When you see two mares standing side by side facing opposite directions, do you ever think they might be checking out each other's rumps, saying, "No, of course I don't think that blanket makes you look fat." Or perhaps that high-strung, nervous mare isn't really nervous. Instead, she is berating herself constantly, saying, "I just shouldn't have eaten that last blade of grass! Or that one … or that one … "

This is probably a bit of a stretch on the anthropomorphism front; however, weight management is an important issue in equine medicine, particularly as more details on the underlying mechanisms of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance surface.

In 1998 the USDA estimated approximately 1.4% of the horse population was overweight or obese. A more recent study, however, found the number of overweight or obese horses to be alarmingly higher