Many owners unable to tell if their horse is too fat
Is your horse overweight? According to feed company Dengie, many owners are unable to tell if their horse is too fat.
An online poll conducted by the company has shown that nearly 20% of horse owners either didn’t know or weren’t sure how to tell if their horse was overweight.
And Dengie is offering a free service to help tackle the problem. Its nutrition team is visiting yards with a portable weighbridge and offering advice on how to condition-score — an important way to tell whether a horse’s body weight is made up of fat.
“[The results of the poll] could go some way to explaining why obesity is on the increase,” said a Dengie spokesman.
“The perception of “normal” weight has shifted and is now much larger than it would have been 20 or 30 years ago. Bigger is often regarded as better in the showring or dressage arena, and fat on the topline can sometimes be mistaken for muscle tone.”
To arrange a yard clinic (there must be a minimum of 10 horses) contact the Dengie Feedline on 0845 345 5115 or visit www.dengie.com
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A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.