An elderly Shetland pony should be checked over by hand once a week and weighed, with a weigh tape in most home settings, every two weeks.
Why an elderly Shetland needs hands and tape together
An elderly Shetland can lose muscle along his back and quarters while laying fat over his ribs and crest, ending up the same tape measurement and a worse pony. That is why the weekly hands matter as much as the fortnightly figure. Run your palms over his ribs: you should feel them with light pressure under a smooth covering. Feel the crest of his neck, which on a pony gaining dangerously turns firm and thick, and look along his topline for the hollowing that betrays muscle going even while the barrel stays round. Check for the fat pads behind the shoulders and around the tailhead that Shetlands deposit so readily.
The fortnightly tape on an elderly Shetland
Weigh-tape an elderly Shetland every two weeks, at the same time of day and the same stage of his routine. Stand him square on the level patch by the gate or in the stable, and pass the tape snugly around the heart girth behind his elbows, compressing the coat the same way each time, since a winter coat read loosely invents weight that is only hair. Write the figure beside the weekly feel notes, plus anything that explains a jump: a move onto a fresh strip of grazing, hay started for the season, or a wet week spent mostly under shelter.
What else the weekly check covers on an elderly Shetland
The weekly once-over on an elderly Shetland should include his feet, because ponies of his type and age are the classic candidates for laminitis, and the earliest warnings are felt rather than seen. Compare the front feet for heat, feel for a bounding pulse at the fetlock, and watch whether he shifts weight from foot to foot at rest or turns stiffly, rocking back to spare his toes. Look at how he walks out on hard ground, since a pony who shortens his stride only on gravel is telling you his feet hurt before he ever lies down. Check his teeth's work by watching him graze and eat hay for dropped, half-chewed wads, lift each foot for packed debris and thrush in the frog, and part the mane for lice or rubbed skin.
Acting on an elderly Shetland's trend
An elderly Shetland whose tape climbs and whose crest hardens needs the grazing answer promptly: a smaller strip, a track system, soaked hay to reduce its richness, and company that keeps him moving without access to lush grass. Do not crash-diet an old pony; reduce intake gradually and keep fibre going through his gut, because sudden starvation carries its own dangers in a fat equine. Adjust one thing, then let the next two tape readings judge it. Either direction, sustained and unexplained by management, belongs in a conversation with your vet rather than another month of home adjustment.
When an elderly Shetland needs the vet quickly
An elderly Shetland who stands rocked back on his heels, reluctant to move or turn, with hot feet and a strong fetlock pulse, needs a veterinarian the same day, because those are the classic postures of acute laminitis and time matters for his feet. A pony off his feed, lying down repeatedly, or breathing fast and flaring his nostrils at rest also bypasses the home rhythm entirely. So does any pony who cannot rise without a struggle. When the vet comes, your sheet of fortnightly tape figures and weekly crest and foot notes is exactly the background that helps them judge how fast things moved. Keeping that record in his KinsLe Pet Passport puts an elderly Shetland's weights and checks in one portable packet, so his careful grazing history travels with him to any new yard or vet.