A training day focusing on the implications of healthy and excess weight is well received
HAPPIER, healthier horses across the board was the aim of a session held as part of efforts to combat equine obesity.
The Horse Trust hosted the training on 16 April as an extension of the Weigh to Win initiative, which involves giving awards to the horse or pony of the healthiest weight in showing classes.
Attendees took part in interactive sessions, during which they assessed horses’ body condition and looked at ultrasound imaging to see where fat was deposited.
The charity’s head of research and policy Jan Rogers told H&H the event went well, with a range of guests.
“There was really good engagement,” she said, adding that the consensus was that the situation is much improved, but there is work to be done.
Ms Rogers said the ultrasound helped convey that fat can be present and doing damage even if not visible. Delegates saw horses’ weight assessed via a tape and weighbridge, so they could see what those values looked like, then assessed horses using body condition scoring.
“We’ve got a retired service horse who’s a French draught, and the breed characteristically has a short neck, deep body and great depth of girth so you look and think she’s huge,” she said. “But when you get your hands on her, you realise she’s not. We had one who looks very healthy but has a higher body condition score, which you see when you put your hands on and look at the fat distribution. People were amazed by the difference in what the eye sees and what’s there.”
Guests heard presentations on the health issues excess weight can cause, and about the importance of language.
“It’s about finding language that conveys the seriousness of the issue but doesn’t give offence,” Ms Rogers said. “It needs to be collaborative, not singling people out as it’s a community problem and we all need to work on it together.
“We’ve come to normalise a high body condition score and for equine wellbeing to be improved, we need to renormalise
