The Horse Trust, in tandem with the British Equine Veterinary Association, (BEVA), considers equine obesity to be one of the highest-ranking horse welfare risks today.  We are working with many vet and showing societies to come up with practical solutions to change human behaviour around equine obesity.

The Horse Trust created and piloted The Weigh To Win (#theweightowin) scheme in collaboration with University of Liverpool back in 2019 in order to recognise and reward exhibitors in show classes with the healthiest equine body condition.  The programme has been further developed to spread the word on how best to maintain healthy equine weight.

People get very upset by seeing underweight horses, but in reality, far more horses are obese. This is very worrying for vets who are finding that they must frequently treat horses with serious, and avoidable, health conditions such as EMS and laminitis.

Perceptions of what is a healthy weight have become skewed towards the higher body condition scores and this trend has been identified particularly in the showing classes – more than any other equine discipline. We would like to reset this balance.

Within a showing class, there is a vet or a suitably qualified person (SQP) who will carry out body condition scoring (BCS) and will present the healthiest equine with a gorgeous rosette in recognition of their achievement.  Assessing is concurrent, but independent, of the normal judging of the class.

Our approach is non-confrontational, providing access to advice if required and encouragement for owners, riders and producers.  Consistently, our winners are delighted with their rosette and will share their success with The Horse Trust and on their own social media outlets.  Their ‘influence’ really helps to promote healthier body condition scores amongst all horse and pony owners.