Based on this thread about eating horse meat, I was wondering - why are there no fat horses?
laughs and laughs
There are plenty of fat horses. Many horses that are kept as pets only are overweight to obese. Well-kept horses tend towards fat, unless they have owners that are on top of that.
Racehorses, by nature of their job, are not fat. Just like human athletes are not fat and racing greyhounds are not fat.
But the ones who are kept solely as pets, and even some that are used in dressage and other showing events can become quite fat.
Large animals are different from perhaps dogs, cats, and humans, in that it may be harder for someone who does not know what “normal” is to consider a horse to be “in shape”, when in reality it is borderline obese. Horses do not tend to collect as much fat in their legs, thoracic area, and face. But they do accumulate plenty of fat in their abdomen and dorsal area (around the spine). You may not see fluffy fat, but there is plenty more fat than what the animal needs.
“No fat horses?” I guess you meant “'few fat horses.” True, it’s not that common, but I’ve seen a few extrememly well-padded horses in my time. I’ll leave it to the real biologists to answer, though, why it’s not common, although I suspect it’s natural selection (fatter=slower=easy prey=less likely to pass on those traits–or something like that).
KarlGrenze’s got it. It’s not that there are no fat horses, it’s that you don’t know what fat horses look like.
There are lots & lots of fat horses around.
How to tell if your horse is fat
Since our horses live outside they need to put on weight in the Fall to survive the freezing cold weather for 3 months. (They also get a thick fur coat due to the shorter days in Fall and Winter.)
In the spring we can work them more and they lose any extra weight quickly, and by mid-Summer they are closer to their normal ‘working’ weight. Just like us their weight fluctuates depending on the circumstances. As long as they are kept active and healthy they can manage having some extra weight just fine.
There are certainly obese horses and these are usually horses that are allowed to free feed year round and are never exercised. Horses that are penned up spend most of their day eating and just standing around. You have to make an effort to get them in shape and some horse owners just don’t bother, which leads to an obese horse.
The vet often “yells” at my gf about her horses. One is too fat, the other is either too fat or too skinny depending on time of year (he is ancient. we bulk him up in the summer and he becomes rail thin off pasture in the winter).
Overweight horses are at risk of laminitis a crippling-to-fatal inflammation of the hoof wall. Comparatively being overweight is “bad” for a dog, but it won’t make his feet fall off like it will a horse. So horse owners get VERY stern talkings-to about their animals being overweight. Moreover, most horses are kept at boarding barns and ignorant owners don’t necessarily have the opportunity to overfeed. Hopefully the barn manager has a clue.
And yes, some horses are remarably porky, if you know what you’re looking at. Of course, as stated, most people don’t.
It’s amazing what .03 seconds on Google image search can do for you:
Fat Pony
Another Fat Pony - scroll down to the second one
… and on and on.
Some years ago I adopted a rescued donkey. I didn’t know nuthin’ 'bout taking care of no “longears”, so I located an expert on mules and donks. He told me the two most important things I could do to ensure the donk’s living a long life was to de-worm him regularly and not let him get fat.
I kept my donk at a boarding ranch that had stalls (in barns), corrals with sheds, and pasture-boarding with shelters. I fattened my guy up for winter (as he was pasture-boarded), and then slimmed him down for summer. FWIW, I saw lots of chubby horses year-round in the stalls and corrals.
This one has a “wide load” quality that makes me suspect pregnancy instead of, or in addition to, obesity.
Yeah, but since it was illustrating the causes of laminitis, I figured it was right for the topic. Besides, the search turned up a disturbing amount of obviously-Photoshopped grotesque exaggerations and I didn’t have time to weed through them all.
Fat horses are quite common now. Especially with horses kept at boarding stables, where the owner gets out to ride them infrequently, like only once a week or less.
One of the growing markets in equine feed is for special feeds for fat horses – generally named ‘Maintenance’ or ‘Senior’ feeds.
Back when I had my first horse, a half Arabian, I had him boarded for a while at a show Quarter Horse barn. If you know anything at all about horse breeds, you will know how DIFFERENT those 2 types are.
The stable owner was only familiar with the QH type, and wanted Star to look the same, so he always fed him extra, even tho I asked him not to. He also wanted to pull Star’s mane to a nice, short QH mane! I was able to convince him Arabs were SUPPOSED to have long, flowing manes, but he just couldn’t get it that he was feeding my horse WAY too much.
Star ended up looking like a blimp with legs in short order. I moved him from that barn after just a few months because I didn’t want him that fat.
Here you are a bit confused. There are feeds out there for plump equines but they aren’t labeled “Senior.” “Senior” feed is high in fiber so that horses who cannot chew as well can still get sufficient bulk for healthy digestion. Typically Senior is on the higher side for fat content. Senior feed is made of pureed ingredients that are extruded into pellets and are formulated to dissolve in water so you can make a mash for horses who basically can’t chew.
Purina Equine Senior is a pelleted feed with 5% fat and 14% protein. It is a complete feed - the horse does not require forage (hay or pasture).
Purina Omolene 100 (yer basic average sweet feed for horses that just putz around) is a mixture of whole grains and is 4% fat, 10% protein. It must be fed in addition to forage.
Purina WellSolve W/C is their porkpie feed, it is also pelleted and contains 12% protein and 1% fat, and less than 15% sugar/starch carbohydrates. It must be fed in addition to forage.
Some breeds, such as Shetland ponies, originally come from places with very harsh conditions (ie the Shetlands). If they’re put in green pastures with plenty of grass they will soon be far too fat and pretty ill. Unfortunately this happens far too often.