Equine charity shines light on the horse body condition of show horses

The Horse Trust’s Health Body Condition campaign aims to raise horse owners awareness of the ideal bodyweight for a horse, by offering prizes for optimum body condition in the show ring. 

The Horse Trust is pioneering a campaign to help tackle obesity among show horses by offering owners an incentive to keep their equines at a healthy weight. The campaign, which first ran on 2019, has proven extremely popular on the show circuit in previous years and, thanks to its success so far, some of the most prestigious shows in the country are set to take part in 2022. Shows taking part in the campaign will select classes where horses can win an additional green and gold rosette, provided by The Horse Trust. To win the horses will be assessed by a vet and be deemed to have the healthiest body condition in the class. Some of the classes in 2021 included maxi cobs, pony classes and show hunters.

In 2021 The Horse Trust handed out awards at…

• Horsham District Show, Sussex
• 34^th APHS London Counties Show
• Royal International Horse Show, Hickstead
• UK National Summer Championship
• Rye and District Country Show
• Tumpy Green Annual Summer Show, Gloucester
• Penistone Agricultural Show, Sheffield
• Open Breeds Autumn Show, Surrey

Organiser of the Great Yorkshire Show, Amanda Stoddart-West, said “We’re delighted to be involved in anything that helps re-educate people about healthy body condition in horses and think we should encourage the improvement in welfare standards generally.  The Great Yorkshire Show has been supporting The Horse Trust Project since 2019 and look forward to continuing to do so in 2022.”

The British Equine Veterinary Association considers equine obesity to be one of the greatest risks to equine health and changing owner behaviour will be the biggest catalyst for change. With this in mind The Horse Trust developed the campaign alongside Dr Tamzin Furtado, behaviour change scientist at University of Liverpool. Their aim is to raise awareness of healthy equine body condition in showing, where overweight horses often place highly, to provide guidance and to owners, riders, and producers.

Tamzin Furtado said “Horses who are overweight or ‘cresty’ are often celebrated for their condition, and we want to slightly challenge that, by awarding prizes to horses in ideal body condition.” Vet, Ben Curnow, MRCVS, who judged body condition as part of the campaign in 2019, added, “It’s not about being critical of or challenging the judges, just showcasing what ideal body condition looks like.”

Jan Rogers, Director of Research and Policy at The Horse Trust said: “We get very upset by seeing photos of underweight horses in the media, but in reality, more horses are obese than underweight. This is very worrying for vets who are finding that they must treat these horses with serious health conditions like Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Laminitis. Peoples’ perceptions of what is a healthy weight have shifted towards the higher body condition scores. We would like to help to reset this balance.”

For more information on the campaign, keep an eye out for information on The Horse Trust’s social media platforms or visit horsetrust.org.uk