Your opinion on body condition

[mydaddysjag]

I've had Domingo for just over 8 weeks now, and since having him I had to change his feed (what he was on wasn't readily available in my area) and his conditioning schedule is a little different since I'm not driving him for exercise yet.

He is currently eating:

2 cups strategy AM and PM

1 cup alfalfa pellets AM and PM (I can't get good alfalfa mix hay in my area, and my horses are boarded)

1/2 flake 2nd cutting grass hay AM and PM

Coat supplement

Quiessence for his neck, along with sweating. Not sure how much either seem to be doing though.

Is he a lot overweight, too thin in any areas, almost right? In person I always think hes too heavy in some areas, but in pictures sometimes I think he looks too thin in some areas if that makes sense. For a while it looked like his croup wasn't "developed" enough for the rest of his body. Just wasn't smooth looking.

Any advice is well appreciated, im new to all this, I've only conditioned a yearling before, and that was with the help of a trainer. Even advice on how to best set him up etc would be much appreciated.

 

[JWC sr.]

Take another picture from over the top and post it. That will help a lot, to give a good opinion. He appears from the two you did post though to be a little on the high side of weight and needs to be toned up with exercise etc.

Good Luck, pretty gelding though, I bet you enjoy him a bunch.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I guess I should mention that he is a 34" 9 year old gelding.

I'll try to get a picture from over his back tomorrow, im off work on sick leave until Saturday, and Ive been just getting what needs done at the barn done, but I think I can get my hubby to help me tomorrow.

I've been working him in the round pen 5 days a week for 26 mins, trot and canter and also practicing hunter with him. I'd say he is out exercising maybe 30 or 40 minutes? He hasn't been able to be worked as much for about the past week, I've been pretty sick, and am getting the bare minimum done. He's been getting worked every other day, and the days he's not worked he's been turned out.

Would long lining or lunging in a bitting rig be any better exercise than round penning him? I dont know how to actually drive, but I can get help with long lining and so forth. Im hopefully going to start learning to drive soon, and can use that as a way to condition him.

 

[kaykay]

Like John I think he might be a little heavy but hard to know without the other pics. He must be an easy keeper as that is not a lot of feed for a horse working that much. That is a lot of workouts. For sure driving would be the best excercise for him.

When setting him up I would bring the front legs forward just a bit and push down his croup. Since I know this horse he probably knows to set his croup I would ask Jason what the cue is

 

[txminipinto]

First off, NO ONE can evaluate body condition off a picture or by standing and just LOOKING at a horse. You have to put your hands on them. Run you hands over the ribs, point of shoulder, and hip. Can you easily feel bone (increase feed) or do you really have to push to feel bone (decrease feed, up exercise)? Look over the back, and run your hands down the crest of the neck over the back. I like a nice flat back that I could eat lunch off of, but not at the expense of developing fat deposits along the neck and withers. Is it nice and smooth or do you feel lumps?

Body conidition is a pet peeve of mine. For some reason, a lot of people think you can judge a horse's condition just be looking at them. I was asked out to one farm to evaluate breeding stock and every single horse was "fat" to the owner. Yet, when I put my hands on the horses I found many of them to be thin, some on the extremely thin side!

Always put your hands on them....especially in the winter. All of mine get a once a week body check.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I promise I do keep my hands on them and make sure no one is getting too thin. Domingo certainly isn't thin overall, until recently I thought his behind looked underdeveloped for the rest of his body. It was really muscular, but it wasnt smooth and well rounded with the rest of his body. Now since I've been sick he hasn't been worked as much, it's gotten "too rounded" lol.

I've found someone in my area who does driving lessons with big horses, and as soon as im feeling better im going to start taking driving lessons from her. Then, hopefully I'll be able to give Domingo a better workout, and something a bit more entertaining to do.

this picture is a few weeks older, maybe a month or so, does he look in any better condition in it, or about the same?

 

[JWC sr.]

Carin,

I understand exactly what you are talking about. When it comes to body condition putting your hands on a horse, particularly mini's with lot of hair on them is very important. For those that do not have your experience it is almost the only way for them to know for sure. It is amazing how often folks make mistakes on how the horses are really doing under that hair. Like you we have been to friends farms particularly during the winter months to find that the fuzzy horses are way under condition and they had no idea.

The other area is folks with un-clipped weanling's. We try and clip every baby when it weaned so we can closely monitor them as they go thru that trying time.

But with that said there are indicators that can be used to get a good idea where a horse is at when the hair has been removed thru shedding or clipping. Such as jiggling in the abdomen, crease down the middle of the back with flesh mounded on each side of the back bone (an egg roller as we call them), ridge back bone, big abdomen etc. etc. Bottom line for us anyway is to evaluate every horse that we are working with for a true show condition.

For us the hardest thing is to get a combination horse ready for performance and halter classes. It can be done, but it is harder to do when compared to getting it right for one or the other. The long necked, lean and mean look of a good halter horse, as versus a good driving horse that has a little more weight is challenging for us anyway. Probably just us, but that is where we have problems.

John

 

[txminipinto]

John,

LOL! Oh not just you! It's extremely difficult to balance an all around horse to do well in all events. Back to the OP, the 2nd picture "looks" like a better conditioned horse IMO. But again, you gotta put those hands on them! A higher grain to hay ratio, beet pulp, an occasional supplement, and lots of trotting are great ways to get a horse in show shape.....now just tell my 46" race horse of a sheltand to trot.

 

[mydaddysjag]

Well, the one thing I did different from the first pictures to the other picture I noticed was I upped his coat conditioner, and added a little more alfalfa pellets so we could cut back on his regular hay. The coat conditioner is also known to sometimes add weight to horses, although I wasn't feeding anywhere near the weight gain amount. I'm actually going to change his coat conditioner since im feeding 1/4 the dose they recommended for a mini, and getting weight gain. Domingo is a halter and performance horse, and I'm not quite sure where the healthy in between is for him. Im hoping to be able to start driving him soon, Im actually starting driving lessons soon, and I want him to be able to handle all of his performance events.

 

[susanne]

Considering that I am only judging from a photo, I'll say this -- and I would say it even if I were there in person:

I would SO much rather see people err on the side of a horse being slightly overweight than under! To me, a slightly overweight horse looks like a well-loved work-in-progress; an underweight horse just looks sad.

 

[Minimor]

I think he looks much nicer in that last photo than he does in the more recent ones. I just showed this to a couple visitors that are here & they asked if that's the same horse in that last photo! They also like him way better in the older photo.

I think perhaps his stance is also better (for him) in that older photo too.

 

[mydaddysjag]

The pictures are about 3 weeks apart, but yes, it's the same old guy. Obviously freshly clipped in the one picture. Hopefully it wont take too long to get him back into that shape.