FARMING:

Some people have had time to exercise them more than normal, but for many they have struggled to maintain the normal level of exercise that their horse is accustomed to. With lots of grass as a result of warm and wet days our vets are seeing more than a few rotund patients as we drive around Northumberland.

If your vet tells you that your horse is overweight, please listen, we don’t say it for fun. We know that horse owners care about their animals and don’t want to upset people but if a vet mentions it, it is because it is in your horses’ interest to lose some weight. We understand how hard it is to manage the overweight horse. Over half of horses in the UK are overweight with this number rising to around 70% in native breeds. In fact so many are overweight that people have become used to seeing fat animals and consider this the norm to the point where we get clients presenting horses who are a very healthy, fit weight because everyone on their yard says their horse is too thin.

We keep many of our horses in an obesogenic environment, one that encourages them to gain weight.

We rarely have severe cold winters, many of our horses are on improved grazing which is intended to cause weight gain in cattle and sheep, we have heavy duty rugs that prevent our horses feeling the cold and very good quality preserved forage and hard feeds to keep the calories up in winter. Along with many people now keeping horses as pets rather than as working/competition animals, these factors all combine to make it a real challenge to keep the weight off your equine. The first thing to decide is your horse a healthy weight or not. Our vets and nursing team are happy to help guide you with this but a useful tool is to learn to body condition score. The Blue Cross Fat Horse Slim Campaign can be found on line and has really good advice on how to do this. In 3 hours a horse can consume two thirds of its daily intake of forage if un-muzzled which can lead to rapid weight gain at this time of year. Please speak to your vet about a plan for your horse. It doesn’t all have to be hard graft, things like sharing your horse with another rider, setting goals like #hack 1000miles or joining online horse agility clubs can all help. Excellent advice on the use of grazing muzzles can be found on the National Equine Welfare Council website. Taking advantage of your horse’s own metabolism and using calories to keep them warm may help, fat horses should rarely be rugged with anything more than a rain sheet.

Please take a before photo. We love to see the before and after shots and appreciate what a difference your efforts have made to your horse’s health.