Laminitis - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Tuesday 18 May, 2004

by Rosemary at 9:52pm in Equines 1 comment Comments closed

Smokey is on a diet. He and Wallace, his grazing buddy, have been moved to a "restricted intake" paddock. Calling it a "starvation paddock" is now non PC.

Horses can contract a disease called laminitis which is an inflammation of the sensitive laminae in the foot. It can be caused by a number of things including high intakes of sweet spring grass. There is no cure and in severe cases, horses may be destroyed. If a horse gets it, it recurs and has to be carefully managed for the rest of the horse's life. So prevention certainly beats cure.

While being overweight doesn't cause laminitis, it can predispose a horse to it. I spoke with my farrier last night and he told me he's never seem so many new cases. Even horses like Thoroughbreds that you wouldn't expect to get laminitis are contracting it. In discussion with other farriers and vets, the theory seems to be that horses put on a lot of condition last summer because of the good weater, the good weather meant there was a lot of good hay made so horses fed well over the winter, and the grass is abundant again this spring. The combination has lead to the increase in outbreaks of the disease. The horse welfare organisations are very concerned about the number of overweight horses and the health and welfare considerations arising from this. We're killing our horses with kindness.

Smokey and Wallace are both native breeds, a Highland Pony and a Welsh Cob respectively. They have been bred to live on hill and heather, not lush former cattle pasture. Consequently, they pile on condition (that's fat to non-horsey people) in summer. I did quite well getting condition off Smokey over the winter, but he is putting it back on. I weight him weekly, using a big pair of scales (joke. I use a weight tape).

So both are on a diet, partly as a precaution against laminitis and partly because, as with all of us, too much "condition" is a bad thing. The aim is to get him to about 550kg and condition score 3. I'll keep you posted!