All Horses | June 30, 2008
Imagine you buy back a horse you used to own, sight unseen, and this is what gets dropped off in your pasture:
January 2007
This hippopotamus (sorry) was once a fairly fit, if stout, riding horse:
summer 2004
Look! He had a neck with an actual throatlatch then!
He was so obese, the owner didn’t dare ride him in [...]
All Horses | June 30, 2008
The Obese Horse of the Day blog is up and just getting started.
One of the first entries is a must-read on how harmful obesity in horses can be, and the shocking prevalence of it (over fifty percent of horses in a recent study were found to be overweight; with nearly a fifth of the [...]
All Horses | June 30, 2008
Funny thing is, I didn’t find these articles until after I started the blog:
An overeating, slothful horse leads to an obese horse. Unlike humans, however, horse owners often don’t see the dangers of an obese horse. Caretakers may see no harm in giving their horses rich foods, but obesity in horses is just as unhealthy [...]
All Horses | June 29, 2008
Let me preface this entry: no one said he was starved by his previous owner, but that could be due to his reported history of being rescued from a farm where horses were allegedly dying in the field, six months ago.
This is a 2 year old TWH.
He’s fed and fit but not fat.
They aren’t supposed [...]
All Horses | June 29, 2008
Skinny Horse of the Day has a sibling!
The name was inspired by the Fugly Horse of the Day blog, but the similarities end there.
I will profile random horses selected from photos available to the public in an effort to show that obesity in horses should be no more acceptable than malnutrition at the opposite end [...]
All Horses | June 28, 2008
This is one of a series of several photos, with this young foal mouthing and “playing” with the loose barbed wire fence.
It makes me cringe. Every time.
Any horse—but especially the young or nervous—can crash into barbed wire and severely lacerate their skin, ripping flesh to the bone.
Permanent scarring and disabilities are common, and injuries may [...]
All Horses | June 27, 2008
Here, I see a horse that is moderately underweight.
I see a flat but not sunken rump, prominent withers (not a good indication of anything except just that … a horse in any condition can have high withers) and the beginning of visible ribs.
The hip does not appear to jut out and I’d like to see [...]
All Horses | June 27, 2008
While the earlier May images of this mare have been deleted, the June photos show a mare that has put on a little weight but mostly just lost the dull and scraggly remnants of a slow-shedding winter coat.
Check out the comments made, even considering visible improvements (below) over a few short weeks:
“[IMO] ‘a little thin’ [...]
All Horses | June 27, 2008
I’m noticing more and more lately that some people tend to think that horses that are even slightly on the thin side of average are dangerously underweight and neglected.
I don’t get this.
Should horses really be FAT, at any time of year? Any more than we should?
I’m going to pull some information from a PDF [...]
All Horses | June 19, 2008
This type of fence, chain link or cyclone fence, CAN be a safe and suitable horse fence, but it would require the use of both top and bottom supports that are sturdy enough to withstand 1,200 pounds of abuse.
A simple tension wire will not do, as you can see by the damage to the top [...]
