Alfalfa Cubes

I don't think it was meant to be rude. I think he/she was trying to explain their horses body condition to you. Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't think it was meant to be rude.

You said yourself your horse is a hard keeper and has always been thinner..... maybe you're just getting too defensive?

As far as weight, different ppl keep horses differently. Some like a bit leaner horse, some like a fat horse, some like this, some like that. It's preference. A horse can be a leaner weight and still be healthy. I'd rather have one a tad thin rather than over weight.

Nyg - you don't judge a horse's weight just off their belly. You have to look at the overall horse.

When you get pictures tonight get some straight on side pics and some from directly in front and directly from behind.

I never judged the op's horses weight. They want to put more weight on and so I offered the suggestion of feeding more hay since 10lbs a day isn't sufficient.

I would like mine to weigh more yes and the vet will be out again next month but do to her life circumstances she is a bit harder.
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Its really hard to judge from pics, especially when they have winter hair. You really do need to have hands on to get an accurate idea. Different light, shadows and angles can really change a photo.

Here is how to body score your horse. Belly doesn't at all indicate overall weight. You score individual areas and they will ascertain an overall score of flesh on a horse. The horse in the top picture looks like about a solid 4- 4.5 give or take to me. He isnt a 5. I think the pictures might be a tad bit kind overall but this horse is not in bad flesh. If I were to be nitpicky, Id probably try to get him to a solid 5 or 5.5 if it were mine for the winter and slim down to about this weight, maybe a hair heavier, for the summer.

http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/PDFpubs/1010.pdf


You might consider just letting the horsee on the round roll all the time and just putting a slow feeding net over it to slow his intake down and greatly reduce waste. You can make your own really cheaply from netting off Ebay.

I weighed the bucket of hay for the evening feed and it was about 7 lbs so I would say he gets between 14-16 lbs of hay per day. Here are some pics of him:

He looks fine to me Nyg

Appreciate it

He really just looks like he needs some muscle, especially along the topline and bum area.

What a cutie - a little fitness/muscling and he'll be even better, but his weight looks fine.