Obese

[kickon]

Guide lines--HA HA
Don't know why they bother
Only ever seen one judge kick the middle weight hunters out of the light weight classes and as for fatty's
I have watched in horror while the poor cobs puff and blow their way round the ring!! Walking at the back of the judges so they can get their breath back

[rockafella]

Fat ponies look hideous when there going round the ring huffing and puffing, ewwww! But if you take a 'leaner' pony into the ring you rarely end up in the top 3, seems to me healthy ponies are penelised and fattys praised, cant win

[kickon]

I think its time for someone to take a good look at this mess!!
Most hunters types in the ring have no stamina and couldnt do a days hunting.

[hursty100]

Hiya, its not just show ponies and M&M's. but look how many show horses look like they need a serious weight watcher diet. I have just started showing my large riding horse, before he was a foxhunter sj. Its unbelivable how much weight he has had to gain! His arse looks like them moon and he looks 9 months pregi! But thats what judges want!!!! I think more young judges should be put forward, at least you get a proper opinion. Experiance is just another word for fixing to me. Hooe you agree

[handcanter]

Hursty100 it sounds like you are actually making your horse unhealthy. Why do you think it is what judges want?

What exactly is it that is making producers get their horses so fat? Do they really think this will mean a red rosette and that therefore it's OK to jeapordise the health of their animals. Judges can only judge what is in the ring. Come on bring some nice slim fit ones in to be judged.

[skint]

I have found that by wintering all mine out on just haylage they all look well but are not fat at all, in fact they look lean but not thin. I can then get them in show condition very quickly by just giveing them balancer. I find that they dont get the cellulite lumps that a lot have.

I watched a programme months ago on the coed Coch ponies and they all wintered out on the mountain, the only time they were fed hay was if they had bad snow for a number of days and shepherds who lived onthe mountain threw a few bales out.

The stallions were brought off the mountain in Feb/March to get ready for the showing and covering seaon and to be honest they were very lean but they said that the ponies needed to be stripped off of all their fat before starting again

I was really interesting

[mol123]

hursty100 it does sound like your horse is unhealthily fat! even if you dont do as well in the show ring surely it is more important to have a healthy happy horse? or is it just me? my 5 year old looked positivly starved next to some of them on sunday but i dont mind not winning as i know he is fit and healthy - judging is wrong to incorage this fat trend but i am not going to go along with it and make my horse ill - id rather stand bottom of the line! or go to dressage insted!

[handcanter]

Well said mol123

[catkin]

I am absolutely against overweight horses and ponies, not just for health reasons, but because they look quite awful too. if you are lucky enough to have an animal with good conformation and movement, why would you try to cover this up?

However, I do believe that some less experienced judges will be thrown by this argument and indeed have recent personal experience of this. We recently showed a well-covered, well-sprung, typey M+M FR. He is out most of the time, very active and a bold and extravagant mover. He was put last in a class below inferior ponies, despite having gone very well for a small child 'because he is too porky and i would be told off for putting him up'. Trust me, we are not ones to have our animals too fat, quite the reverse often. But this was a worrying sign to me. And even if the pony was deemed to be overweight (which it really isnt) then surely way of going should have been the most important aspect for a FR? To be honest, its a young pony and its all miles on the clock at the moment, but I am worried that this whole subject needs to be handled rationally and with thought to the type of animal and purpose for which its intended.

[eatmyshorts]

I'd much rather have my horse fit not fat, but do appreciate that with some good do-ers it is easier said than done ( i found it refreshing last Feb when my cob was put down a place as he was overweight - however he had just come through a Winter with regular exercise & living on thin air!). But purposely overloading horse is nothing short of cruelty. Until more & more judges start to take a realistic view on this issue, it's up to owners to forgoe the rosettes to show horses who are at a healthy weight, & not overload them just to give the judges what they want. One thing i think owners also need to bear in mind is that horses do naturally drop weight in the Winter months & keeping them artificially well-covered coming into Spring may lead to serious & sometimes life-threatening problems.

[hollycane]

I'm a judge.
I don't want to have to judge fat horses.
I don't want fat horses. I want fit horses.
I have to judge what is put in front of me.
I want producers to stop putting fat horses in front of me.
Please don't say that judges want fat horses.

[eatmyshorts]

Sorry Hollycane, present company excluded - wasn't directed at you & from previous comments you sound like a very good judge. I was talking generally, going by the majority of experiences on here.

[hollycane]

Apology accepted eatmyshorts, I'm getting tetchy in my old age. But I agree with handcanter, why is it that people think fat horses are winners? I look back at pictures from 50 years ago and cobs are unrecognisable. All the animals look superbly fit. Even 20 years ago they weren't that fat. I have to say that I think native ponies are by far and away the worst offenders with show cobs in close second.
What really annoys me is when I tell someone "I have put your horse down today because it is seriously overweight" and they tell me that "so and so judge likes him likes this so we'll probably qualify with them...." and then they do!!
Judges must be consistent when it comes to fatties and I have to say I don't think they are. But I for one will be consistently dropping fatties where I can and I will keep telling people on obese horses that they must get some weight off.

[gtr121]

"But I for one will be consistently dropping fatties where I can and I will keep telling people on obese horses that they must get some weight off."
Hollycane does that mean that fat people ride fat horses? (Sorry)

[mol123]

haha grt121 - often the case!

[volunteer]

I think H&H have some responsibility here. Recently they did an article on a HOYS winner and in my opinion, the photograph that accompanied the article goes against everything that Hollycane is saying, and with which I totally agree. Some of these animals are so obese it is totally unhealthy. Huge cresty necks, lumpy rather that well muscled condition, ugh

[barman]

I'm a judge too and don't like fatties, if you are lucky enough to be invited to judge this time of the year some of the M & M's are well over weight, god knows what these people do with them went the spring grass comes, keep them in 24/7.At alot of the seminars we as judges are told to look at the over weight animals BUt its not as easy as that! If you consider they are all over weight, you can't put them all at the end of the line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then you get slatted by the compeditors, and so it goes round again.

[mol123]

but they are not all overwieght - sorry but the times I have seen fatties do well there is plently of nice fit horses (inc mine!!) in the ring as well who are not fat. Dont think I have ever seen a class when they are ALL fat.

[jenwalsh]

my vet was out vaccinating my yearling D at the weekend and i asked her how she thought he was looking and and she told me that he was the perfect weight for growth reasons but that he would really struggle in the show ring as he wasnt 'show' fat (she wasnt recommending that i feed him up just giving her honest opinion) so on that i done a google search on yearling D's and she is so right my boy looks nothing like these other youngsters in fact they all look at least two/three! Its a joke that we are put under this pressure to feed up these natives. Still going to take the wee one out just not expecting to get anywhere which is fine as i know that he will still be able to be ridden and be sound when hes in his twentys and beyond

on the other side of the coin i also have a show cob and have found a huge difference n the judges opinion on fatties which is really good to see

[Giddie]

I also think that some people get fat mixed up with substance !!!especially in the Section A's..

Be interested to see what you think of this variation as two of these have been considered to being "dreadfully" overweight.

[hs]

I don't think obsesity is a showing only problem. I think part of the issue with the cobs and M&M is that they are naturally prone to weight gain even the ones that are not shown can get a bit chubby very easily.

Some of these people may not be deliberately trying to get their ponies or cobs fat they may just be loosing the battle to get the weight off!

I have a M&M and a couple of my friends have cobs and we are constantly trying to keep their weight down - they are not feed any conditioning mixes - just the diet balancers and they do plenty of hilllwork, one of the cobs was muzzled as well and he had soaked hay when in at night and still he got fat. They are just designed to be able to survive on sparse rations.

I am lucky as my pony lives out so he can loose weight (or not gain weight at least) over winter as less grass and can keep moving even though I can't ride so much due to darkness. I also try and jump him and make him trot up steep hills too and take him on long hacks to help keep his weight down rather than just do preparation for showing. Keeping his weight under control is hard work but worth it as I would rather have a slim healthy pony than a fat unhealthy one.

[hollycane]

I'm still stunned by the amount of questions on HG about putting weight on though. There is always a thread asking how can I put weight on when most people on this forum are pony folk. If there is any hint of a product putting weight on (however misguided) some folk want to use it. Pink powders was a classic.

[dazycutter]

interestingly enough, I was staying at a friends this weekend who events... I am so used to seeing ponies in show condition that I thought her horse looked positively poor.. she laughed and said.. he is fit and this is how a horse should look like....

says it all really

[dazycutter]

but they are not poor.. they are fit.. this is the difference :-)

[hollycane]

Jenna you're joking right? Fit horses are lean and fat horses can't jump or move with any speed.

[thecremellosociety]

had one hugly obease one recently, and had it really low and told her exactly why, no excuse, mine are too tubby at the mo, but am working on it, suprised at just how TOO well alot of the ponies in the ring are looking for coming out of winter and before we have any grass through !!!

[thecremellosociety]

Feb 19, 2010 13:08:51 GMT dun4u said:

Presley said "He comes in during the day and he's out over night during the summer months too so he's managed that way too.. "

Trouble is, when you think about it, the number of 'night' hours grazing are usually more than daylight hours, and they are more likely to eat their heads off during the long, cool night than they do when standing under the shade of a tree during the heat of the day. Can't win, either way!!!

Something to do with the furctans/ Sugars in the grass being lower at night than in the day it does work and we use this method, though not religiously they do sometimes stay out a whole day but looking tubby in they come, i feel limiting grazing time is better than a muzzle as its like putting a cream cake under your nose and not being able to eat it, rather them stand in with handful of hay, than tease them.

[dazycutter]

Mar 18, 2010 20:57:36 GMT hollycane said:

Jenna you're joking right? Fit horses are lean and fat horses can't jump or move with any speed.

well said... I have a TB that I do ROR and there is no way I want him in "show condition" he was not built for it, will not look correct like that and who knows what damage it does not only to the joints but their internal organs and the layers of fat around their hearts.. If he gets put down the line because he is not built like a bullock, then thats fine.. his health and wellbeing is more important than ribbons

lets keep them nice and healthy please...

you dont see show dogs overweight as they wouldnt be judged, so lets get the ponies right too. :-)

[traffik]

i wonder how many ponies/horses consistantly at the top of the line up, return the next season, so many top ponies that i know manage a season, before succuming to laminitus, have a year off, go to stud, some return to the show ring eventually. maybe its time showing four year olds that look like eight year olds, is banned and ridden animals are allowed to mature naturally???.

[hyderboo]

I have a welsh D and im always being told he needs more weight, you can not see his ribs and can feel them just, his coat is fantastic and he has bags of energy. Its really starting to bring me down now bring on you judges that wouldnt knock me down for it!!!