Your Expert Opinions Wanted Plz On My Cob

Hes defo got gypsy cob in him, however I would argue his feather isnt enough to be a traditional vanner, he looks similar to my friends FellXGypsy cob. Also 15.3hh is big for a cob, my boy is too but he has some shire in him somewhere I think. I like :D
 
He looks lovely, I have a real thing for chunkys!:D but he isn't a vanner, they are coloured by definition. Have his back legs been hogged? If you are wanting to show him or anything fairy liquid will work wonders on his hairy bits, and rub talc into his feathers when wet then brush out when they dry off. What do you do with him?
 
Nice looking boy with a very pretty head. Bit light and tall to be a true gypsy cob, so prob crossed with something else.

However he is obese and seriously needs to loose a significant amount of weight, if he hasn't done so already from when those photo's were taken. He doesn't have a huge amount of bone yet has the body (of mostly fat by the look of it) of a true HW. to be honest I'm surprised he had got laminitis :eek:
 
He looks gorgeous, most certainly doesn't look obese to me?! Maybe its just in a couple of the photos he looks like he has a bit of belly, but thats probably the way he is standing and the angle of the photos.

I have had an obese pony ( was 730 kilos when I got him 5 years ago, and only 14.1hh!!!)
he is now down to 420 kilos, so I do know about fat horses!
 
he lookes very similar to a gelding i used to own. He was a mixture of traditional/welsh /trotter. His mother was used for driving.
 
Bet you he is gypsy cob with some welsh and possibly a bit of trotter thrown in.

My chap is four generations gypsy cob - I have his pedigree for three generations, and but not his sire on the fourth. You can see that somewhere before that a trotter was mixed in as he has a huge movement, is 15.1 and a definate touch of "quality blood" in his head and shoulder

TraditionalHorseInHand.jpg


He is just 5 in this picture and is now starting to fill out. He has a lot more feather in winter, by the end of August, he has lost a lot of it due to moulting and as careful as I am, having to be washed and combed for showing.
 
He is lovely. He reminds me of our 15 hh first horse, who we thought had welsh and Shire in him somewhere. The giveaway for shire is the moustache! Gypsy cobs are usually shorter than 15.3hh and coloured. Ours was a totally bomproof R&D who undertood trafic lights. I do think you need to keep an eye on his weight. He looks like a very good doer.
 
SunrayLucy said:
He looks lovely, I have a real thing for chunkys!:D but he isn't a vanner, they are coloured by definition. Have his back legs been hogged? If you are wanting to show him or anything fairy liquid will work wonders on his hairy bits, and rub talc into his feathers when wet then brush out when they dry off. What do you do with him?
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Mine looks very similar to yours and he is a registed Gypsy vanner with the breed society they dont have to be coloured at all. You should really go for it. I put mine in a lot of m&m classes at local shows as no one seems to cater for tradional cobs but he does well so you should too. Please let me know how well you do as i would love to hear about other people with similar interests
 
AngieandBen said:
He looks gorgeous, most certainly doesn't look obese to me?! Maybe its just in a couple of the photos he looks like he has a bit of belly, but thats probably the way he is standing and the angle of the photos.
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In the summer photo's he is obese. There's one with his winter wollies on where his weight looks good, and he is significantly less 'chunky'. He is NOT a HW cob by any stretch of the imagination but he is being made to look like on due to his conditino - it's really a common problem and people loose sight of what a slim cob should look like.

The belly is only part of the fat (and to get a belly like that horses need to be seriously overweight) - he has large fat pads on his shoulders, over his quarters and filling in his loins. He doesn't have a huge fatty crest but not all horses out lots of fat in there.

In this picture you can also see the fat in the skin, as it's making him 'celluloid-y'
Photo0043.jpg


Compare him to this photos in his where he looks a good weight - he's certainly not thin and must be a good 100kg lighter than the previous.
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For comparision this is my old cob, who is very similar to the OP's boy - she has been seriously overweight (before I worked out how to keep her in the electric fencing!) and had plenty of people telling me she was a lovely HW cob, which she wasn't - she was just fat:

A nice healthy weight

Pinkconformation.jpg


And in the same condition as the OP's horse (but with her winter coat on)- very overweight
FatandmuddyPinkwinter2004edit.jpg


And her slim and a healthy weight, tho lacking a bit of muscle (in the spring after a winter off work)
pinkaftershow.jpg


It really annoys me when people accept or even encourage overweight horses as 'normal', when having a skinny horse (which is healthier for them!) is thought to be appalling. Just look at recent Jadeyy thread about her mare Lady - she is thin but she is not further off the'ideal' weight (but in the other direction) that my old horse was in the fat photos, or the OP's horse in her fatter photos.
 
He looks like a nice type, and if you want to show him, go for it.
I just wanted to point out that from what i can make out on the photos of him the markings on his back legs where the white tapers off up the front of the leg making it neither a sock or a stocking are similar to a mare i have who is 3/4 Dales. The Dales pony society told me after looking at her they believed she had a clydesdale influence which would explain these markings, although im sure shires also get marking like this so possibly a shire or clyde influence here also. I agree with toffee44 he does seem a little light of feather behind unless he was scalped and a little over height, i also assumed gypsy cob / vanners were all coloured which just goes to show how misinformed you can be. Regardless he is yours and he is lovely so take him out and enjoy him. This is a photo of my dales X mare who looks like a littler version of your guy:

IMGP1009.jpg
 
Thanks for your comments people. i have never been told he is obese! i've been told by a vet to watch his weightcos he's a good doer but she never said to put him on a diet or anything. Yes his back legs were clipped due to a skin infection so thats why they're shorter. i only really use him for hacking. i bought him off a lady who rescued him off the gypsies. he was tethered up so she offered to buy him and his mother. his mum was a skebald but never saw his dad. he has got two white patches on his underneth and again have been told he could be classed as a coloured? i only have him as a pet and am not really into showing and stuff so don't really understand alot of it. Thanks again
 
Most vets won't tell you your horse is fat because it's amazing how many people become seriously offended! :eek: They usually suggest they could 'do with loosing a little' or 'be careful with their diet' or all sorts of other euphemisms. Some are sensible and will tell you outright that your horse is a fatty but most won't - any many people don't believe them if they do :( - my favourite and most common, when applied to fat dogs is 'well, you're just used to seeing super skinny greyhouunds......' (and the same for 'TB's')

And no, sadly he doesn't count as coloured ;) The definintion if a patch of white at least the size of a hand, on the body about the point of the elbow, not inculding the face. Pink has a big white patch on her belly but it doesn't count, even if I taught her to lie down roll over for the judge ;)
 
Mine also has two white patches on the belly the colouring is called blagdon, Please look up this website www.gypsycobsociety.org thats who mine is registed it might also be worth talking to them as you may be able to get yours registered i would say from the look of him he is a section a.
 
He is a very handsome chap but I would rather he lost a bit of weight if he were mine.

What do you feed him? My cob gets hay, hi-fi lite, baileys lo-cal balancer, oil and salt - he is in quite a bit of work at the moment and on bare grazing.
 
He is very nice!
I do agree he could loose a bit of weight, but I wouldn't say he was obease!

I would keep a really good eye on him through spring/summer perhaps knock some weight off him now?

Dont know much about showing, but I like him a lot feel free to send him my way if you ever get fed up with him ;)
 
i'll try and get a pic of him tomorrow to show his current weight as they were from last year. he's only fed a handful of readigrass with a bit of mix in it so he will eat it. he's on global herbs otherwise i wouldn't give him hard feed as i never used to. his hay is also soaked for at least halp hour
 
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