How to Assess the Healthy Weight For A Horse

Is your horse too fat or too skinny? There are a few different ways to score a horses body condition and weight. For most of us however there really are three criteriatoo fat to thin and just right. Anything other than just right is a cause for concern and a change in the animals diet housing and workload is in order. Weight doesnt tell the whole story when it comes to a horses health but is one indication of overall condition.
Too Fat
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. Ive seen very fat horses with such a deep crease down their back youd 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 have little muscle definition with haunches that are apple cheeked over the top. The horse may also have a hay belly but skinny horses can have hay bellies toodistended bellies due to the intake of large quantities of fodder.
Too fat for a horse is not just a