Please keep fat ponies off the lush grass!!

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charlie55

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My otherhalf has been called out so many times recently due to laminitis! He warned one owner two weeks ago to watch her mare, shes got lameness issues so she doesnt ride her but said to keep her in the bare paddock and to soak hay etc as she was very overweight! Two weeks later he's been called out and she's now got laminitis, and she had STILL been in the huge field with lush grass because she felt guilty!! I know most people on here actually have a brain but please watch your neddies! People are killing their own horses! :( x
 
Couldnt agree more, there are 2 "at risk" cases at my yard - 2 very grossly overweight ponies that are already cresty - owners have been warned but the ponies are now turned out 24/7 on new lush grazing.. stupidity.

Mine is out muzzled during day and in at night.. and the grass is rubbish.
 
Tell me about it. You have to cruel to be kind, I have 5 on bare paddocks, but they all obviously find something to eat as they always have their heads down and poo a lot still. People just don't realise how little some horses and ponies need............just about nothing.
 
I know it's awful, ours is a porker despite doing everything to keep her weight down. She looks like an Andalucian rather than an eventer, she would explode if I put her out on a paddock with any grass in.

I wish people would get with the programme, its so horrible and I feel sorry for the vets.
 
A constant bone of contention between me and the OH. Our 10.3hh pony can get fat on fresh air I swear!! She is on very bare tiny paddock but as he is a beef farmer he thinks everything should be fattened :mad: and her stomach will be ruined - I keep telling him she is not a cow!! She did get out for little spells with our other 2 on less than 2 acres but having felt her crest that was still too much so she is back to barracks!! Our vet says ponies like her should be on the top of a bare hill somewhere but instead he finds them on lush dairy farms!!
 
Our pony got laminitis earlier this year, we've only recently had him back out in a starvation pen in a corner of the field he shares with my friend's TB mare.

He was doing so well and then yesterday some brainless pillock actually opened the field gate, went over to his pen, turned off the electric charger, opened up his pen (Carefully putting the stakes into the ground as well so we know it wasn't him-granted he's very clever) and let him out onto the lush grass!!

They also left an empty plastic carrot bag by the trough. They also left the field gate open and it is lucky neither horse got out onto the lane. Who would do such a thing?!!

They're in the stables now for the day and we will only let them out at night now for the next few weeks, we've also got 2 padlocked chains to put on the field gate but this will not prevent them climbing in and letting him out of his pen. :(
 
Its scary what some people do. My old 29yo pony is still kept at home at my Mum's but due to her current work and lack of time he is looked after by the other liveries (in exchange for reduced livery bills) who are normally very good.

He has a laminitic history so has his own personal woodchip turnout with no grass whatsoever and he is fed soaked hay in his 'field'. This management has worked well for a good 5 ish+ years now without relapse till this year. Apparently one of the liveries was feeling guilty so was letting him have 10mins of grass a day from the long lush field next door. You guessed it laminitis! They just didn't understand that 10 mins of lush grass a day was more than enough to cause lami in a susceptible pony. He has thankfully come through it ok without any pedal rotation and is now back being turned out in his paddock and the livery has learnt a very hard lesson.
 
My farrier was saying the same. I said if it was good enough for my fatty 17.2hh eventer to live on hay and a bare paddock I am sure that a 12.2hh pony could survive.
 
charlie55 said:
My otherhalf has been called out so many times recently due to laminitis! He warned one owner two weeks ago to watch her mare, shes got lameness issues so she doesnt ride her but said to keep her in the bare paddock and to soak hay etc as she was very overweight! Two weeks later he's been called out and she's now got laminitis, and she had STILL been in the huge field with lush grass because she felt guilty!! I know most people on here actually have a brain but please watch your neddies! People are killing their own horses! :( x
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Then I suggest that your OH reports this owner for cruelty :(

Some people...:mad:
 
My two fatties (I'm trying but they just refuse to stay slim!!) are on constant lami watch now.

D is on box rest, so no worries there. Infact, she's slimmer than she's ever been which is the only silver lining to a ligament injury.

B is coming in for 12 hours during the day, then going out at night. Atm I'm alternating nights with the grass mask and without the grass mask as I've yet to find one that doesn't rub him. When in he just gets a small net of well soaked hay.

And I'm still paranoid about them.

I can't believe how lightly some people take the threat of laminitus. I remember hearing (possibly on this forum) recently that it should be taken as seriously as you would take a heart attack in a human!
 
It's awful,
There was a woman who owned a fatty cob at my old yard who insisted on feeding it ad lib rich haylage even in the summer. This horse was so fat it was totally obscene. She was so fat she couldn't be walked even a few paces without being out of breath, so the owner stopped all work because of the 'copd', yeah right! It was unfit!
It was rugged to the hilt and every time she brought it in off the grass (and haylage!) she would give it a feed of Alfa because apparently she has ulcers and couldn't be without food.
It was truly awful, poor poor horse! When it was ridden (which was once in a blue moon) it wore a treeless saddle as they did not make a treed saddle wide enough for her :( :(. Funnily enough when I knew the horse it didn't have lami, although I guess it was only a matter of time.
 
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