Cheiro1
Well-Known Member
I am posting this on behalf of a friend as she is not on the forum but is looking for a little advice. She has two horses one of which goes to and from college with her, the other lives out all year round. Another livery on her yard keeps a little 20yr old mare in with her horse who has to live out which generally is not an issue. We’ll call the mare P and her horse who lives out Y and the other D.
Y is a native type and is a very good doer, he was fed a little through the harsh months of winter just to help him a little, he is not in work and therefore backed off through winter, as would happen in the wild, and let to put on weight through summer to tide him through winter. Around march time my friend stopped feeding Y as he didn’t need it and was the weight she wanted for that time of year, given how he lives, although to many may have appeared underweight. However she has discovered (now she is back from college) that the owner of P has not only been feeding P haylage but Y also without her permission therefore Y is carrying too much weight currently. The owner of P is incredibly naive and believes that haylage is lower in sugar than hay and my friend is very concerned for P’s welfare as she has been laminitic in the past and is currently very very overweight, although her owner believes she is underweight as she is showing ribs but surely in an older horse as everything slackens off that is very common (P has a huge apple bum and horrifically cresty neck). The owner has finally stopped feeding Y haylage and stopped tip-bitting him. However she does consistently tell my friend that she thinks Y is slightly underweight (I can assure you he isn’t) without considering his lifestyle. Which of course concerns my friend as she worries this owner is still feeding him.
She is now home from college with her other horse D and he is also now out in that field. He is soft as anything and very un food orientated as horses go. He is a very one person horse and so really doesn’t bother about anyone else, but this other owner is insisting my friend go down every time she feeds her mare to make sure D doesn’t get in the way (he never moves from where he is grazing while shes being fed). She has done this everyday for 2 weeks now and last night a very bad and very avoidable situation occurred due to other owners naivety.
P was being fed outside the field and Y was standing at the gate waiting for her as usual. P’s owner didn’t have a headcollar so used a bit of haylage to get her back in the field she put it down and of course Y went straight over to take it (usually when this happens P lets him have it) but last night they ended up bum to bum kicking the living daylights out of eachother, at this point my friend was in the field holding D who she'd just caught to bring in who started rearing and being very protective over my friend while the two others were going for eachother. P’s owner just stood with her hands over her mouth doing nothing and my friend ended up having to walk between Y and P when there was a lull in the fight with her other horse, (they both move away from him as he is boss), and throw a fly mask at her other horse Y to get him to move and give up (which obviously is not a good thing)
Understandably she is very concerned of this happening again but Y and P are generally very happy together, this is the first time this has happened and they both need company. It all (in her mind) comes down to this owners naivety as it could have easily been avoided. Is there anything she can do or say to try and avoid this?
Sorry its really long, cookies for getting to the end!
Y is a native type and is a very good doer, he was fed a little through the harsh months of winter just to help him a little, he is not in work and therefore backed off through winter, as would happen in the wild, and let to put on weight through summer to tide him through winter. Around march time my friend stopped feeding Y as he didn’t need it and was the weight she wanted for that time of year, given how he lives, although to many may have appeared underweight. However she has discovered (now she is back from college) that the owner of P has not only been feeding P haylage but Y also without her permission therefore Y is carrying too much weight currently. The owner of P is incredibly naive and believes that haylage is lower in sugar than hay and my friend is very concerned for P’s welfare as she has been laminitic in the past and is currently very very overweight, although her owner believes she is underweight as she is showing ribs but surely in an older horse as everything slackens off that is very common (P has a huge apple bum and horrifically cresty neck). The owner has finally stopped feeding Y haylage and stopped tip-bitting him. However she does consistently tell my friend that she thinks Y is slightly underweight (I can assure you he isn’t) without considering his lifestyle. Which of course concerns my friend as she worries this owner is still feeding him.
She is now home from college with her other horse D and he is also now out in that field. He is soft as anything and very un food orientated as horses go. He is a very one person horse and so really doesn’t bother about anyone else, but this other owner is insisting my friend go down every time she feeds her mare to make sure D doesn’t get in the way (he never moves from where he is grazing while shes being fed). She has done this everyday for 2 weeks now and last night a very bad and very avoidable situation occurred due to other owners naivety.
P was being fed outside the field and Y was standing at the gate waiting for her as usual. P’s owner didn’t have a headcollar so used a bit of haylage to get her back in the field she put it down and of course Y went straight over to take it (usually when this happens P lets him have it) but last night they ended up bum to bum kicking the living daylights out of eachother, at this point my friend was in the field holding D who she'd just caught to bring in who started rearing and being very protective over my friend while the two others were going for eachother. P’s owner just stood with her hands over her mouth doing nothing and my friend ended up having to walk between Y and P when there was a lull in the fight with her other horse, (they both move away from him as he is boss), and throw a fly mask at her other horse Y to get him to move and give up (which obviously is not a good thing)
Understandably she is very concerned of this happening again but Y and P are generally very happy together, this is the first time this has happened and they both need company. It all (in her mind) comes down to this owners naivety as it could have easily been avoided. Is there anything she can do or say to try and avoid this?
Sorry its really long, cookies for getting to the end!
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