Putting the System to Work

Once body condition scores have been determined for your horses, how can you tell what is too fat or too thin? It has been suggested that the optimum score is a 5. This horse has some fat but has not yet reached the fleshy point. A horse below a 5 may have fat stores too low to maintain a healthy status if stressed. Body fat reserves are important to the overall health of a horse because fat represents energy reserves that can be used during periods of stress. Horses at a 3 or below have virtually no fat reserves; if more energy is needed, protein is broken down from muscle to meet energy needs.
If a horse is exposed to extreme cold, lactation, or some other severe stress, a condition score of 6 or 7 would be desired. A horse can easily burn a great deal of fat in a short period of time in a high stress situation. Body fat also plays a role in reproduction. Mares with a body condition score of 3 or below develop hormonal imbalances and have difficulty conceiving.

Horses with high condition scores are also predisposed to problems, but the problems are less immediate than those of a horse in poor body condition. Fat horses tend to be less agile performers and tire more quickly than trimmer horses. Fat horses are also more prone to colic and laminitis. Extremely fat horses may also have endocrine problems, they may be hypothyroid and show a deficient metabolic rate, which most likely is one reason they are fat.

One more factor you should consider when assigning a body condition score is the basic body type of your horse. Some horses, usually the easy keepers, just tend to carry more body fat than others. A horse that always seems to score a 7 or 8, despite attempts to lower the horse’s weight, may be perfectly healthy at that score. Additionally, the horse may require more exercise to keep muscles in shape.

This body condition scoring system will by no means tell you how fit your horse is for performance. Although horses in training will have less fat due to their exercise intensity, the fat level has nothing to do with muscle tone, cardiovascular fitness, or any other measure of athletic conditioning. The scoring system also does not distinguish between types of fat deposited.