anyone have experience of a laminitic living out?

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dannykins

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Hi, just wondering if anyone has every done this or knows of anybody who has successfully?

I have my boy's routine sorted very well in terms of keeping the laminitis at bay (out at night with muzzle for most of the year and in during the day) and he's not had it since his first mild attack 3 years ago now, this seems to work well for him.

However, due to changes in time and money it would really benefit me to have him out 24/7 if i could adapt the routine somehow..............i'm thinking still out at night with the muzzle and fencing off a stable-ish sized area of the field and keeping that completely free of grass for him to go in during the day, so that he's not getting any more grass, but i'm not having to pay extra livery costs either.

I know of one oerson who did this successfully but anybody else's ideas / feedback or just to tell me that it's wishful thinking would be apreciated greatly! thanks.
 
Mine lives out 24/7 on permanently restricted grazing, and as long as she is in work (ridden 5 times a week including a lesson, then shows at weekends) she is fine during the spring, summer and autumn.

My problems come in the frosty weather, when she isn't being ridden anyway, so is carrying a lot more weight which doesn't help. I think that as long as you retain access to a stable in case of emergencies, and the fencing is good enough to prevent him from breaking out then there is no reason why it couldn't work.
 
Sounds like a good plan... just bear in mind that horses keep warm when living out by moving around and if you keep your horse in a stable-sized area of the field he won't be able to do this.. and as he's not inside like he would be in a stable he may need more rugs or something to keep warm... i may be wrong but just what sprung to mind
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We have a couple of laminitic ponies at the riding school, all of whom live out. In winter when there is hardly any grass they're fine, and in the summer we have a long narrow strip of grazing which quickly gets cropped down (we can put a different horse on it to get rid of all the long grass before the ponies go on it) and is enough to keep them occupied without the laminitis flaring up. Obviously, as RS ponies, they get plenty of exercise which helps. If they're starting to look a bit podgy we start bringing them in during the day (when we have stables free because the stabled horses are turned out during the day) and turned out in the sand school at night with a hay net. I don't know how feasible any of that would be for you, but it seems to work for us. I've been at this riding school (first as a pupil, then as an employee) for nearly a year and have never seen any of them get an attack of lami.
 
my 14.2 had an attack 4 yrs ago in back feet. She lives out and I start feeding her lami prone in feb with hifi lite. She then goes in a half acre paddock for the first month or so in April and then out full time on grass with others.Feed her lami prone up to end o june then start again middle of Aug ready for autumn. Never had it since. Ridden 4 times a week
 
I think you need to know what cause laminitis in your horse and the early symptoms of it before making a permanent decision. Yes it should be possible with very careful management, but it is so dependent on too many things...grass type, weather, weight, exercise, etc.
 
there is a pony at my yard thats prone to lami, little 11hh welshie. he lives out all year round, in a big field with lots of other horses in winter where grass is rough and in summer he goes into a strip which is very grazed down
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A long narrowe strip is better than a small squarte one - you can put hay at one end and water at the other to encourage movement.

If it is your own land then consider puttting some pea gravel down (it's abotu £10 a ton) makes a huge difference to their feet
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.

He got laminitis whilst on box rest - wasn't on any hard feed, just a net of haylage morning and night but it's thought this was too rich and caused it, combined with being in so doing no exercise - he's been on soaked hay from then on.

It's been good to hear that it is possoble and of people's different experiences, thanks very much, i'll keep it in mind for the future.
 
Depends how laminitic he is. Some horses can't even look at grass without getting a bout. Others needs to be fat. It can, tp an extent, be trial and error.

We had a lamanitic shetland cross and we had to play about with his routine to find one that suited him best - we wanted him to live as natural a life a possible (out with friends as much as possible) without coming down with lami. We chaged things slowly and kept a very close eye on his feet for any increase in pulses.

He eventually lived out 24/7 with a Shires muzzle on what would be classed as 'restricted grazing' for a normal good doer. If he was hungrey he'd come in for a couple of hours ro fill up on soaked fiberous hay and straw. He was ridden as much a possible and kept on the 'too thin' side of lean. We discovered that when he was thin he could eat pretty much anything he wanted and be fine, but if he put on even 20kg we needed to be really careful.

If you have your own land have a look at Paddock Paradise system. It's basically a ring round the outside of a field. How wide depends on how much grass you have, but it gives them a large area ro move about it, forces them to walk about and it an easy way to reduce his grazing (easy to gravel over areas)
 
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