Self righteous as ever...

S

Silverspring

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a little gloating post from me
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We had a NAF representative out last night to talk feeding and supplements. He used to work for Blue and has a degree in something animal diet related (can't remember what!)

Anyway they had 2 horses in to condition score, one section D who I thought was looking well on the fatties field (very little grass) and being worked 4-5 days a week. Well he scored a 4.5 and weighed in at 620kg, guy said he could lose 50kg wihtout being thin.

Next horse was a Han WB he had been off with lameness for 4 weeks and out in the boys field (lots of grass) he is now muzzled and being worked but we were aware he was fat. He scored a 5
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and was off the weight tape measure scale
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Anyway to the self righteous bit (if you have got this far!) I got my girl in to feed as he was standing talking to people after the presentation. He came over and scored her as a 3 and used her as an example of a healthy weight horse!
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I did explain that this was the fattest she'd ever been and during the winter she is the first to lose weight...but still my horse is in the 20% of non obese horses in the UK. Yeah that's right apparently 80% of horses in the UK are overweight...mine isn't one of them!

I would like to take all the praise for keeping my horse thin but it's mainly that's she's a stressy Arab that refuses to eat. Think Kate Moss in horse form
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Low cal cookies and skimmed milk for getting this far!
 
skimmed milk urrrrhhh no thank you! but I'll settle for low cal cookie though
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Good for you ....and most importantly good for your horse, interesting figures too, certainly some good food for thought there (sorry excuse the pun
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....and most importantly good for your horse, interesting figures too,

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Yeah I'm not a fan of the skimmed milk either...maybe semi skimmed and a smaller glass?
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As for the figures the guy said this was according to a study run by the ILPH. They asked people to bring their horse's along and put them on a weigh bridge rather than relying on the tape. 80% of horse's weighed were overweight for their height.

Now he did say that this figure was only a guide as:

a) no one is going to take an underweight horse to the ILPH....they might confiscate it!
b) they did not take into account bone/muscle and breed, clearly a 15.2 Arab should weigh less than a 15.2 cob without either being an unhealthy weight.

Though before weighing the horses they asked the owner what they thought their horse's condition was like and very few said they thought their horse was over weight
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AS you say food for thought...I'm binge eating these low cal cookies now, I can have 2 for every full fat cookie, it's ace!
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We just need ALL show judges to think the same as WHW, the NAF guy above and there would be a lot less lami, a lot less joint disorders etc
ie if it became fashionable to have horses a bit thinner.
Cuffey on the left a fairly short coupled and narrower TB/ID and just 16hh was put on a weigh bridge at Moreton Morrell and was 485kg just off the trailer from Scotland. The researchers scored him exactly right for the work he was doing but he was often down the line showing because he was lean although did well WH
 
He did as the WB that was off the chart would have had to weight over 750kg according to the weight tape and he didn't believe that as he's only 16.3 and not a heavy build WB!

He said the weight tape could easily be out by 30kg to 50kg though it had been shown to be out by more depending on confirmation. My girl is deep and wide in the chest (great for endurance as lots of space for lungs and heart!) so when he put the weight tape on her she weighed in at 510kg, he thought it was more likely she was around the 470kg given her condition and bone.

What he did say is that the weight tape is really useful for monitoring weight, so you don't agree with the weight it gives you but if it says next month (you are supposed to use it monthly) that they have gained 20kg then you can add 20kg to what you think they really weigh.

I'm thinking about getting one as I need to monitor when my horse starts losing weight so I can feed earlier. His recommendation was to start feeding coniditon cubes in August rather than wait til the weight is off then try to get it back on.
 
I'm probably going to get balled at!
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but have the days gone when we just stood back and 'looked' at our horses and knew whether they were overweight or not?

I know when my horses need restricted grazing or less feed by studying them and riding, how they feel etc.. don't need a weight tape.
Sorry if this offends anyone, but I think the world has gone mad. I don't need anyone else from a feed supplier...NAF or anyone else to tell me if my horses are overweight. Anyone else feel the same?
 
You're unlikely to get balled at as most people using this forum are experienced horse people who can just stand back and say that horse is too fat or too thin BUT there is no escaping the fact that the ILPH think 80% of British horses are over weight...if it really were as simple as everyone just standing back and saying overall too fat or overall too thin then how can you explain this figure?

The reality is so many horse owners think their horse is fine when it's not, condition scoring and talking to feed specialists give people more tools to take a view on conidition. The girl who's horse was a 4.5 on the scale thought her horse was under weight...she's had horse for 15 years and said due to his breed he should carry more. Clearly some people are getting it seriously wrong, even with an expert standing there saying your horse is obese they were arguing that the horse wasn't
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On my part I thought my mare was carrying too much weight, I tend to er on the side of caution and keep a horse under weight during the summer which isn't ideal given how quickly she will lose weight in the winter
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I do agree with you routellerose - but I also think that there are a lot of horse owners now that do not know what overweight is when they look at it. Hence the need for a suitably qualified person to tell them

I saw an article the other day that was explaining that there are so many overweight horses around that it is difficult to see that they are overweight - if that makes sense. If a novice horse owner sees a line up of horses - with 80% of them being overweight, they are going to think that the 20% that are NOT fat are infact underweight.

Obviously princess sparkle knows exactly what she is looking at as she is in the small minority of horses at a good weight!!
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I hate seeing massive fat horses - that statistic really shocked me. Quite a few times when I'm looking through the Picture Gallery on here, I think "that horse is so overweight!" but I don't dare tell the OP. Maybe I should next time.
 
The level of obesity in horses is horrendous, particularly in show animals.

I have a section D and I would love to show him, but I know he will never come high up the line because he is 'too thin' compared to the morbidly obese horses he will be competing against. Actually he is pretty fit and a healthy weight, but he looks like nothing stood next to a rotund monster!

I cannot get over the amount of food that people shovel into their horses either. Fair enough if you have an event horse or a hunter, but your average happy hacker that is ridden 3-4 times a week for an hour or so does not need masses of hard food and umpteen different supplements.
 
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Quite a few times when I'm looking through the Picture Gallery on here, I think "that horse is so overweight!" but I don't dare tell the OP. Maybe I should next time.

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Snap. i feel like i would only be posting things like that half the time if i didn't stop myself and then i'd seem like a right miserable sod, so i only point out when i think something dangerous or harsh is going on instead.

The world of the show cob annoys me the most. i knew someone who used to have a gorgeous big show cob who was absolutely bursting (literally) with energy and was heavily overweight for her build, which was 15.2 and quite leggy for a cob. She got an enormous bucket of allsorts twice a day, with enough sugar beat in each feed to do about 4 horses on normal work- a day! No wonder she was off her head spooking at nothing all the time, getting herself stressed and sweated up. And she was absolutely obese, but they still wanted more more more on her, because that's how a show cob should be
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The world of the show cob annoys me the most. i knew someone who used to have a gorgeous big show cob who was absolutely bursting (literally) with energy and was heavily overweight for her build, which was 15.2 and quite leggy for a cob. She got an enormous bucket of allsorts twice a day, with enough sugar beat in each feed to do about 4 horses on normal work- a day! No wonder she was off her head spooking at nothing all the time, getting herself stressed and sweated up. And she was absolutely obese, but they still wanted more more more on her, because that's how a show cob should be
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Agree- my Dex was with an owner like that and she was so furious that he developed laminitis that she dumped him in a field of weeds, no worming/farrier attention and thats where i bought him from 5 months later- the superb efforts of my farrier and vet manged to halt the founder and get him sound. 3 years on and i am proud to have an "underweight" cob even if he does still have cellulite and varicous veins..
 
The problem is that the majority of people don't recognise a horse at the right weight and in good, fit condition. Overweight is what we see so much and this implies to others that this is correct.
I think the 80% figure was gained in very in accurate way, but, non the less is probably a very close estimation.
The number of times this year, while out working, that I have been told my animals are rather thin, skinny, underweight, etc is unbelieveable. They are not, they are fit!!!
 
That figure really surprises me. I worked on a large yard, with riding school horses and liveries. I would say only around 10% of the horses were overweight, most were pretty fit and some were underweight (which isn't ideal, but we had some older horses, and quite a few TBs who dropped weight over winter). I don't think I have ever been to a yard where 80% of the horses were overweight, unless it was a show cob yard!
 
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