Meeting our Horse’s Needs
As a rescue we have many horses come to us with a wide variety of health issues. Many of these health issues are problems that can't be "cured" with medicine or fixed with a special treatment. What I've come to find about most of these health issues is that the "cure" or "treatment" is letting the horse live like a horse. These illnesses are really just mismanagement of the species or the breed more specifically.
We have this thing where we breed horses within a specific place, for a specific climate and job, their systems evolve to thrive within the world they were bred in. Then we ship the horses around the world and their body can't acclimate to the changes in climate, insects, natural forages, and lifestyles. Then they suffer because we can't adapt them to the world we want them to.
Every Horse NEEDS proper nutrition for their individual, breed, and species needs. Space, freedom of movement and lots of it, motion is lotion baby!! Other horses, to interact with, at worst, over a fence, but there MUST be other horse friends to perform normal horse behaviors. Adequate rest, which means they need to feel safe from the elements and the world around them, to be able to rest. Then finally, enrichment to fill the voids our current system doesn't entirely meet well.
Nutrition, begins with forage. Horses are designed to be consuming low value forage 24/7. Forage should be flowing through their gut continuously, if they go more than a few hours without forage the acid begins to damage their gut. Then proper vitamins, minerals, and added fat and proteins according to their specific lifestyle, breed, and health needs. Supplements can be helpful with some health issues, but a foundation of a well-balanced diet is vital.
Horses need movement, not just 1 hour a day of being ridden or worked. They need to be outdoors, moving, continuously throughout the day. If they go out into a small, boring paddock, and hover in a corner until you bring them back in, this is not adequate. They need movement, so add forage feeding locations, water spots, friends, and enrichment to engage them in movement. Ideally let's include good footing, of course this is tricky in some seasons and places. But we do the best we can.
Horses need to be able to express their species appropriate, normal behaviors. If they do not have this opportunity, they will find inappropriate outlets for their behaviors! We can't always have the perfect set of horses who get along and thrive together. Because we choose which horses our horse lives with based on our own intentions or where we can board, other things like good turn out and appropriate feeding might be more important than if your horse has a friend in the herd. But they still need same species interactions. If they can't safely be in the same area together, at least over a fence, but ideally at least a pair or more in together. They need to be able to groom, spar, huddle in the weather, share snacks, encourage each other to keep moving throughout the day. Sitting alone in my own house sounds like a dream to me (I'm an introvert, can you tell?) but even as introverted as I am, a few weeks of living like this will get old, I'll need some interactions with some peers.
Many people disregard rest, assuming their horse gets enough. But physical and emotional problems can often impede on a horse's ability to rest, even if they're locked in a stall for 23 hours a day. Spending 23 hours stressing anxiously is not restful or comfortable. They need to feel physically able to lay down, so if you can provide a comfortable place for them to rest (sometimes this requires more than we think). They also need to feel SAFE to be able to rest. They need physical protection from the elements but they also need emotional safety, this often means they have a same species friend to keep them protected.
Often we aren't able to meet all our horse's needs perfectly, because of space, time, limited boarding options... The perfect situation isn't always possible. So, we can use enrichment to help spice up their life, keep them moving, eating, playing, socializing, and enjoying their lives