Many times I hear people say 'oh it's an off the track horse, it is supposed to be skinny and ribby'. Well not exactly. Most off the track horses can put on weight and look very nicely covered, if they don't they are not getting fed right.
Then there are the people who just want everything very fat. used to the quarter horse look and a lot of very bunchy muscle and (sorry to say) many horses over fattened for the halter ring.
There are exceptions to the track horse always being able to look very finished and covered. Some of them are very rangy, lanky and tall just naturally. They may not get a lot of cover on their ribs, they may have a little bit of an upside down neck (ewe neck), but they should not have their hips sticking out ragged and their back unprotected by muscle and fat, then we know they are too thin.
There ARE some Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds that are just slim. They just don't put on a lot of surface fat. And they never look really good until they are in a fair amount of work that develops their muscles. Until they get muscled up they look a little poorly. If you try to fatten them up, they still don't look right, they just get a belly. The key is the musculature, getting good muscle to develop on the back and top of neck and top of croup. That is a matter of feeding good quality feed and hay and work that develops muscles properly.
A picture of the horse without tack and rider would be better, as the saddle covers the withers and back and I need to see that to give a guess as his condition.
Just from this photo I would say this horse is not too thin. But as I said this isn't the best picture to tell from, and quite often, the best thing is to put my hands on the horse and look it over from a few different angles. But if I had to say from this photo, I would say, no the horse is not too thin.
It is from my guess, a horse that doesn't have a lot of 'round', the neck crest just is not naturally very thick and round and the back is long and rangy. Like many standardbreds this horse might have a little bit of a ewe neck where there is not a lot of round crst to the neck, they don't put fat on their neck like that. That's possible, I need to see another pic with him not turning his neck around to be sure.
Not enough MUSCLE, yes. But that is another matter. It takes a long time to muscle up an off the standardbred track horse especially in the back and top of neck, and a lot of very gradually more work under saddle. The harness horse does not develop the same type of back muscle the saddle horse or pack horse does.
If he was mine, I would be riding him very lightly to start aout 3 times a week for 10 or 15 minutes, and just doing a little bit of circles and bending (not his head around to my knee, just his whole neck and body in one very smooth even bend say a 60' diameter circle, just so you barely see the shine of his eye) and stretching down to start the muscles in the top of the neck and back working. Then I would oh so slowly add a little more every couple weeks. First in an arena and adding a little bit of up and down hill as time went on.
The old fashioned way of conditioning standardbred track horses has about died out now, but there are still a few trainers who keep them fit as hard as nails and trot or pace them on intervals at the track - trot a couple miles, rest 30 min or so, trot some more miles, over and over, day after day. They can be in hard hard condtion like that and never blow or sweat and yet not have any back muscle for a saddle. Or they can be in lesser conditiion if worked the more short cut type of way, and not have any back, LOL. Or yours could have been laid up with no work for some time due to an injury and come to you soft and out of shape AND with no back muscle, lol!
People scoff at being 'just a trail or pack horse' and boy are they wrong. It is a demanding activity and requires a lot of soundness, wind and muscle from a horse.
If he was destined to be a pack and trail horse I would make sure he got a lot of walk exercise up and down hills, putting his head down and using his neck as that helps to develop the back. Another trick is to put their hay and feed bucket down on the ground so they stretch when they eat. Sometimes standardbred horses they don't like to stretch their neck down as they are harnessed with an overcheck that keeps their head up and they get out of the habit of stretching down when working. Rewarding them for stretching down and they quickly learn.
The whole trick of moving a horse to a new sport is gradual change, with the work gradually changing over. It can take up to a year or more to 'turn a horse over' (put muscle on his neck and back).
Then there are the people who just want everything very fat. used to the quarter horse look and a lot of very bunchy muscle and (sorry to say) many horses over fattened for the halter ring.
There are exceptions to the track horse always being able to look very finished and covered. Some of them are very rangy, lanky and tall just naturally. They may not get a lot of cover on their ribs, they may have a little bit of an upside down neck (ewe neck), but they should not have their hips sticking out ragged and their back unprotected by muscle and fat, then we know they are too thin.
There ARE some Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds that are just slim. They just don't put on a lot of surface fat. And they never look really good until they are in a fair amount of work that develops their muscles. Until they get muscled up they look a little poorly. If you try to fatten them up, they still don't look right, they just get a belly. The key is the musculature, getting good muscle to develop on the back and top of neck and top of croup. That is a matter of feeding good quality feed and hay and work that develops muscles properly.
A picture of the horse without tack and rider would be better, as the saddle covers the withers and back and I need to see that to give a guess as his condition.
Just from this photo I would say this horse is not too thin. But as I said this isn't the best picture to tell from, and quite often, the best thing is to put my hands on the horse and look it over from a few different angles. But if I had to say from this photo, I would say, no the horse is not too thin.
It is from my guess, a horse that doesn't have a lot of 'round', the neck crest just is not naturally very thick and round and the back is long and rangy. Like many standardbreds this horse might have a little bit of a ewe neck where there is not a lot of round crst to the neck, they don't put fat on their neck like that. That's possible, I need to see another pic with him not turning his neck around to be sure.
Not enough MUSCLE, yes. But that is another matter. It takes a long time to muscle up an off the standardbred track horse especially in the back and top of neck, and a lot of very gradually more work under saddle. The harness horse does not develop the same type of back muscle the saddle horse or pack horse does.
If he was mine, I would be riding him very lightly to start aout 3 times a week for 10 or 15 minutes, and just doing a little bit of circles and bending (not his head around to my knee, just his whole neck and body in one very smooth even bend say a 60' diameter circle, just so you barely see the shine of his eye) and stretching down to start the muscles in the top of the neck and back working. Then I would oh so slowly add a little more every couple weeks. First in an arena and adding a little bit of up and down hill as time went on.
The old fashioned way of conditioning standardbred track horses has about died out now, but there are still a few trainers who keep them fit as hard as nails and trot or pace them on intervals at the track - trot a couple miles, rest 30 min or so, trot some more miles, over and over, day after day. They can be in hard hard condtion like that and never blow or sweat and yet not have any back muscle for a saddle. Or they can be in lesser conditiion if worked the more short cut type of way, and not have any back, LOL. Or yours could have been laid up with no work for some time due to an injury and come to you soft and out of shape AND with no back muscle, lol!
People scoff at being 'just a trail or pack horse' and boy are they wrong. It is a demanding activity and requires a lot of soundness, wind and muscle from a horse.
If he was destined to be a pack and trail horse I would make sure he got a lot of walk exercise up and down hills, putting his head down and using his neck as that helps to develop the back. Another trick is to put their hay and feed bucket down on the ground so they stretch when they eat. Sometimes standardbred horses they don't like to stretch their neck down as they are harnessed with an overcheck that keeps their head up and they get out of the habit of stretching down when working. Rewarding them for stretching down and they quickly learn.
The whole trick of moving a horse to a new sport is gradual change, with the work gradually changing over. It can take up to a year or more to 'turn a horse over' (put muscle on his neck and back).
