After weeks of us all being in isolation and with an increasing amount of walkers around soaking up the scenery, we have also sadly seen an increasing amount of posts on social media of horses losing their lives due to being fed something it shouldn't, the most recent post we have seen was a horse that was only 2 years old that unfortunately died due to eating something toxic - we do not know the horse nor its owners but felt that we needed to write a post on the subject of why you should NOT feed a horse.
Our immediate response and a plea to all is - PLEASE DO NOT FEED ANY HORSES UNLESS THEY ARE YOUR OWN OR YOU HAVE HAD PERMISSION BY ONLY THE OWNER.
A horses diet is so varied and they all have different needs, many horses also have different ailments with some not being physically visible and what they eat has a tremendous impact on there health, so if given the incorrect diet it could be very costly for the owner in vet bills or even fatal for the horse!
You may think that feeding grass clippings are fine as they eat grass but unfortunately you would be wrong, not only could a horse choke but the clippings could have poisonous plants in which would make the horse very unwell.
FACT OF THE DAY - Horses can NOT vomit, it is physically impossible. Horses have a band of muscle around the oesophagus as it enters the stomach which acts as a one way valve and it is because of the power of the cut-off valve muscle as to the reason why they cannot vomit.
We are not going to write a list of all the things that are bad or good to feed a horse as previously mentioned above all horses have different needs and ailments just like you and I but just to kindly ask as cute and affectionate as our four legged friends are - PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE HORSES.
Horse / Land Owners - please feel free to use the FREE PDF print off below which you could laminate or put in a 'plastic wallet' and attach to the outside of your horses field/stables or gate (obviously please make sure it is securely attached and not where any horses can eat it!!)
Stay Safe all.
Upton Equestrian