What would you advise???.......

[silversox]

Every weekend when I am judging at local shows there is at least one grossly overweight pony being shown in my ring. Now, overweight ponies at local level are often caused by ignorance and over-indulgence, whereas those which are shown over-weight at affiliated county-level are exhibited by 'blinkered' producers.

So, yesterday, I was judging a lovely, willing and kind pony being nicely ridden by a very polite little boy and soooooo fat it was unbelievable. Her neck & crest were like concrete and she had really puffy swellings above her eyes.

I had a chat with the mum who seemed surprised that I was so concerned. She did say that they had put her in a starvation paddock but last week she accidentally got to some fresher grass. I politely told her that that neck took some months to get like that, not a week!

I have asked her to promise to get a muzzle/strip graze the field for only a couple of hours a day/ or better still keep the pony in and give her plenty of exercise. I suggested that the consequences of laminitis or a heart attack could be fatal but she just shrugged her shoulders and said she'd see what she could do.

It was such a lovely little pony ....... but what else could I do??

 

[rrose]

i would of advised the same, i think you did a good job. i just hope the owner takes the advise

 

[JAK]

I think you did all you could to be honest. You explained the situation & the consequences of doing nothing about it in a polite & friendly manner - anything more aggressively put would only have rubbed them up the wrong way most probably!

A very sad situation, especially involving such a lovely sounding pony! Grossly unfair on the poor little thing but one can only explain & advise at the end of the day - actually doing something about it is down to the owners unfortunately!

 

[dozzie]

Good for you!

I think you did the right thing and that is all you can do. If the woman takes your advice then great! If not, then that is not down to you!