The horses in America are getting fat. They are trying to tell us something.
Fifty-one percent of mature light-breed horses in the United States are obese — a rate that ranks among the world’s highest, slightly above Britain and nearly twice that of Australia or Denmark. That figure comes from a peer-reviewed prevalence study, and it sits alongside a number that should give any clinician pause: The U.S. also leads the G7 in human obesity. The same country. The same epidemic. A completely different species.