You Know Your Horse Best!

by Cyndi
(Ontario)

I grew up around horses on the family farm in Saskatchewan. Although I have always loved horses, I'd never had any formal training concerning riding or horse health care. The horses on the farm had lots of room to roam and always spent their time outdoors. They never had health problems.

In April 2008 I finally got my first horse...at the age of 40! What a dream come true. Although I had started to take some natural horsemanship classes, I still didn't know much about horse health.

I chose to go with pasture board for my six-year-old mare when I brought her home, because I wanted to keep things as natural as possible. She seemed happy and we began to develop our relationship.

Six months later, on a Monday, I noticed that my mare seemed a bit "off". She wasn't as eager to come to me and stood in the run-in a lot, looking depressed. I was afraid something was up. I'd heard the word "laminitis" before, and that thought was niggling in the back of my mind, so I checked into it as much as I could on-line.

About mid-week she was still looking depressed and was slow to move. It was a Wednesday and I got more concerned. I called the vet, who had been out in the spring to vaccinate her, to see what he thought. He suggested that I wait a few days and see how she was doing. He felt that she could be feeling a bit under the weather and maybe ate something that upset her stomach.

She was starting to lay down a lot, and the barn owner asked me if there was any chance that she was pregnant! No, there wasn't. She was just an overweight easy keeper.


I was growing more concerned as the days passed, and finally, on Friday night I called my farrier, to come check her out, because the vet still didn't seem too concerned when I talked to him earlier that day. My farrier made a special trip out on Saturday morning and confirmed my suspicions, that he felt she had laminitis. I immediately called a different vet and had him come over. Sure enough, she had a mild case of laminitis. It was related to the "hay" she was being fed.

I guess my advice is that you know your horse best, so if something doesn't seem right, get it checked out. Be persistent! I've since found out (a couple of weeks ago) from a barefoot trimmer that my horse probably foundered in addition to the laminitic episode. That was two years ago, and she's never had any issues since then, but if I could do it over again, I'd insist on someone checking her out right away. I'd rather spend money having 'nothing' checked than miss something major.

I changed barns the day after Fanny's diagnosis, but that's a whole other story, because we've ended up changing barns again, due to different circumstances. I am happy to say that Fanny is now at a natural facility where she is happily in a herd of 13 horses. It is the original barn that I'd taken natural horsemanship lessons at before I got her. Thanks to a part-time job to help pay for the boarding costs, we are both very happy :o)