Recently I assisted a friend of mine in rescuing a neglected horse – it was a miniature horse left at an auction yard facing a bleak future.
This led to a discussion of how to properly rehabilitate a rescued horse to ensure a smooth transition back to good health.
The first step is to assess the condition of the horse to determine what exactly is amiss and to develop a plan on how to get the horse back to normal. Body condition must be assessed by actually putting your hands on the horse – winter hair might obscure determining the true body condition.
In this assessment, you must include dentition (check the teeth for any dental problems), mobility (condition of the feet, ability of the horse to move to obtain food), physical issues not visible to the naked eye (internal parasites, disease).
Other issues that might require assistance of a health professional include cardiac, respiratory or immunologic problems.
To bring a horse back from a state of starvation, one approach (according to Dr. Kenneth L Marcella, DVM) is to “give frequent (every four hours) meals of high quality alfalfa hay.” I personally think this is too rich for a nutritionally challenged horse and would probably not go this route. Others suggest that a different approach is required due to the loss of the helpful microbial population in the hindgut. Dr. Juliet M. Getty, PhD suggests for an 1,100 lb horse, “a probiotic, at a double dose, every day for approximately one month; then reduce the dosage to a maintenance level. Start with 1 lb of grass hay every two hours or pasture grazing for 30 minutes with an hour break in between. At night, leave the horse with 4 lbs of hay, plenty of water and a plain, white salt block along with granulated salt, offered free-choice. After three days, increase the amount of hay to 2 lbs every two hours and give him 8 lbs of hay at night. By the end of two weeks, the horse should be able to have hay available free-choice or graze on pasture 24/7.” This approach makes more sense to me for the horse that you are trying to bring back from a severe condition.
After three weeks of this basic approach, you could also begin supplementing with a commercial senior or performance feed that has 14-16 per cent protein, at least 18 per cent fiber and at least eight per cent fat (according to Dr. Getty). This would be spread over six small meals per day. If needed, you could also incorporate flaxseed meal, vitamin E, probiotic and vitamin C – it totally depends upon the needs of your horse.
It is very sad to see the number of horses that need help. It is a combination of factors that end up causing horses to end up in this situation. Many times horses are starving or severely malnourished because owners acquire more horses than they can care for. With the high cost of fuel, economic downturn for lots of folks, challenges in acquiring good feed or just plain ignorance on proper horse care, it is the horse that suffers. It takes more than just ‘good intentions’ to meet the needs of the domestic horse, otherwise horses may need to be rescued from their “rescuers.”
Another aspect of this I see is the ‘backyard breeders’ who want to be involved in the breeding industry, want to have those ‘cute little foals’ every year but are not looking at the big picture and end up with too many horses without skills at various ages. These horses often end up at auctions and often face a very bleak future.
Back to my friend; she rescued a wonderful miniature stud colt who was headed for the auction. This little guy is now in his new home, has been gelded, had his teeth and feet attended to and is now a happy, healthy horse with a bright future.
He is already eagerly learning about harness and ground work – he will be driving in no time!
