Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

How to Assess Your Horse’s Body Condition Score (BCS): A step-by-step Guide

Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

How to Assess Your Horse’s Body Condition Score (BCS): A step-by-step Guide

by Valerie De Clerck on Dec 18 2025
Body Condition Score is a hands-on way to judge a horse's fat and muscle cover at six key points, and owners and vets often score the same horse differently. Here's how to assess it yourself, step by step.
How do I create a good feeding plan for my skinny horse? Step-by-step guide toward a suitable ration

Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

How do I create a good feeding plan for my skinny horse? Step-by-step guide toward a suitable ration

by Valerie De Clerck on Dec 18 2025
A horse loses weight for a reason, and finding it comes before changing what is in the bucket. This article builds a feeding plan from the ground up, covering how much forage a horse needs, when concentrates make sense, and how to adjust the ration for common causes of weight loss.
Why is my horse losing weight? The 5 veterinary steps to determine the cause.

Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

Why is my horse losing weight? The 5 veterinary steps to determine the cause.

by Valerie De Clerck on Dec 18 2025
If your horse is too thin, there is always a reason, even when it isn't visible from the outside. Here is the step-by-step process your vet follows, from a clinical exam and manure check through dental work, blood tests and gastroscopy, to find the cause.
What Do My Horse’s Blood Values Mean? How a veterinarian interprets them

Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

What Do My Horse’s Blood Values Mean? How a veterinarian interprets them

by Valerie De Clerck on Dec 18 2025
A veterinarian walks through the blood values that matter most in a weight-loss workup, from red and white cell counts to liver enzymes, insulin, and ACTH, and explains what each one can reveal about a horse that isn't holding condition.
Why Your Horse Won't Gain Weight and How to Fix It

Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

Why Your Horse Won't Gain Weight and How to Fix It

by Valerie De Clerck on Nov 27 2024
If your horse stays thin despite deworming, dental care and vet checks, the real issue is often gut health and absorption rather than how much you feed. This article covers forage basics, protein and amino acids, low-starch oil sources, and gut support for helping a hard keeper actually gain condition.
This is how you treat an underweight horse

Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

This is how you treat an underweight horse

by Valerie De Clerck on Sep 21 2023
Feeding more is often the last thing an underweight horse needs, not the first. This article explains how to confirm a horse is underweight using body condition scoring, find the underlying cause, and build a feeding plan around it.
Why is my horse too skinny?

Expert Horse Health & Wellbeing Advice

Why is my horse too skinny?

by Valerie De Clerck on Sep 21 2023
Weight loss in horses is rarely random. Here's how to check your horse's body condition and work through the most common medical and dietary reasons behind it, from dental pain to parasites.