. I can't stand seeing fat animals of any breed as I think its just cruel. So yes, I would report for sure!
 
Really depends on the situation! If it's fat because it's being neglected, chances are it's feet and teeth would be in a bit of a state too, in which case I'd report it.

If it was fat, but otherwise well looked after, I'd try and talk to the owner, saying something like "I had a horse who got to that sort of weight, and he got laminitis and was never ridden again, I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that" to try and scare them into slimming it down, I think reporting to the ILPH (or whatever it's called now) or the RSPCA would just get the owner's back up, and as the charities are fairly unlikely to do anything about it, might not be the best thing for the horse.
 
As the owner of a good doer, I would try to make sure that the owners were doing something about the excess weight before reportingh tbh. If it was a grossly overweight horse turned out 24/7 on good grazing then possibly yes, but if the horse was on poor grazing/strip grazing or being fed hay or muzzled then probably not. It could just be that the animal was turned out for a short period.

I get more queries about why my horse is kept off grass (strip grazing) and has 'please do not feed signs', I'm sure people think that I am being cruel (plenty of hay and high fibre feed!) and my paddock is beside a public footpath so open to scrutiny than people saying if she looks a bit fat,although her weight is about right at the moment. I think it is true that most non horsey people just don't recognise an overweight animal.
 
Oh, I agree, I think that people don't realise how harmful carrying too much weight can be for a horse! I think education is the best thing to sort this problem, and riding clubs and the pc could do something to make people aware that obesity is a real problem.
 
If it was reported to, say, the RSPCA do you think they would even aknowledge there was a problem?

When we reported a group of loose ponies, who'd wandered into the woods behind our fields a couple of years ago who had horrendously long feet, and looked like they hadn't been touched by humans for months, the officers who arrived were very un-knowlegable about anything equine, and we were pointing out specific problems that we could see at first glance.

An un-educated officer can't often tell the difference between an under nourished, thin horse, and a very old horse with natural muscle wastage. I wonder how many would even realise how dangerous it is for the horse to be morbidly obese?
 
If it was absolutely obese yes. I think part of the problem why so many horses seem to get into this state though these days is people just don't know how to condition score their horses and don't bother to learn and also I've discovered with the plethora of feed products out there for every scenario imaginable people aren't really knowledgeable about the basics of how much feed there horse should or shouldn't have. All the information is out there though if you need it and endless helplines, books, knowledgeable horse owners, etc for advice and info on weight management and feed products. And I don't know if other vets do it but mine, when I have my annual jabs they give you a condition score assessment for your horse (or maybe it's because I ask them to each time so I've got a second opinion and some advice). I know my horse is carrying excess weight at the moment and I'm fighting the battle of the bulge everyday with him but it's amazing the amount of people who think he looks OK because they are none the wiser.
 
touchstone said:
I get more queries about why my horse is kept off grass (strip grazing) and has 'please do not feed signs', I'm sure people think that I am being cruel (plenty of hay and high fibre feed!) and my paddock is beside a public footpath so open to scrutiny than people saying if she looks a bit fat,although her weight is about right at the moment. I think it is true that most non horsey people just don't recognise an overweight animal.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine has two rescued shetlands and they have a special fenced off area of almost bare earth to scratch around in as these two shetlands are very lami prone, and she gives them little amounts of old, soaked hay throughout the day. This is actually the only way to keep them healthy and alive, but she has been reported in the past for keeping them like this, because non horsey people seem to think its cruel, especially as there are lush grass fields all around. She was very upset and offended for being reported.
 
I regret not doing so at a show a couple of years ago, I was ring stewarding, judge did speak to the girl leading it but I think in hindsight I should have got the details and reported it. It was very bad..
a welshie unridden and on free grazing you can imagine. It didn't appear to have lami at that point though it struggled to trot just because of its weight.

still regret that, would def report if the situation arose again.
 
If the animal was fat and out 24/7 on lush pasture without a muzzle of stripe grazing yes I would try to speak to the owner.

If the horse or pony was only out part of the time or on poor pasture, being muzzled or stripe grazed then no I wouldnm't report them as the owners are clearly trying to manage their horses weight.

TBH I would only report if the animal was clearly sick or in distress, charities do very little unless it a live or death situation.
 
Thanks for putting that link up to the WHW video Spudlet....those horses were almost square and that poor Shetland with lami...and a donkey with quite a bit of weight too...:( I just don't understand how someone can get to the point of having 2 welsh cobs, 2 shetlands and a donkey and yet doesn't appear to know or see that they were all so fat and their health at risk when they looked like that..sad but hopefully things better for them now...apart from the one Shetland pts...

So yes if I saw a field full of that I'd be right on the phone to WHW...
 
Interesting thread this. I work at a vets and when i got my young welsh cob on loan my vet friend said i must get the weight of him as he was verging on obese,i did manage to get him down to what he should be as personally i prefer my horses on the 'lighter' side generally. I'm shocked that recently around my area there are about 3 gypsy type cobs in a 3 mile radius of each other morbidly obese,i def would of reported the owners of two of them as one of them is on his own in a 12 acre meadow field and looks like a cow rather than a horse,he has a crest bigger than any stallion out there and can hardly walk,i won't report them though as i found out from a friend that the people who own him are more than dodgy and i kind of know them through my OH and i would be worried they'd do something to my own horses to get back at me. The other one i saw again similar stamp of horse but worse being ridden by a very plump rider wobbling down the road the other day,it literally rippled when it walked and you could see fat deposits clearly on his rump,shoulders and neck. Totally a cruelty case,think the animal hadn't been ridden in years as both him and the rider were dripping in walk! was tempted to see where she went as i would of def mentioned something to work as to who you would need to talk to to report her,she didn't seem exactly exp either so was wondering if it was a first time owner unsure of how a horse should look weight wise? On the other side i don't want to appear like a busy body and i always have kept myself to myself when it comes to my oppinions on other peoples horses but obese horses are my biggest pet hate.
 
I was mortified the other day when leading my boy in, a builder doing work on a house we passed, asked if he was in foal!!!. Thought it very funny. I have been asked in the past if he is half donkey because of his colour, he is a dun.

I haven't been able to ride because of a hip injury. My pony has actually got a grass belly but is not carrying excess fat anywhere else and is stabled during the day and on very little grass by night. Having had a pony with laminitis I am horrified at the weight some horses are. A friend is feeding her horse Weight Gain, and it is fat, and to make matters worse she knows it is,

Jane
 
Bet you can't guess what I'd do...
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