DR LYDIA GRAY: So, this station is body condition scoring. Who has done it before?
Nobody yet? Okay, two people have done it before. All right.
I expect you to be quite good at it. No pressure.
The scale ranges from what to what?
CROWD: One to...
DR LYDIA GRAY: One to nine with one being…
UNKNOWN: Emaciated.
DR LYDIA GRAY: The thin, and nine being the…
CROWD: Obese.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Right, okay, so what to be like most horses and most disciplines to be?
CROWD: Five.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Fives, yeah, that’s kind of what we’re aiming for. There are six areas
that we look at and let me emphasize we’re looking at fat cover. We’re not assessing
his muscling, that's sort of a different scale. We’re just looking at his fat cover, so what
are those six areas?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Okay, the neck is one. What’s the second area.
CROWD: Ribs.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Ribs is another one. So we have two so far.
CROWD: Withers.
DR LYDIA GRAYs: Withers is the third one.
CROWD: Right above the tail.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Say it again.
CROWD: Right above the tail.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yes, so let’s call it tailhead. That’s four. Behind the shoulder is five,
good and then there is one more.
You may have said it already. Did you say it?
CROWD: What did you answer?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Say something.
CROWD: Topline.
DR LYDIA GRAY: So, topline is what you said, I’m going to tweak it to the loin area and
the back, the top of the horse. So it’s, top line can mean different things to different
people. Maybe we’ll see where it is, all right we have a horse? Yay, okay!
So, I'm going to let you guys go first and then we’ll talk about you, yeah. So, you guys
are doing neck.
CROWD: Okay.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Just in the neck, yeah, and then you’re going to give us a score and
then we’re going to talk about it. Go ahead.
CROWD: Can we touch him?
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yes, yeah.
CROWD: You can touch him.
DR LYDIA GRAY: That’s the thing with body condition scoring. You have to look and touch.
It’s very hard to body condition a horse just from looking, and you can touch too.
CROWD: I don't want to crowd him.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Do you have a number in your head?
Why don't you guys confer and then I’ll touch.
Okay, you guys talk. So, what’s this part up here under the mane like right here? Anatomical,
it is a crest, it’s a nuchal crest, so this is all ligament, right? And some horses have
a cresty neck here, but if you don’t and those flies – if you don’t like I’m
like wiggling and dancing - then this is not an area that I tend to spend too much time
on. I kind of go right here. And it’s like oh, that’s not how I like to be petted,
exactly. So I go, hi. I go right here.
What’s down here? The vertebrae. The vertebrae are much lower than people think. They are
in this spot. So this is your triangle for shots, because your vertebrae are here, nuchal
ligament here.
So, what number do you guys come up with?
CROWD: We say five or six.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And what's you’re thinking behind that? I like five, just so you know?
So what's your thinking?
CROWD: Well, he’s definitely not skinny, but there was a little crestiness happening.
DR LYDIA GRAY: I’m not appreciating that as much as you all are.
I wouldn’t want him any thinner than this. As a horse in heavy work performing at his
level, I wouldn’t want him any thinner. Okay, so let’s go with five on the neck.
CROWD: Okay.
DR LYDIA GRAY: All right, so the next area is the withers, and I think I’m going to
put you two up.
CROWD: Okay.
DR LYDIA GRAY: And good for her for introducing herself to the horse first and not just walking
up and "Ahh!".
So, you two confer. I liked where they were touching. You feel and look here, and you
can kind of see the individual dorsal spinus processes. Can you guys see that from where
you are? Okay, and then you can see the top of his shoulder and a little bit of indentation
right here. So the horse that I would give a really high score, this is your hint, a
really high score to would not have this indentation here. We've filled up with fat, okay. So,
what did you guys give his withers?
CROWD: I gave it a five.
DR LYDIA GRAY: You did, what do the rest of you think?
If you think five, raise your hand.
If you think six, raise your hand.
If you think four, raise your hand. Okay, so we’re going to go with four. Yeah, or
maybe even a 4.5.
CROWD: Okay.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Yeah, but I don’t think it can be five because there is a dip, and because
I can see each little, you can see that, right? Okay, all right. So, next one is behind the
shoulder, who hasn’t gone yet? You guys.
DR LYDIA GRAY: Jump up there. You don't have to touch where she did, go where you think
it is.
There you go. It’s like the Marco polo! Hot, cold.
Is this your "on" button?
Alright, so you guys confer. You have to move your head. So this is the shoulder right?
And the place on the Henneke scale is behind the shoulder. I kind of go right here. So
one group went in the girth area and sort of and one group went down the leg, and I
noticed you went sort of underneath. I go right here, and I notice something. Do you all?
Okay, okay. So what did you guys come up with?
CROWD: He's probably like a six.
DR LYDIA GRAY: You agree? What do you guys think?
We can go with the six. Here he is beginning to carry some more fat cover, right? Like
you look at this horse and you go, oh, oh and as you go on. So I’m going just because
I know the rest of his, the rest of his, I'm going to give him a five, hey don’t
do that. Oh goodness. Now he is a 5! A 5.5. Right, okay.
Our next area is ribs. Who hasn't gone yet? You guys haven't gone, right.
We have six areas. Oh, no, no, no.
Okay that looks tasty.
You smell like hay, he likes you.
These are the ribs.
Alright, confer. You stay there. I tend not to do like this. I feel like this, and you
can see how much I’m, I’m putting some effort here, yeah. And I’m pressing. And
there are ribs. But you can’t, can you see the ribs? Okay, so a five and you have the
cheat sheet here, just so you guys know. At five you can occasionally see a rib, like
when he was doing his circus trick and some stretching and itching, you could see ribs,
but when he is when he is standing - hey! - you can’t really and I’m having to press
pretty hard to get it. So what number would you guys like to give the ribs?
CROWD: 6.
DR LYDIA GRAY: What do you guys think?
5.5?
Going once, going twice.
I could live with either of those. So let’s go with the 5.5. Okay. Our next area is the
crease down the back. So who hasn’t gone yet?
There’s lots of finger pointing and have you guys gone? Oh hop up here.
Or come on down or whatever yeah.
Alright who is your partner? Oh, yeah.
Alright, so I like where you guys were looking. So I think you're all at a good angle to see.
This is the crease down the back that we're talking about, and he is pretty flat or level.
Some horses they keep this all the way down, and so their spinus, their dorsal spinus processes
stick up all the way down, and some horses have an inverted crease here and so you could
pour like water and it would like go "prruuu" and either come down here or down here. He
is pretty flat here until you get about here. So what do you want to call him?
What did you guys?
Five and three quarters, I know. Let’s go with five and a half. Is everybody good with
that? Okay. And then we have one more, did everybody go? Okay I’ll just do this one.
So the last one is the tailhead, and can you see if he is here and I’m here and I just
do this a lot. So it’s right where the tail sticks into the body, right? And one of the
descriptors I really like is that the area is feeling spongy - it’s definitely feeling
spongy. So I would like to give this a 6. So from like head to toe he kind of went 4.5,
5, 5.5, 6. Yeah. So with all of those numbers what then is his final overall score?
This horse?
Say it? Yeah, 5.5. We gave him a 5.5 the other day. If we have time there is another horse
we can look at that might not be a 5.5. So these are very tight numbers. I mean they
range from 4.5 to 5. So you didn’t have a lot of difference to look at. So he's not
a great model for that.