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What does your vet say? Have they assessed her for pregnancy recently? If I remember correctly youâve only had her a few months, correct?
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Do you have a photo of work under saddle?
I had a warmblood mare who looked like a Shetland pony in the paddock. In work she looked totally different. So extreme that people asked who I was riding and were in disbelief when I said her name.
Look up Henneke horse body fat scoring system. They evaluate fat at several places like back and tail head but not belly droop because that can be affected by bloating unrelated to body fat or by pregnancy.
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To answer your basic question, belly conformation can vary. That is why Mattes, for example, makes girths of different shapes. To accommodate different barrel types and how that may affect saddle fit.
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So I see a trace of ribs (good) and a lack of topline muscle on her haunch. She has no fat pads on her withers. This horse is at a good weight but could use more muscle development. You might want to check the protein on her diet overall. I see nothing wrong with her belly here. If her belly changes over the course of the day itâs no. Fat, itâs bloat or dehydration.
Question: why are you so preoccupied with this aspect of your horses body given that she is at a good normal weight? Is this your first horse, are you young? If so Iâll reassure you there is no problem here except lack of butt muscle. I will add that for horse or human, itâs easy for us to fixate on one body part and not see the body as a whole or not see the body as functional. Iâd suggest stop worrying about her stomach itâs perfectly normal for her build.
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I had a TB gelding who was rather âbroad in the beamâ that even when he was 1* eventing fit, looked a bit like that. He was definitely well sprung through the rib cage and narrowed noticeably to his girth pocket. He did benefit from a girth that was anatomic, and liked the Saddle Fit shape as where the saddle sat comfortably on him was well behind where the girth wanted to sit.
Iâve had some people tell me that itâs a sign of a hay belly, where a lot of fiber fermentation is generating plenty of gas giving a more bloated appearance. Most senior feeds are high in crude fiber which could be contributing.
I have a warmblood mare with a âfood babyâ. Now she has plenty of topline fat but her belly gets rather large in the summer. She never met a blade of grass she didnât like and she has a large pasture full of it. Lots of roughage will fill out the belly. It is not unhealthy to eat a lot of fiber but she isnât model thin. I would rather have that than have the horse tucked up looking unless she was in a high performance sport which she is notâŠ
@kirium, I just wanted to let you know that there is no better way to get hits on your thread than to change the title to something like âdeletedâ.
I am not sure why you deleted your original post and all your comments, it looks like you were given some great answers.
Thank you to the posters who quoted,
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actually when I press to delete the post it says that I canât delete it. kinda dumb that you canât delete your own posts but whatever. also I renamed it because I donât want any more answers, i already got all the answers I was looking for
You can not remove the original post once there are any comments.
This is a discussion forum. Someone asks a question, others answer it. They take their time to provide assistance. That is why you can not just delete the whole topic. That is kind of rude to those who helped you by giving an answer.
When you get enough answers just let the thread fall down the list and people will stop seeing it and stop responding but it is still there if you want to update others later or if someone else has the same quesiton.
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I dont want any more answers on the post and I donât want pictures of my horse just on this website so thatâs why I took it down. again, itâs dumb that you canât delete your own post. you replying to my post was just giving it more recognition and itâs not going to change anything so why bother replying in the first place? ârude to those who helpedâ all people did was tell me that my horse was either pregnant (which I know for a fact sheâs not) or just say that it dosent matter how my horse looks and that I should just accept it basically. nobody said anything actually helpful.
If you know that sheâs not pregnant, what are you looking for?
Just like humans, horses can be out of shape and have a belly, some of which is fat and some of which is lack of muscle tone. And just like humans, the solution is typically diet and exercise. I have no issues with senior feed for non-senior horses. And she doesnât look too thin now, but she would probably look better with more conditioning.
What does her training schedule look like? If youâve only had her a few months, it might take quite a while to get her back into good condition. When a horse is underweight, a lot of the first few months of regaining weight may not be that obvious, as a lot of internal structures need to regain strength, etc.
When I got a very undernourished TB, still nursing a foal, it took nearly a year before she really looked good. She gained weight easily but had a pot belly (post baby belly - but also lack of abdominal muscles). It did go away and even now as a 27 year old who has been retired for years - she looks very fit. But it took time.
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Yes, many new members are surprised to find out that you canât delete a thread here, though you can alter the title and content. The reason is that these threads really do collect a lot of serious thoughtful commentary by very experienced horse people including pro trainers and breeders. People put thought and good will into replying. Also they often quote the original post so it remains visible even if the original poster deletes it.
The reason for this is that COTH is a discussion group and indeed a valuable resource on horse care. People often search the forum for a similar question before they post. I have myself learned so much by reading threads on all kinds of topics. Because the commentors often put more time into replying, and more knowledge, than the original poster, we do find it quite rude when a poster deletes their question, and it gives the impression the poster doesnât like or value the answers.
Now that you know all this, welcome to COTH and feel free to ask away!!
Iâd add that the never disappears aspect of these threads means we all need to be careful not to post things we may regret next morning 
like posts that contain enough information to identify your trainer or barn etc.
I realize that many teens these days are used to the evansecent nature of apps like Snapchat that disappear quickly, but COTH is a different structure and different purpose.
It is also the best horse forum Iâve found on any platform, for both depth of experience as well as scope of content.
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you asking that just proves youâre speaking on something you know nothing about. I said in my original post I work her 5 times a day so thatâs why I was confused why she had the belly. Iâve now found my answer on a different website after getting no tips or advice from any of the people who replied to me on this website. Iâm done speaking about this hence why I wanted to delete the post but after I found out I couldnât, I renamed it and deleted all my text. just leave me alone, youâre obviously bringing a lot more attention to this post. just let it die out. I donât want any more answers.
and when you say âsome of which is lack of muscle toneâ thatâs litteraly what I was trying to find out from the replies. thatâs what I wnated help with but nobody gave me any advice on how to tone her abdominal muscles more. I asked for excerises that I could do with her, I just wnated simple answers but the answers everyone gave me were all âsheâs probobky pregnantâ âoh its wormsâ âyou need to work her moreâ those vague answers. I know sheâs not pregnant and sheâs been dewormed. I wnated a simple answer and nobody gave it to me so I went to a dif website, found the answers I was looking for, and tried deleting this whole thread because it is now irrelevant now that I have my answer.
You might be working her 5 days a week (Iâm assuming the five times a day is a typo), but you arenât building her topline, and hence her bottom line with your work, or sheâd have a smoother topline and a bit less of a belly look.
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Like we said, you cant delete a thread and getting huffy about it just makes you look immature.
As far as topline, I see lots of lesson horses worked hard including jumping that lack topline because they carry themselves inverted and on the forehand. Topline is a dead giveaway as to how a horse habitually carries himself and how he is ridden.
As far as worming, there are many species of worms and kinds of wormer and if you really want to check all the boxes, talk to your vet about locally prevalent species and a fecal test.
As far as pregnancy you just never know. Mares can be bred by proud cut geldings and by precocious yearlings as well as by stallions who leaped over a fence one night.
But as I said earlier there really is nothing unusual about this mareâs belly.
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Having to quote you, EADoug, because original post was deleted.
OP - I think you got some good advice here despite your protests. You asked if your mare was fat and someone supplied info on BCS and how to gauge obesity in horses. You have asked what exercises you can do to improve her belly but honestly, when evaluating muscle development in horses, you want to take more into consideration than just waistline. Not sure if you got this mare OTT, but waistline is something that will change quite a bit as a very fit horse transitions from race training to regular riding. Very fit horses have tucked waistlines. Racehorses also often do not have access to grass pasture and the transition to grass can cause even more of a dropped appearance. She appears to be of good weight but could perhaps use a bit more weight to help develop overall muscle. I believe someone else recommended slightly adjusting her diet for this. If you truly would like information of how to help, Iâd suggest posting what your training regimen looks like and what riding 5 times a week consist of. Iâd also recommend a coach to assist you; if she has been ridden correctly 5 times a week for at least several months, there should be more muscle development over the back and top line and we should be seeing more development in certain aspects of the hindquarters. I would suspect she is not being ridden in a way that utilizes her back and topline effectively. I also think hill work and cavaletti could help a great deal.
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You do realize that you actually did delete most of your posts. Well, actually all of them.
What you can not delete is where people quoted them. People quote them so others know what they are responding to.
The other reason people quote is they do not want the information to vanish when the person has proven to be the type to delete things.
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