How to Assess the Healthy Weight For A Horse
Basic Body Condition Assessment - Determining Your Horse’s Ideal Weight
Is your horse too fat or too skinny? There are a few different ways to score a horse’s body condition and weight. For most of us however, there really are three criteria—too fat, to thin and just right. Anything other than ‘just right’ is a cause for concern and a change in the animal’s diet, housing and workload is in order. Weight doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to a horse’s health, but is one indication of overall condition.
How do you determine if your horse is too skinny or too fat? There are some key areas to look at. The first area is over the ribs, between the girth area and loins. Here, you should be
able to feel the ribs easily under your fingers, but not see them. It may be difficult to feel the ribs on a ‘too fat’ horse. A too fat horse may have a ‘crest’ or fat pad along the top or along the sides of the neck where the mane emerges. This is different than the crest developed by stallions, and may feel very hard. The back may be flat or there may be a pronounced dip along the spine. I’ve seen very fat horses with such a deep crease down their back you’d think it would catch water in the rain.
Very fat horses will develop fat pads on either side of the tail head, and behind the point of the elbow in the girth area. Over all the too fat will look rounded,
