{"id":46055,"date":"2022-08-17T04:05:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T08:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ehorses.com\/magazine\/?post_type=news&#038;p=46055"},"modified":"2022-08-17T04:12:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T08:12:08","slug":"study-overweight-horses-favoured-at-shows","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.ehorses.com\/magazine\/news\/study-overweight-horses-favoured-at-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Study: Overweight horses favoured at shows?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<strong>According to a study, overweight ponies are rated better in competitions than leaner ones. And this despite the fact that overweight ponies have a higher health risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to a study by <strong>Shannon Pratt-Phillips<\/strong>, PhD, professor of equine nutrition at the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and colleagues, overweight horses are favoured in competitions. Although obesity is <strong>very dangerous<\/strong> for horses and can bring many diseases, judges score them better.<\/p>\n<p>There is a<strong> positive correlation<\/strong> between higher body condition scores (BSC) and the score ponies received from judges who assessed conformation and appearance. This suggests that <strong>fat ponies are favoured<\/strong> over lean ones at trials. This could have implications for the health and welfare of the horses<\/p>\n<h2>Implementation<\/h2>\n<p>The body condition and the cresty neck scores of <strong>347 ponies<\/strong> were evaluated. The ponies were prepared for the in-hand phase at the 2021 United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Pony Finals. The <strong>mean BCS<\/strong> (on a 9-point scale) was 6.8, and the mean cresty neck score (on a 5-point scale) was 2.9, indicating <strong>most ponies were overweight<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There were definitely some ponies that were scoring an 8 or an 8.25, and there were maybe 10 ponies that were a BCS of less than 6,&#8221; Pratt-Phillips said. An ideal BCS, she added, is<strong> generally around a 5<\/strong>,when the pony has enough fat coverage that you can&#8217;t necessarily see the ribs, but they&#8217;re easily felt.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, the cresty neck score s<strong>hould be less than 2<\/strong>, she added, though properly developed muscle isn&#8217;t an issue. &#8220;It&#8217;s actually been shown that fat within the crest of the neck is more metabolically active (than fat deposits in some other locations) and potentially a bit more dangerous in terms of promoting inflammatory conditions, such as <strong>equine metabolic syndrome<\/strong> (EMS),&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<h2>Obesity leads to disease<\/h2>\n<p>But EMS is not the only problem with overweight horses.<strong> Laminitis<\/strong> is also a major risk. In addition, overweight horses are also exercised and ridden; joints and limbs are more likely to suffer wear and tear due to <strong>the heavy weight<\/strong>. In old age, this could also lead to problems.<\/p>\n<p>Pratt-Phillips is now appealing for better awareness of overweight horses. Overweight horses should not be supported. <strong>People should realise<\/strong> that there are health risks for fat horses just as there are for horses that are too thin. Both judges and pony owners should <strong>be aware of the weight<\/strong> of the animal to act accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>Source: Study:<a href=\"http:\/\/Judges favour adiposity in athletic show ponies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Judges favour adipoity in athletic show ponies\u00a0<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]According to a study, overweight ponies are rated better in competitions than leaner ones. And&hellip;","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":46062,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46055","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equestrianism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Study: Overweight horses favoured at shows? - ehorses Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to a study, overweight ponies are rated better in competitions than leaner ones. And this despite higher health risk. 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