Overfeeding can be dangerous for horses and ponies

We were recently asked whether overfeeding haylage to horses can cause colic and I believe the answer is ‘yes’. Haylage has more protein than hay as it is cut and saved more quickly. Horses love haylage and are inclined to eat as much as you give them and this can be dangerous for both horses and ponies. More people are turning to haylage as our summers become increasingly wet and good hay is so hard to come by. I don’t feed haylage so I can’t claim to be an expert but I know plenty of people who do and they are always careful to feed less haylage than they would hay.
A horse in light work will need about three quarters fibre (hay) to one quarter of hard feed (coarse mix or cubes). The more work a horse does, the more hard feed he will need. Please read the instructions on the back of the feed bags as the manufacturers know what they are talking about.
I usually give ponies half the amount of hay that I would give a horse, depending on their size. Don’t give them too much at once – spread it out over the day. You can buy small hay nets for ponies which will make them eat the hay more slowly.

Overfeeding of any sort is potentially dangerous. I would prefer to have a slightly thin horse than an overweight one. Overfeeding leads to all sorts of problems like filled legs, laminitis, colic and it can also be bad for a horse’s tendons. A competition horse is an athlete and should not be overweight.

When I was having my first son, my show horse was out at grass and, being an Irish Draught type, he got laminitis. This is a common problem with native breeds when they are on rich grass. It is potentially fatal if left untreated and the horse suffers severe pain in his feet. If not caught in time, the pedal bone will rotate in the foot and, in extreme cases, actually come through the sole.

The vet misdiagnosed my horse’s problem at first as the horse did not present the ‘classic laminitis’ symptoms of leaning back to take the weight off his front feet. It affected him in the hind feet and caused him to seem off balance when moving and also to lift his hind legs high in the air. The vet thought he had injured his back and told me that his future as a competition horse didn’t look good. She prescribed an anti-inflammatory drug which was used for navicular. I left the horse on grass but fortunately only on a small area.

A friend who was an expert in showing ponies happened to visit and she was watching the horse lifting his hind legs to ease the pain. Then she turned to me and said: “That horse hasn’t injured his back – he’s got laminitis”. She was right. I kept him in a stable on the anti-inflammatory and reduced his feed until he became sound again after a couple of days. To be fair to the vet, the symptoms were more unusual and he is a huge horse of 17.3 hh. If he’d been a small pony it might have been easier to diagnose as they are more likely to get laminitis.

Since then I have had to be very careful with his diet. Any flush of grass (when the grass grows suddenly and rapidly, especially during warm wet weather) can bring the laminitis back. I always keep him in a small paddock when he is turned out and I have to be wary of feeding him too much protein. I have found that he will get laminitis in the autumn and winter – once getting it in December when it was mild and warm – but the usual time to watch out for is during spring and summer. The first attack of laminitis is usually severe and after that the horse or pony will always be prone to it. Think of it like gout in humans – a very painful foot due to too rich a diet. The hooves will sometimes feel hot if you put your hand on them. Abcesses often occur with laminitis.

Prevention is better than cure with laminitis. The single most important thing to remember, I feel, is to get the horse off the grass immediately if it looks like it might be coming down with laminitis. Next week I will write about ways to help prevent your horse or pony getting laminitis and what I feed my laminitis candidates.

The good news is that the 17.3 hh show horse recovered from his bout and went on to be a champion show hunter and competed at dressage up to elementary level in his teens.