Get your facts straight before reporting to the ILPH

The whole point of Inspectors is that they turn up unannounced. After their initial visit they generally ask the owner to contact them.....so everything you have said is normal protocol. They can't lie to you so if you happen to guess who reported you and mention it then they won't say no if you guessed correctly. Whomever reported you must have some crudentials for him to dismiss what you tried to tell him though, either that or he did in fact believe that the horse needed outside help. Normally the moment the owner calls and explains the situation, it is dropped so not sure why they are continuing and now telling you that the SSPCA are going to be contacted?

I have to say if you are doing everything by the book then I can understand why you would be cross with this - if any of my horses (or me) were reported I would be mortified, although I do keep them in such a way that it would really be a joke if this were to happen, no way would anyone have a leg to stand on I'm afraid.

Your best bet is to try as hard as you can to get your horse to shed the weight - take him out for extra rides, feed him plenty of fibre to try to eradicate the squits and by the time the SSPCA come out, hopefully he will be in tiptop condition. That's the only advice I can give you.
 
ISH_Mad - i mentioned in an earlier post i've tried several types of muzzle. he lost one and broke the other in a very short space of time.

thanks honeypots, i know what you mean, i was more upset that whoever reported it didn't just talk to me first, fair enough being concerned but i'm pretty much easy to get hold of and would have been happy to explain all the work i was already doing to help his porkyness. it just upset me so much getting a phone call at work from a guy telling me, in his actual words, that i'm "killing" my horse.

i agree they can't do a lot about it as i already was and still am trying to reduce his weight, it was just a very hurtful thing to have done in a week when i moved out of my boyfriends house, have no money and my car broke down. i do wonder when my luck is going to get better...please let it be soon!
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thanks tia, i'm glad you can see why i was so shocked about it, its just like a slap in the face when you know how well you look after your horses and others jump to conclusions.i had 2 vets visits from last month/month before specifically about reducing his weight and the vet told me last time she saw him while she was up doing another horse that he was looking much better. that and the fact my mum went straight to the vet after the phone call and the vet told me we'd been doing everyhting exactly right except it was time to try the starvation paddock since he got so stressed inside, shows that i never was and am still not ignoring the situation.
just hope the inspector realises that and listen to me next time
 
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Methinks you doth protest too much. The ILPH are not allowed to say who reported you so either you or the YO are feeding us BS.

Someone somewhere has shown concern for the welfare of an animal and all you can think of is slagging off professionals who, lets face it, probably know more than you do about horses. OK maybe theres no problem but at least someones made an effort.

Get over yourself.

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well said Sooty, and exactly what i said re the ILPH not being allowed to say who reported you in the first place. So someone is telling lies along the line........

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LOL I know we are identical twins, seperated at birth, but Sooty is the other one....
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Oh and T-M....I really cannot spare too much sympathy for someone who gets sdo worked up over a third party trying to do their best for horse welfare. I have no doubt at all that you could have put your point across and had a conversation with a welfare officer if you had been a bit more rational.

Now if you would like advice from me (and you are free to throw it back in my face), get yourself a Shires grazing muzzle and turn your horse out in a starvation paddock. Its hard to tell from your photo but I wouldnt have said your horse looks obese or dangerously overweight but obviously you have been advised to put him on weightwatchers. The muzzle is the answer IMO.
 
Hi, can i ask if that was a recent pic of your boy because IMO he does not look overweight!?
Also with the Diarreah (sp) have you asked your vet why hes like that? could there be a underlying problem as to why hes like that?
I do echo what others have said in the fact its not the inspectors fault - they are only doing their job and its nice to see they respond to these things... unlike some organisations!
If hes considered to be obese i would do anything i could to get the weight off with exercise and a balanced diet.
Good luck with it.
 
TM - I think it sounds like you're having a tough week, maybe you're hurt a bit over other things you mentioned and your self esteem and confidence is a bit low and that's why this has been such a blow to you?

Chin up, I think you know you're on the right path for getting the weight off so don't let this get you down. Just focus on carrying on with his diet, keep us updated and I'm sure everyone will be here to support you in making sure your boy is healthy and the correct weight (he defo doesn't look huge in the pic though), as after all, that's what really matters.
 
hi, i'm not angry at the inspector, more at the way whoever reported it handled the situation - whoever it was the chances are they know me and they know they can come and talk to me about it and i'd have explained to them what i've been doing so far.

the vet was saying the diarrohea was just nerves and stress from being away from the other horses, he's never been good in a stable despite him being stabled over winter for 2 out of the 4 years i've had him. he gets really bargy too and even in a bridle he has been known to drag me across the yard. no manners at all but its certainly not for lack of trying!

bensababy - that photo was taken a few months ago but to be honest he's not hugely fatter than that now...this photo looks terrible but this is the most recent, taken in the dark about a month ago so excuse the dire quality of it!

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bex1984 - yeah thanks, i've had the week from hell and this was just the nail in the coffin - i very rarely look after myself because i'm so busy looking after him and this has really hurt me that despite spending no time with my family and friends and causing problems with them so i can spend time with my horse it feels like its all for nothing if people are going to do things like this anyway. luckily i have some good friends who have offered to ride him while i'm away training for 2 months otherwise i'd have to put him to a riding school for a few months and i've seen what he does when that happens and its not pretty.
 
well i wouldnt say hes grossly overweight - he could do with losing a few pounds, but its like everyone has said - grazing muzzle or a starved paddock - unless you are gonna restrict his grazing you really do not have much hope!
 
thanks. he's already on a starvation paddock with 4 other ponies so we'll see how that goes. we've tried muzzles and he loses them all so this paddock is the only way i think. fingers crossed.

he gets ridden or lunged and worked hard most days so we'll see how long the bellys going to take to budge
 
i feel for you, my little mare is huge, she was on her own in a starvation paddock & was looking great, some others needed to get off the grass so they put their horses in but made the section huge without telling me, person looking after mine while i was away didn't know what to do, when i got back she was huge & i was mortified.

trying to get the weight back off her now, we can not use muzzles as the other horses take them off,trust me we have tried, or if on her own she gets them off or the rub her face
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good luck
 
personally I'd move him to a yard where there is a horsewalker that he can be put on 3 times a day plus you riding him - the constant exercise in company with horses he can see will work the weight off him slowly but surely

he also won't be 'bored' because he'll be worked

as for not standing in a stable - tbh I read so much about this that and the other horse won't be kept in - tbh - that's bullsh1t - I grew up doing horses stabled in straight (mews) stalls and they all survived 340 days a year kept in full time and 2 or 3 weeks 'holiday in the countryside'. Many of the cavalry and police horses have the same regime still and they hardly have a massive amount of fast exercise =- just a lot of walking around and standing still

you KNOWyour horse is overweight - WHY the heck was it out in a field

the horsewalker - you may not want to move yards permanently but you could put a retainer on your place at your current yard and move your horse for say 2 months to a yard with one to help lose the weight

that would also give you a 2nd opinion on the horses condition (as has been stated it may have been theYO that reported you and is pinging the blame onto the vet as the ILPH/RSPCA never reveal who the reporter is) and also give you a chance to use a different vet if the other yard has a different vet as the yard vet.

as for other turnout - use a fenced cattle yard - concrete with nothing to eat or destroy or a sand school or lunge ring - with zero food

personally I think grazing muzzles are a form of chinese water torture for horses - and I hate them

I'd rather see a horse stabled with hay then turned out with a muzzle on !!!
 
To be honest I think its good people report horses too much than too little!

And Im afraid Im on the side of Aierdale - if you know your horse is overweight then why was he out in the field, especially for 5 days straight (doesnt take much for a horse to get laminitis.....)? I have a Welsh who was gelded quite late so he's also naturally quite solid. He also would go nuts if I kept him in! However I watch his weight very very carefully and if it gets even slightly too much then he is straight away put into the bare paddock (barely any grass at all) with some hay. Simple. Very easy and does the job perfectly. Can you not electric tape off a small area that he can stay in all summer? It really is the best option with natural "fatties" IMO, especially if bringing him in is stressing him out so much. I HATE seeing horses stabled when not absolutely necessary and being left out is way better for keeping him active to get the weight off anyway. Definately do NOT starve him like some seem to have implied - ALWAYS leave them with something like hay.

I do feel strongly about overweight horses because I dont think they should ever be allowed to get fat in the first place! Then you wouldnt have the problem of trying to get the weight off which can be a nightmare. Laminitis is a horrid horrid thing......
 
simple

laminitis kills

and if you google laminitis trust then definitely starving them is totally wrong

I think you must assume that your horse will be well down the road to lami if he hasn't got it already and act accordingly
 
re the stabling, you keep my big lad in, he will knock the door down if he panics, he has a huge fear of stables after being on 6 months box rest, if he doesnt want to be in he will not stay in no matter what you do!
 
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I think you must assume that your horse will be well down the road to lami if he hasn't got it already and act accordingly

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Airdale, I think that may be a little harsh on her, we don't actually know how tubby her pony is to be fair as the quality of the photo doesn't really help. I appreciate you may be wanting to warn her of the potential problem here but lets not get too heavy with her
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she has after all, with the assistance of her mum called the vet and had a reasonable chat and moving forward with the situation as per the vets advice, now they are talking about it I'm sure she will keep it up.
 
Personally I definately own the most huge and fat cob in the land!!!! Well - i am throughly convinced she is... but she is feeding two foals... one her own and one orphan so she's going on no diet!! Apart from self-imposed milkosuction!!!!!! Bless Her!xxx

Airedale - the terrier turns Rottie!! LOL!!

I don't think anyone was 'having a go' at her as such but when you read some threads you do sometimes think some people need a bit of 'firm' guidance!! If the officer believes there is a case to answer and he is still out then that is a probelm and with him being out at all you are not addressing that probelm!!! Therefore you do have a case to answer! Sorry sweetie hard but true!!
 
i can understand where your coming from & i feel you know where the ILPH are coming from but it is difficult when you know your trying the best you can to keep the weight off.

i too own a welsh cob who lives on thin air, he is in from 7:30-5, muzzled at night & ridden for 30-40 minutesa day, 3 times a week & 1-2hours 2 times a week & he still isnt keeping the weight off.

unfortunately Linx isn't a schooling type pony so we dont do much when i ride during the week we just walk, trot & canter round the XC course & occasionally we op a fence or 2.
 
I think from the picture (sorry, didnt see it earlier) that he is definately overweight, I mean you cant see that well but his back end looks rather tubby.

Anyway, there's no point in people coming on here saying that they dont think he's "too" overweight - ANY horse thats even vaguelly fat is on its way to laminitis!!

Keep him in the "starvation" paddock WITH ad-lib oldish hay (lesser nutritional value) - please do not starve him. Horses MUST have something to eat all the time, Im sorry to stress that but I hate seeing horses with nothing! And keep him in this paddock for the entire summer, it sounds like he's going to take a while to loose the weight.

I never understand why people with fat horses stable their horses...... ok, it gets them off the grass but they cant move about to work the fat off! Fence off a small paddock - simple.
 
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last week when i had a cold i left him out in the field for about 5 days. in this period of time someone has reported him.

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OP - don't you possibly think this was a very stupid thing to do with an already overweight horse - cold or no cold, you CANNOT just leave a horse 24/7 in a field for 5 days that is supposed to be on a diet!!! Don't you think that this may have been the reason for the call! If as you say you have 12 years experience etc etc etc, then this was an extremely supid thing to do - sorry to be blunt, but in that 5 days your horse could have had a laminitic attack and obviously whoever reported you was very concerned about the welfare of your horse and quite rightly in my opinion.
 
I'm glad you picked up on that - I have read this thread from start to finish and that was the glaring bit for me too!

Its about being responsible really, and if a 'cold' is really so severe that it prevents you from following veterinary advice about diet management for your horse then you should have made alternative arrangements.

The picture posted is clearly from several months ago and I would hazzard a guess before the grass began to grow and the horse is pretty fat in that picture so to take no steps to control the situation is a welfare issue which is why you have been reported.

The fact that you are now taking different action to control your horses weight clearly shows that you could have taken more stringent steps before the report was made.

12 years experience and an equine degree has sadly not helped on the common sense front! Sorry to be blunt but I have seen horses with laminitis and it is just cruel not to take all the steps possible to avoid it.

There is an owner at our yard who has turned herself inside out trying to manage a laminitic prone horse (yes her horse doesnt settle in the stable either but she knows its that or the horse will die!) at the same time as dealing with the death of her father and the sudden incapacity of her mother - no cold would have stopped her.
 
hi guys, well it looks like i know exactly what this whole mess is about - an ex best friend who i fell out with just a few weeks ago reported him and told the ILPH guy she was the vet.

she'd been texting me all week that the whole yard hated me and wanted me kicked off for neglect. i spoke to everyone yesterday and every single one said they think i am one of the best owners on the yard and that she is talking bulls*t. the yard owner found her out when he spoke to the vet and they were so angry that she had blamed them. he then confronted her and she admitted to it.

all of this is about her sick little vendetta because she's angry at me and she's jealous of a few things that have happened recently.

she on the other hand has a pony who has been on box rest with serious laminitis for over a month, was allowed back into "gentle" work 3 days ago, so she took him and jumped a 2'6" class at a local show on sunday.

asbo - thanks for your understanding, people with horses that stable quietly are so lucky, until they have half a tonnes of welsh cob trying to rear his way out of a stable and dragging them across a yard i don't know if they'll understand!

airedale - he was out in that field on the vets advice - 12hours in, 12 hours out. the field isnt huge and has 10 horses in it so theres not a lot of grass in the first place.

MagicMelon - i realise he doesn't need starved, thanks. i've only been giving him exactly what the vet recommended over a month ago. as for him bum in the photo, it has ALWAYS been large and muscly, even when he was at his thinnest condition he had a big bum. the vet said before she found him hard to condition score from behind as you can't see past it! guess its not just humans with that problem
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Panther - i know being out seems counterproductive but as i said the field is well eaten down and lots of horses in it and also everything i've done up til now has been on the vets advice. 2 vets advice in fact.

TOG - thanks for saying what i was already thinking! some people can be full of harsh comments with no evidence to back up their statements

lillie - yay another cob mummy! good luck with him, i'm sure we can keep each other updated! it just drives me mad that this guy assumed i was doing nothing to start with , whereas if he'd talked to anyone on the yard and actually listened to them he's know that i've already been doing everything the vet advised. sounds like you're doing all you can too, hope it works for you soon x

Doublethyme - no this wasn't the reason for the call at all - see above. and she wasn't concerned at all. just p*ssed off at me. there are plenty of people on the yard who i know keep an eye on him when i cant come up and who all have my phone numbers if anything had happened.
 
Sparklet - the picture isn't from several months ago, it was taken around the beginning of may. the other one was taken at the end of may. everything i was doing was on the vets advice and she was extremely angry when she found out someone had reported my horse. she said that he is not nearly as fat as half of the horses she sees and that i am doing everything that she advised to the letter. we have just decided to move him into the smaller paddock and stop stabling him as she feels if he stay in he'll get stress based laminitis instead and b*gger his joints from stomping around and kicking the door so much.
 
Just a few comments

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airedale - he was out in that field on the vets advice - 12hours in, 12 hours out. the field isnt huge and has 10 horses in it so theres not a lot of grass in the first place.

If your vet advised to do that - they need shooting or id get a second opinion. Can i also point out that it doesnt take alot of grass for them to go down with it... i would know... been there done it.


Panther - i know being out seems counterproductive but as i said the field is well eaten down and lots of horses in it and also everything i've done up til now has been on the vets advice. 2 vets advice in fact.

i echo my above comments again

I just dont understand in all of these how a vet can recommend he go out for 12hours and in for 12... makes me angry!
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well then get angry at the vet not at me - i've only ever followed their advice. and it is a very well respected vet around here. she said herself the amount of work he's doing and the amount of grass in the field mean that he's going to end up using more calories than he's eating so the weight should start shifting. and it was, even before the report.

i've also been there and done it having pones with laminitis as we had a few in the riding school get it and i know its not nice. one had its pedal bone rotate through its foot. i even did my honours thesis on laminitis and hoof structure.

therefore i realise how serious it is and that is exactly why i consulted a vet a while ago. he only started to get fat this past 2 months so its not like this is an ongoing issue either
 
I had based my estimation on the fact that is is dark - which tends to happen quite late up your way in May and the fact that there appears to be snow on the ground, however that could be a trick of the light.

It the report achieves nothing else it has prompted some additional action which can only be good.
 
im not having a go at you, i am just failing to understand your vets logic on it, mine is the biggest escape artist ever and i use the shires muzzle with him and even he cant get it off, IMO a muzzle is the only way hes gonna drop weight by being out that long on grazing.

if he only started to get fat this last 2 months - its obviously not working him being turned out that long - or am i missing something?

also if you done your Thesis on Laminitis you would know that stressed/barely there grass is just as worse for them.
 
it must have been a real shock, i would be most upset too, yes the rspca inspectors are doing their job and thats great, this is why i donate each month for them to go out to calls received. But sadly it seems there are some pathetic people who will report someone through spite, as may have happened here. I dont know, but i can totally understand your shock and anger, after all upset turns to anger quite often i beleive. Just get on best you can getting excess weight off, your picture does not show a badly obese horse. I totally empathise from the side of having a good doer, its such a battle, you just think to yourself some days 'what the hell are they living off?' its incredible and not easy, but keep at it, high fibre only feed like happy hoof and any hay soaked for a long time, i use the shires muzzle and its great, lots of exercise, thats all i can suggest, good luck with it. Try and move on as quickly as possible, there are far too many pathetic people out there who do and say things through spite, just rise above it hun and keep trying hard for your horsey, you can do it
 
astipussy_inboots - thanks for your comment. i agree, i think the rspca do an amazing job under hard circumstances. if it wasn't for them 2 of the dogs we rescued would have probably died years ago. but as you said its just such a sick and spiteful to do something like this out of hatred of me. my horse is my life. i have just about split up with my boyfriend because i spend so much time with my horse and not sorting things out with him. and like you say when someone comes along and tells you you're killing your horse despite doing so much to look after him it really does make you angry and upset.

the inspector apparently took photos of every horse in the field and is going to come back so now i'm worried for all the others who have slightly tubby horses because we don't have that many starvation paddocks in our yard, i was just lucky my horse gets on with shetlands or he'd be stabled 24/7 and he'd have killed someone by now!

thank you for your support. as people have said he's not huge at all but i will keep you posted as any inches off his belly will be progress! good luck with your horsey too, looks very nice in your signature photo
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