Skinny Clydesdale Facebook

abbijay said:
I have to say I wish people would also comment with uproar on the horses who are so grossly obese at 3 and 4 years old! A heavy horse does not have to be a barrel on legs, trust me I had one that was eventing fit and I regularly used to get asked "shouldn't you let him have more weight on". He's 21 now and still a lean build for a clydesdale but not in any way worrying. We live in a world where seeing a hint of a rib is a welfare case but carrying 100+kilos spare is cute/cuddly/loved/desired.
I have seen pictures and thought it looked weak and poor for a youngster but not dangerously thin. I have seen worse in breeders yards! I do wonder what they paid for it, if it was out competing it won't have gone for meat money!
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This. I suspect he was probably a bit dehydrated as well. When I stole mine back after hed been stolen on loan he looked awful, 3 days in with water and ad lib forage he looked dramatically better, and mine had genuinely been starved and abused. And this horse looks better by day 3 in the new videos/photos.

You'd think a greyhound charity would understand that some animals just are a lean build.
 
MrsMyope said:
And all the hysteria over him being terrified and showing the whites of his eye, anyone else think he just has a ‘human’ eye that side which naturally shows more sclera? Most photos are of his right side
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Yes and also that is easy to catch a newly moved young horse looking anxious and IME these heavies are often much more sensitive than people expect them to be. I have owned a 3 year old Shire, a probable half Clyde/Shire and my friend had a Percheron.
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Thank you very much for the individuals here who have provided information re. heavy horses - as an aside, wow, imagine the rug bill for a horse that size that's still developing physically until 9! 😱
Assuming it's fair to say the 'lack of condition' is just a longer-than-we're-used-to 'leggy ugly baby phase', and if they take that long to mature as well, it would surely be better for them to be on the leaner side, especially as clydesdales can be quite big moving so overloading their joints early on would have repercussions down the line?
 
SilverLinings said:
Someone has posted a comment under the picture of two cobs with the rescue pointing out that they are obese enough to be a welfare case- was that someone on here?! They are shockingly fat, and the rescue talk about bringing them in for some 'spoiling' which I hope doesn't come in the form of food 😲
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me. I am trying to be better about keeping my mouth shut in general, but honest to god those poor cobs made me furious!
 
Just taken a look and those cobs are definitely worse off than the Clydesdale...and get some filtabac on all those noses ☹️
 
FieldOrnaments said:
Thank you very much for the individuals here who have provided information re. heavy horses - as an aside, wow, imagine the rug bill for a horse that size that's still developing physically until 9!
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Luckily they are all generally a hardy type so rugs aren't required.

My old Suffolk only wore a fly rug regularly. He never needed a turnout and light stable rugs were only required when the temp went below -7° or I'd find him a little warm in the morning.

Current Suffolk is a bit precious and gets grumpy when left out in the rain so he gets to wear a no fill turnout. I've also got a 100g turnout which is considered his heavy weight rug for bitterly cold days. He's worn that one twice since I've had him.
 
FieldOrnaments said:
Thank you. I presumed, simply by being larger horses and thereby having more surface area through which to lose heat, they'd be likely to require rugging.
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They have a smaller surface area to volume ratio, so actually conserve heat better. A more finely built horse has a higher SA to Vol ratio, so lose heat quicker.
 
A lot of "rescued" animals aren't that at all. Sometimes it's for donations as above, or as an excuse to try to get a discount on the vet bill but often I think people just want attention or are hedging their bets in case something goes wrong, so that it's not seen as their fault.

There is a wealthy but a bit (a bit?) odd lady at the other end of my village who buys horses & says they're rescued. She bought an unhandled youngster that she had neither the facilities nor the experience to deal with. Once it had broken both her wrists in two separate accidents she "passed it on to another rescue" (i.e. dumped it on WHW) .... and bought two more. She says she rescued these ones from Appleby but she bought them from a dealer!

Sorry @Backtoblack , a bit of a thread-derail but this is something that gets up my nose! It's good that you were concerned and flagged this up, even though you now know it was a false alarm.
 
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