If only they could say "FEED ME PLEASE!"

I spent quite a while pondering what to write about for today and pretty much decided to not blog, strongly against the wishes of my professor. Instead, as I felt a lack of inspiration come over me, something fell into my lap.

The subject I am going to discuss today is a sensitive one. I'm going to write about horses and their weight. This is a complex topic for me because I have been cursed with a couple of impossible weight candidates myself. This makes the issue very personal.

While stepping out of the shower this evening, I found an alarming text from a friend asking me questions about the physical characteristics of a horse I used to own. I replied with the answers, but in my impatience, decided to call. After talking for a few moments, I was informed that a horse had come in to USERL (US Equine Rescue League) that was severely underweight and looked like a horse I owned a year or two back.

I instantly panicked and got in touch with the mutual friend that had relayed the information in my direction. Through a series of photo messages on the great Facebook I was able to determine the starving creature she had seen was not my beautiful boy. Though I was able to breathe a sigh of relief, my heart sank in sadness for the horse in the gloomy picture.

Some horses are hard to keep weight on. (A hard-keeper for the up and coming) That is the simple truth of it. I think a lot of people overlook this concept, and it is the reason there are so many skinny horses, and so many people who are over critical as soon as they see an underweight case. It is true, if you starve a horse, it will drop weight, but it is also true that they will drop weight for whatever reason and it is HARD to put back on.

In my personal experience, the horse in question had a terrible sore in his mouth, and the vet came out to treat it, but my gelding refused to eat for almost an entire week. A week with no food is detrimental on a horse's health and appearance. Following this time, I did all I could to put some meat back on his bones, but never got him back to where I wanted him to be. After a terrible car accident, I was forced to get rid of him. It pained me to watch him walk onto a trailer, but it was even harder to see him leave knowing he looked badly.

The people who picked him up thought, I'm sure, that he had been starved and neglected. They probably have bad-mouthed me to tons of people by now, and there is probably an anti-KP fan club out there somewhere with t-shirts and the whole 9 yards. But the truth of it is... I did what I could, I kept the vet involved, I fed him regularly what I was told to feed, and he had free choice hay. Even though I played the game by the rules, my gelding forgot to read the rulebook.

On the flip side, many of us have driven by a house with an old horse out front that looks to be 40 years old, decrepit, just being someone's lawn ornament. That horse is sway backed and grungy, and often showing a lot of rib on his sides. What makes us keep driving past that horse, but assume such terrible things about a different case? A lot of you are probably thinking, "Well... he's old. That's what happens to older horses."

Yeah, it is what happens to some older horses, but it is also what happens to some other horses with various problems. As an equine society, we need to learn to take a deep breath and keep an open mind. By jumping down someone's throat, you are offensive, and without learning facts, you may be making yourself into a total fool.

Now that we can all realize that there are horses that are challenging out there, we can openly discuss those that are just plain NEGLECTED.

A neglected horse is not a hard-keeper. Many neglected horses are easy-keepers (easy to keep weight on for you newbies) and luckily so. It is the fact that these animals can sustain life on so little that keeps them alive from day to day. The saddest part of neglected horses is that it is usually a result of good-hearted ignorance. Most people you find owning a starving horse aren't starving it on purpose, they just don't understand that the horse can't say "FEED ME PLEASE!"

In some cases, ignorant horse-owners can be educated on how to take better care of their animal, but the great controversy comes from this. How do you decide who should and who should NOT own a horse? Do you say that one mistake should force you out of the industry? And what if that neglect case is a hard-keeper, so even though the treatment could have been better, it's really not severely bad neglect, simply a hard-keeper and uneducated owner? Who has the right to draw these lines? But doesn't someone need to draw them since the horses can't speak for themselves?

Weight issues pose so many questions to the owner and then twice as many to the general public around them. Too often people are attacked about their horse care because they own a problem horse. I would be willing to bet: If we all attacked people about their riding and training ability based on how their horse performed under saddle, horse show attendance would be cut in half. There are horses that are harder to train, handle, and ride. There are horses that are harder to keep at a preferable weight. The key is figuring out who is to judge these things.

One last note I want to make is that skinny is bad, but fat is no better. Horse owners today are so scared of being judged that their animal is too underweight that they pack on the pounds. They don't want their sweet little pony to be hungry so they feed them and feed them.... right into the grave. These people are at the brunt of very few attacks on their horse care, but if you've ever seen a foundered pony with elf slipper hooves and a coffin bone that's come out the bottom of his/her sole, you'll never look at a fat pony the same again.

The point? Don't judge. But don't ignore either. If you know someone with a horse that has a weight issue, be it over or under, be kind and gentle in asking about if the horse has any problems. Most ignorant people realize they know very little and can tell something isn't right. Be a good horseman *or horsewoman for you politically correct folks* and help by teaching.

The equine industry is in some SERIOUS trouble in this economy. Horses live off of people's expendable incomes, and that is dwindling in this day and age. We have all been so divided that we have torn the concept of "strength in numbers" right out from under each other.

Hmmm.... Let's talk about that tomorrow. For now, go volunteer at a horse rescue or at least pay better attention to the care of horses around you. Be kind and calm... a little bit of help can go a long way.