rextherobber
Well-Known Member
Would an EMS horse, retired due to various health issues and not in the first flush of youth, have a good quality of life if it could never graze? Isn't that a fundamental part of being a horse?
EMS/Quality of life
- Thread starter rextherobber
- Start date
Prancerpoos
Well-Known Member
IMO, no. Kinder to PTS.
FieldOrnaments
Well-Known Member
EMS management is more about the quality of the forage than grazing in general. All horses are programmed to have be eating/foraging 16hrs a day on very low quality roughage compared to what is widely available in many yards now.
6" tall lush ryegrass and clover would be lethal. a semi arid/bare track round the perimeter of a field of fescue, plaintain and the like with low calorie chops with minerals added and companions with similar needs would be fine.
Locked in a stall with a small net of soaked hay 24/7 or even a dry lot on its own would be cruel.
6" tall lush ryegrass and clover would be lethal. a semi arid/bare track round the perimeter of a field of fescue, plaintain and the like with low calorie chops with minerals added and companions with similar needs would be fine.
Locked in a stall with a small net of soaked hay 24/7 or even a dry lot on its own would be cruel.
eggs
Well-Known Member
I have a retired (due to arthritis) EMS horse who also has Cushings. He has always been kept on grass - in at night in winter and out during the day and then in during the day in summer and out at night. I don't have lush monoculture grass but have plenty of low value weeks as FO above mentioned together with mixed grass. He has survived very well on this system. In his younger days when he was prone to putting on weight he was muzzled in the summer.
Clodagh
Well-Known Member
I put down my son’s pony when she could no longer eat grass. (She was retired anyway). Her watching the others eating was no life, imo.
maya2008
Well-Known Member
Our EMS pony would be impossible to manage without exercise, we just can’t keep her insulin levels low enough. The moment she cannot even walk out in hand we will pts because the only way from there is down into laminitis hell again. As it is, she’s happy, always has a buddy to boss around and long hacks to enjoy. Hasn’t had grass for nearly two years now.
For yours, if you can manage them successfully off grass and without exercise, then a track system with similar horses might give them quality of life.
For yours, if you can manage them successfully off grass and without exercise, then a track system with similar horses might give them quality of life.
SEL
Well-Known Member
Tracks work well.
Boulty
Well-Known Member
That depends on what the available alternative is. If close enough to a grass free track livery where horse could live a good life in a herd (& owner willing & able to fund this) then that would be an option worth pursuing as could give a good QOL.
If the available alternative is stabled 24/7 or access to a very small grass free pen with no enrichment and no friends then yes PTS likely would be the kinder option.
If the available alternative is stabled 24/7 or access to a very small grass free pen with no enrichment and no friends then yes PTS likely would be the kinder option.
GinaGeo
Well-Known Member
Mine is also managed on a track.
Surfaced in winter. Grass in summer. He wears a muzzle until it’s well grazed down.
In winter he does have to be stabled some of the time as he needs a more restricted diet than the others. But we are mostly able to manage him with his friends.
He also needs exercise, and has a sharer to help facilitate that. And I also ride and lead him.
Without the exercise he’s impossible to manage, and when the time comes that he cannot be ridden then that will be the day a decision is made.
But for now he lives a pretty good, enriched life with his friends, even if that isn’t in a grassy field.
On livery, without an understanding yard owner, he’d be very difficult to manage and him have a good quality of life.
Surfaced in winter. Grass in summer. He wears a muzzle until it’s well grazed down.
In winter he does have to be stabled some of the time as he needs a more restricted diet than the others. But we are mostly able to manage him with his friends.
He also needs exercise, and has a sharer to help facilitate that. And I also ride and lead him.
Without the exercise he’s impossible to manage, and when the time comes that he cannot be ridden then that will be the day a decision is made.
But for now he lives a pretty good, enriched life with his friends, even if that isn’t in a grassy field.
On livery, without an understanding yard owner, he’d be very difficult to manage and him have a good quality of life.
ihatework
Well-Known Member
Unless you could keep them on a well enriched track system, then no QoL.
When my 20yo Cushings horse could no longer graze the field due to rumbling LGL he was PTS
When my 20yo Cushings horse could no longer graze the field due to rumbling LGL he was PTS
Equi
Well-Known Member
With my and probably most peoples current set up of just a few well grazed paddocks no. I’d pts. If I had a proper surfaced turnout/track system then yes it could work. But finding that is very very rare.