Tuesday tips: How do you tell if your horse is fit?

This time of year has us looking at our horses, wondering–do they have enough fat? Too much? Are they keeping their fitness from earlier in the year?

We posted earlier this year about an assessment system that can help you decide whether your horse needs to gain or lose weight. If you’ve got a fairly fit horse and are seeing some minor changes, it may be a loss of fitness if you haven’t been able to work out in rough weather.

Your veterinarian can recommend some good tips on bringing a horse back to work after some time off, and could also help you decide what you’re dealing with in terms of equine fitness. For background, we were fascinated by a recent article from the fabulous folks at Horse Nation, which teaches us how to measure a horse’s resting heart rate and what changes to expect post-exercise.