Just like people, oversize horses are seen as unhealthy individuals and are liable to a series of health issues due to their indulgent weight. Every one has their own perception of what equates heavy and in the equine race that is even more complicated to decide.

Several experts say that we are on the border of an epidemic of obesity in the equine world because the mass of horse owners don't consider or don't know how to determine if their are horses are obese or not.

Modern studies and figures show that overweight horses are a growing issue and so are the physical problems related to it, like Laminitis, Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) and DOD (developmental orthopaedic disease).

To attend to this problem accordingly horse owners first need to know how to predetermine if their horses are overweight or not. Many commit the error of comparing with other animals in the yard. But with horses you need to apply an objective measure to your horse to tell if he is heavy or not.

Back in 1989 a semi objective measure of obese was developed and circulated by equine publications worldwide to help owners determine if their animals were fat, obese or in good shape. This measuring plan was named conditioning scoring. Recently this procedure has been remodeled and renamed to "Fat Scoring" and it has been used by major Roadshows and Championships around the sphere.

This new procedure uses numbers from 0 to 5, where 0 is a very thin horse and 5 an obese horse. The ideal is to 2 or 3, 4 is considered fat.

What risks are posed to fat and obese horses?

Fat animals are prone to laminitis, equine metabolic syndrome and metabolic disorders that could lead to many diseases and gradual loss of vitality. Excessive weight can also affect the immune and reproductive systems, not to mention that has clear long term fitness consequences.

Horses are very much alike to us people when the subject is fitness. Just like a body builder a beefy show horse that looks fat is not fat at all because the bulk is muscle. Just like marathon runners, racehorses look thin and mean but in fact they have a fat score of 2 or 3 maximum.

When it comes down to determine if a horse is heavy each case should be addressed exclusively. Sometimes extra workout is not enough and you will need a feeding plan with specially formulated horse feeds.