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Post by Lavender on Jul 18, 2011 13:22:49 GMT
I know most are talking about Youngsters, but I just watched the ridden hunters at the Royal Welsh Show, Champion and Reserve ridden by Robert & Claire Oliver were both beautiful examples of fit, well muscled show horses without being overweight!! It is difficult showing youngsters though, my own yearling is out in the field at the moment I can, from a judges point of view, see why they don't put them down, it is difficult to judge them in the rough so to speak, easier to see them as mature youngsters and almost the finished article!! Many, many people just cannot see a horse in the rough, including some judges out there Also to add, would you put a fat animal down for being fat, even if it was easily the best example of it's breed/type? I'm afraid this subject will always rumble on!!
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Post by nag777 on Jul 18, 2011 14:40:00 GMT
I would expect any good judge to be able to recognise a quality youngster without "the layers"...
Personally speaking I would put down a fat horse - for welfare reasons if nothing else
All we keep hearing from Breed Societies is that they are "discouraging" fat animals and encouraging judges to penalise when in fact this does not always seem to be evident from those winning the "reds"
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Mojo
Full Member
Posts: 208
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Post by Mojo on Jul 18, 2011 15:39:29 GMT
Snoopers was always on the leaner side of condition, and he was never (knowingly) penalised for it. And he was VERY fit! With Mo, he is a 'good doer'...or so I thought. Compared to some of the 3 year olds at the Highland this year, Mo was almost lean and athletic looking...! ;D I think its difficult with babies as they arent doing 'proper' work so it can be hard to keep weight off them without grazing muzzles or restricted grazing. From a judges point of view, I hate seeing overweight horses, just for the sake of it, and I have placed obese horses lower down the line as a result... I must admit though I didnt tell the owner that was the reason tho...for fear of being chased off the showground and beaten with big sticks...
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Post by sparkler on Jul 18, 2011 17:27:15 GMT
I have put several horses down the line and "gently" explained that I like your horse but its carrying too much weight - for this I have suffered earache, rudeness and worst of all arrogance from some of the handlers - if you cant judge a youngster unless its carrying weight you should not be judging at all. Also if you put your horse up for judging, thats exactly what you get - like it or not. Keeping weight off is hard work, but its not impossible.
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jimbo
Junior Member
Posts: 23
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Post by jimbo on Jul 21, 2011 13:27:02 GMT
It seems I did stir up a bit of a hornets nest with this one. We have taken a decision to show our lot, in particular the youngstock, very selectively and this decision solely based on our wish to keep our horses at a good weight for health reasons. As an interesting aside, our farrier is a well respected judge and he recently visited to have a look at one of our foals. Whilst here he took the opportunity to look at our yearling and 2 yr olds. At the time the wee man was a right ragamuffin, still had huge tufts of winter coat and was quite lean. He really liked what he saw, he has excellent conformation and movement, but he advised us that if anyone came to see him with a view to purchase to make sure we took our 2yr old filly out the field. She is a bit of an eye catcher and a real good doer so she carries a bit more weight and is a more warmblood build. His view was that most people wouldn't be able to see past her, despite being equals as far as conformation and movement are concerned. If anyone is interested in seeing photos and videos of our lot they are on the Fairoaks Stud facebook page. Personally I think there are some classes where heavier horses are likely to be higher placed.
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