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Post by Balloon on Jul 5, 2018 10:03:54 GMT
Looking at pictures of winners of some of the classes at Aintree.. I thought that judges were meant to be coming down hard on OVER weight ponies/ horses
It must be that the CHAPs judges didn't get the memo!!!! OMG as the heading states! So sad
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Post by Was there on Jul 5, 2018 13:21:24 GMT
Interesting. I had a pony in the CHAPS novice class and they were certainly made to work in the go round, I think anything obese would not have performed as they did. Must say I did not particularly notice lots of overweight ponies in this class - and it is something I do notice, but did not see the other CHAPS classes so cannot comment on those. I would not say my pony is overweight, she is well covered and I must confess has looked slimmer than others in previous classes but this is because she does get ridden regularly. She was not up at the top, but I did not notice those who were were noticeably overweight.
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Post by honeypot on Jul 5, 2018 16:05:26 GMT
It depends what you call fat/overweight. Really nothing should be over a condition score of 3 on a scale of 1-5, or 6 on a scale of 1-10, www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk/body-condition-scoring So mine who have no extra feed, and live out 24/7 are bordering on a 4 and I would imagine most peoples are like this unless they are doing BSJ or BE. As to the go round, really that's not much work, any ridden animal should be able to cope with that, its not like its a days hunting which mine used to do off grass. I have yet to see a pony out showing above local level with a condition score of three or less.
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Post by Was there on Jul 5, 2018 16:41:51 GMT
It depends what you call fat/overweight. Really nothing should be over a condition score of 3 on a scale of 1-5, or 6 on a scale of 1-10, www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk/body-condition-scoring So mine who have no extra feed, and live out 24/7 are bordering on a 4 and I would imagine most peoples are like this unless they are doing BSJ or BE. As to the go round, really that's not much work, any ridden animal should be able to cope with that, its not like its a days hunting which mine used to do off grass. I have yet to see a pony out showing above local level with a condition score of three or less. Fair comment. The Mid Surrey drag hunters I worked with would certainly never have managed off grass, but a different type of animal. All credit to you though.
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Post by honeypot on Jul 5, 2018 19:12:45 GMT
Not really, many years a go I groomed and fittened drag hunters and its a lot of work. Ponies have inherent level of fitness to start off with, so its not that hard to get them fit for hard work. That is one of the reasons why I can not understand how they get them so fat. I had a pony come back off loan with laminitis, she was 100kg over weight and that doing PC rallies and competitions at the weekends. It took me six winter months to shift it, no food no rugs and only hay in the snow. As the old dealer of my youth used to tell me, they need long days and little dinners.
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Post by Was here on Jul 6, 2018 14:18:29 GMT
Not really, many years a go I groomed and fittened drag hunters and its a lot of work. Ponies have inherent level of fitness to start off with, so its not that hard to get them fit for hard work. That is one of the reasons why I can not understand how they get them so fat. I had a pony come back off loan with laminitis, she was 100kg over weight and that doing PC rallies and competitions at the weekends. It took me six winter months to shift it, no food no rugs and only hay in the snow. As the old dealer of my youth used to tell me, they need long days and little dinners. Absolutely agree. There was no laminitis when I was a teenager, but the ponies were all worked off grass, and worked very hard. There were some bad things though, it wasn't all wonderful years ago. I remember in my dealing days using the same saddle on everything, I cringe now. My traditionals take some effort on a daily basis. They are out grazing for a very short time, ridden every day and only receive a small amount of low calorie feed as a reward. If necessary hay is soaked for 12 hours, which causes very heavy work. You cannot just turn them out 24 hours each day and forget about them, even on very short grass they will get fat if not worked. Afraid owners abdicate responsibility sometimes from fittening work and make excuses that they are in "show condition". As I said, my pony at Aintree has been below ponies that were what I would call obese and waddled round the ring. I know how difficult it is to get a pony back from a bout of laminitis from past experience and never want to go there again, prevention is the only way.
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Post by seen it! on Jul 12, 2018 14:57:16 GMT
Ive seen some photos the last few days of someone on facebook who won a chaps class with an in hand traditional at a big show last week. the pony is so disgustingly fat, it has fat pads on its bum and shoudlers and a stomach that blends in with its legs and bum, it is that huge! This same person was seen complaining a couple of weeks ago about being beaten by overweight ponies at a big show...
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Post by gillwales on Jul 14, 2018 4:51:12 GMT
I recall a good few years back that one professional showed a show cob at the Royal Welsh, it was so fat it's rump wobbled. TBH it made me feel ill watching it. It should have been, imo, sent out of the ring. Mind you the rider was not much slimmer! However these days we should be more enlightened and obese animals should not be winning classes however nice they might be. I can only suggest that you attend the AGM and raise the matter there to make a difference.
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