14/06/2026
Good morning everybody!
Just a quick reminder heading into the depths of winter, horses need to naturally loose 10% of their body weight, for their bodies to process correctly and reset. This is how they have evolved, and respond to their environment and is NORMAL. It is equally important for “good doers” to loose their excess kilos before heading into spring time. I will shout it into a megaphone:
📢 A FAT HORSE ISN’T A HAPPY HORSE! 📢
It is more detrimental and dangerous than being underweight in fact! A horse in full work, using their body and burning calories won’t be overweight- as they are athletes! If they have excess weight this is a liability for them and makes them work harder and applies more pressure on their bodies, joints and muscles.
Being able to see slight rib on horse in full work horse over winter months is NORMAL.
Also, different breeds of horse look different. A standard bred, arab or thoroughbred for example will not have the same thick set body types of breeds such as quarter horses and Clyde’s with huge rounded rumps as a general rule. Just like we are all different as humans!
It’s time we all start being a more realistic about our standards of what a horse “should” look like in the horse community. We should also ask questions if we see something we don’t understand about someone’s horse, as there may be a perfectly logical explanation (like above), before jumping to conclusions.
Attached is a body score index for some visual learning ☺️
