What has our equine welfare officer been up to?
May has been a very busy month for us at Communities For Horses. We have been exceptionally busy with calls.
We have attended to veteran horses and horses that have not had water or necessary shelter. We also have been called several times to horses that have been abandoned on some local authority land, one of which unfortunately died. The area that these horses are being dumped on is incredibly over stocked with horses. It has also been very difficult to safely contain the horses as most of them are unhandled and are very easily frightened into flight mode.
There have been instances where mares with foals at foot have been tethered. This is something that is not considered to be best practice and extremely dangerous for both the mare and the foal. Advising and educating the owners of these horses is paramount. This is something that we do on a regular basis, especially as there is still an incredible amount of people breeding horses still and not have appropriate facilities to keep the horses.
There have some instances on our local commons where walkers have happened across new-born foals and taken them to sanctuaries. We really try to discourage this as removing a foal from the commons without the necessary authorities being aware and all the checks made to find the mother is not always the best thing to do, despite it being done with the best intentions.
Best intentions have also created some problems for us recently. Many gardeners have been busy cutting lawns and been giving the grass clippings to horses. Although done with the best intentions this in fact is actually very dangerous for horses and can even be fatal. That along with many people who are choosing to visit local horses whilst on their daily exercise and feeding horses inappropriate things or just feeding other people’s horses in general. This can be dangerous and does not take into consideration the health and welfare of the horses concerned, some horses are on special diets to prevent health conditions such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome or Laminitis and some horses may not have the correct dentition to cope with certain foods which can lead to choke or colic.
We have also had many calls from members of the public about horses that have come out the harsh winter looking slightly worse for wear. A horse should naturally lose some weight during the winter months and sometimes when they first appear after winter, they can appear to be rather slim, in comparison to when they were seen in the summer months. They generally put the weight back on when they have access to spring grass.
However please do always give us a call if you are unsure. We are always happy to give advice.
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