Pictures needed please (esp. eventers)

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RachelB

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I need some input please (purely for my own curiosity) of your fit competition horses. Preferably side-on, with or without tack and/or rider. Especially eventers.
Just because I saw something that I thought was shocking today, I won't name names but one horse at Highclere literally looked like an overgrown whippet. Now I realise some horses can be very, very difficult to get weight onto but even so, it looked (IMO) horrific. So if anyone has any pics they could let me see of their fit eventers, and even more so of those who don't hold condition well, I would love to see them to compare.
Thanks in advance for any input!
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I saw the horse you're thinking of (I think, I hope there weren't more than one like that!) but i also saw the opposite - whilst walking the XC course saw one go round so unfit and looking like he was about to collapse - william commented on it as well! And although not fat it was carrying far too much weight to go round Highclere's intermediate - apparently it was the rider and horse's second intermediate. I felt v sorry for it.
 
Well, you see Moon most days so I wont put up a pic but she's fit and the skinniest I'd like to see a horse, any skinnier and the horse is too thin IMHO
One well known eventing couple keep their horses very skinny, not sure why.
Eventers can be quite hard to keep weight on when at int/adv fitness but it really shouldnt be an excuse for a horse looking poor.

This is Boss at about his fittest-
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There are definately two extremes. I don't know which is worse, but I know which is more common! I was just so shocked that anyone, let alone that person, could possibly not be ashamed to be seen on a horse like that. It almost looked as though it would break if it fell. But then again I suppose it may be very, very hard to keep condition on. Although if it were I'd keep it at home and work on finding it a suitable diet before taking it eventing! I just need some pictures really to confirm in my mind that I wasn;t over-reachting and that it really was too thin (my friend described it as anorexic!)
Sorry for calling it "it" but I have no idea if it was a mare or gelding!
 
when they're very fit, an advanced horse can look more like a chaser, with quite a few ribs on show, almost herring-gutted, no real fat to see... very lean. my advanced mare used to go totally off her food when she got really fit, and looked a bit like that... i don't have any handy photos, sorry. she didn't look poor, but she looked very streamlined!
certain riders keep them leaner than others. Matt Ryan is one... i've never seen him on a fat horse!
i think it's kinder to have them slightly lean than fat, as they're galloping and jumping for a long time, but obviously there is a limit!
 
Well this is one of our old boys in winter, but eventing fit.
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And a not so good angle of our advanced horse, who is no longer with us, just after a 3DE.
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Thanks for that - those three (Irishcobs' two and Boss) look good to me. They still look like horses for a start!! Think of halving the weight of the bay boy and you'd pretty much be there for the horse that I saw. Add the weight of a rider and you've probably got back problems (and all sorts else to boot). Actually the bay is what I think of when I think eventing fit, Boss looks well-covered to me (although I'm sure he's just as fit).
So it really was a one-off then. Poor, poor horse.
 
It really does depend on the horse, i'm not sure i can attach it (will try) but one of the advanced horses we have looks like a dinosaur when its fit, she is so hard to keep weight off that you have to have her on a really strict diet and then once she's run up fit she ends up looking really poor but absolutely fine health wise. Have a look on www.shawshot.co.uk and then you can go to say the pics from weston park 3DE and look at the trot up ones, it just depends on their frame, doesn't necessarily mean they're not well/kept properly.

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Irishcobs, the chestnut is stunning, looks so healthy, muscular and just simply gorgeous.
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Did you say it is no longer with you?
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a certain former top rider rode a catch ride round a novice many years ago and the horse was so unfit it collapsed at the end and needed oxygen.
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it recovered, and the rider wasn't disciplined. *shakes head in disbelief*
 
I regularly see one of the horses that went to the hong kong test event,it looks like an RSPCA case, am wondering if you are talking about the same one Silmillarion? it is not just that horse- am repeatedly shocked at the state of this particular riders other horses as well,....
Having worked in a few event yards with advanced horses am also shocked at how the horses looked physically and how they were looked after.

It had made me absolutely flabbergasted at what a big heart these horses have and how much courage they have to perform when they are completly buggered.

Another thing tho, lack top line in a lot of these horses is, I swear, due to poorly fitting saddles. You only have to look at the high withers, the holes behind their withers and their back bones sticking out to see that. That is muscle wastage from a very badly fitting saddle.
 
Not an eventer but a 4 year old hurdler by Zaffaran that was racing fit. Prob more intermediate eventing fit and a nice event horse type too. Really wanted to buy this horse but he was 18hands!! Wouldve loved him at 16 hands.

Long shot
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Close up shot, you can see he's well covered and well muscled, but fit...
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see, mine has high withers, a dipped back and a jumpers bump...he has a fitted saddle with pads and had it before he came to me, have actually just purchased a pessoa type thing so will be interested to see if it helps, but nobody has mentioned muscle wastage, is his shape what yor are talking about doff the derby (or that type of shape anyway)
 
It is the sort of shape Im talking about yes but holes behind the withers and a prominent spine is the main thing really...

What was your horse doing before you got him?It takes a long time to rehab them and build up the correct shape once the saddle is right and also they have to be doing the right work too to build up the muscle but what do I know am only an amateur do not take my word for it!
 
lol. He'd been out for 2 years, then brought back into work by a v. proff eventer. Always been on professional yards,done well at pre-novice although not so wonderfully at novice with a certain well known rider, but since he is currently doing novices with me clear, I dont know what they did to make him not go clear!
I do worry about him, but the vet doesn't think there's much to be done to improve it, possibly gridwork.
 
Well as for the better results at Novice- you say you have a good fitting saddle on him and you can bet your bottom dollar that he didnt have a good fit of a saddle when he was evented by the pro ( most of them slap the same saddle on eveyrthing!) so I would guess that he must have gained muscle and strength in the time that youve had him thanks to the better saddle plus he must have a good rider on top!

The saddle is the be all and end all IMO ! That is why I bang on and on about them ( and bore everyone to death !!)
 
here is mine, he is novice level eventing, he lives out in the summer and due to him being allergic to horse feeds he lives off grass and a feed of bread and speedibeet with supplements during the summer

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this one was taken 3 weeks ago

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I wouldnt be happy if my horse looked like that grey...but understand some horses never look "well" but it would be the lack of topline that would bother me!
 
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So the one of the grey trotting up there - would say she's skin and bones? honestly?

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From this angle, the same as I saw the picture of the horse I mentioned from badminton, I would say a definite no. The horse looks lithe but not skin and bones.

The trot up one, he does look a little more ribby, with a very pronounced wither. Could be quite easy for someone to mistake it for being underweight. As I say though, from the picture above, it looks fit and healthy.
 
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I regularly see one of the horses that went to the hong kong test event,it looks like an RSPCA case, am wondering if you are talking about the same one Silmillarion? it is not just that horse- am repeatedly shocked at the state of this particular riders other horses as well,....

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No it wasn't one of those riders.
I also work with eventers (Bossanova's sister's yard, admittedly not advanced horses (yet!)) and we have had some horses come in looking very lean, and to my surprise (as my boss doesn't like her horses fat at all) we have been immediately ordered to feed them up. Some of them (as I'm sure some of you will have seen from Boss's posts) looked awful when they turned up and are now looking fantastic with a bit of coverage. I totally understand that some horses can be very difficult to keep weight on, but then there's those that are just ridiculously thin!
 
This is verging on an RSPCA case, imo.

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Yes, the horse is mine - we only had it a week then it now looks like this

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Irishcobs, the chestnut is stunning, looks so healthy, muscular and just simply gorgeous.
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Did you say it is no longer with you?
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He knew he was gorgeous too! No he's no longer with us, he practically disintegrated his hind ligament and he didn't do retirement.
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