Horse fallen neck and diet
Draft horses and draft crosses, some pony breeds, and Morgan horses may naturally display a bit more crestiness than members of other breeds. If the horse loses weight with a change in diet and activity, it should lose fat out of the subcutaneous layers all over its body. Horses are given a cresty neck score (CNS) to determine degree of fat deposition and to more easily monitor changes in neck thickness. Change Location Australia Canada Ireland New Zealand Spain United Kingdom United States. If the horse is hot-blooded like a Thoroughbred, it should lose all of the crest once it has achieved moderate body condition. A working knowledge of CNS is probably not as essential for horse owners as a thorough understanding of body condition score (BSC). Change Location Australia Canada Ireland New Zealand Spain United Kingdom United States. However, in managing horses prone to metabolic conditions, it can be a useful tool in assessing disease progression.
Additionally, stallions of any breed might retain more crest than mares or geldings because deposition of fat in the neck is a secondary sexual characteristic. If we reduce caloric intake slightly and exercise the horse 4-5 days per week, will the score return to zero if the horse loses weight. Researchers have established a correlation between insulin resistance and horses with cresty neck scores of 3 and above. Suppose a horse has a cresty neck score of two. If so, will it return to zero if the horse has equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). A hallmark of certain metabolic conditions such as insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome is a cresty neck—sometimes in combination with obesity, sometimes not. These natural conformational attributes in a horse of moderate body condition should not be mistaken for a definitive signal that a metabolic condition exists. Researchers assign a cresty neck score (CNS) to describe degree of fat deposition and to monitor changes in neck thickness.
