This is the time of year that people are asking, “Is my mini too fat?”
Over the years I have done my fair share of rescuing. And though I have rescued some ponies that foundered from too much grass, many of the minis I rescued were actually too thin. I understand that people are worried about founder and they should be! However one should educate ones self about how a mini founders. Because they can actually founder when they are too thin as well. Being fat doesn’t always mean they will founder and keeping them too thin doesn’t insure they will never founder.
I wanted to share this comparison because I find it very interesting!
The photo on the left was taken today. I spent some time doing a trace clip on Sky because she has been getting way too hot when we are driving. It turned out she had A LOT of hair hanging on under there! The photo on the right was take this last Sunday. It took it to show how fat she is, showing how she is fat on her tummy and her neck. However when you look at the photo on the left you can see her neck is not fat at all! And her tummy isn’t as fat as it appears in the other photo. Don’t get me wrong. She is still overweight (I had some blood drawn on her on Monday so we can see if something is going on metabolically) but I was sure happy to see how she cleaned up today!
This is an interesting comparison as well! The photo on the left was take when I first brought her home, before Crypto Aero. The next photo is Sky last summer after eating Crypto Aero for a few months (I flipped that photo so she was facing the right way). She sure did look awesome!! Then the right middle is Sky last winter before we had snow (that photo is also flipped). Quite fluffy but so peachy! The far right photo was taken today. I’m happy to see that she is much darker in her winter coat than last spring and actually hasn’t gained as much weight as I first thought! With all the driving we will be doing I think she will look even better this summer than last!
I think it’s actually kind of amazing that all these photos are the same horse! It just goes to show that it’s actually quite difficult to judge a horse by it’s photo. Not all photos are equal or even ‘good’ which makes judging a horses weight very difficult. Just some food for thought!