Tucked Up.

[Little-miss-perfect]

Hi everyone

My friend mentioned to me yesterday that my mare looked "Tucked Up" when she was in her stable. I've heard of this before, but not really sure what it means/why it happens. She commented that you could see a line running along the length of her stomach, but I'm sure she usually has this!! She was behaving absolutely fine, just stood there eating her hay.

Could anyone help me on what causes this? And should I be concerned? Also do I need to do anything? (Sorry for the stupid questions )

thanks in advance. x

 

[supsup]

I think what's meant is that the horse looks like it has "sucked in" its belly (the back half, nearer the hind legs). Sometimes you can then see a slight indentation running along the side where the bottom of the ribs are. In horses that aren't terribly underweight, I think this is usually down to having not enough fibre in their belly. If they go too long without forage, the large intestine is emptier than it should be, and they can start looking tucked up. The other time I've seen it is with horses in very wet/windy weather without shelter, who were hunching their backs against the wind with muscles very tense. When they are tense like that, it can also create a visible line/dent at the bottom of the ribs.
If you think your horse looks normal and has plenty of hay, then I wouldn't worry. I've only seen mine tucked up a handful of times, either when I mis-judged the amount/length of grass and left his muzzle on too long, or in really awful weather.

 

[stilltrying]

As above can happy for a number of reasons, if horse is cold / and is or has been shivering, or can happen if horse is in pain, or if they've got themselves stressed. My big boy had been at his previous yard for 7 yrs before i moved him. The day after his move he looked as though someone had vaccum packed him! Took him about 2 weeks to look normal again.

That said, my new young horse has a visible line all the time. She is a very compact little horse who carries herself in an uphill fashion naturally, so given that she displays no other signs of discomfort, has forage and is up to date with worming, i'm not too concerned.