THE 3F'S OF EQUINE WELFARE

Text | Shelley Wolhuter, Libratum Equus

As horse and pony lovers, we do our very best to keep our beloved equines happy and healthy. The ‘healthy’ part is pretty easy to judge based on what we see in front of us. Health is usually visible through clear signs that we are taught to recognise; for example, looking at body condition, coat texture, soundness, appetite and general alertness can give us a very good idea about how our pony is doing health-wise. However, working out whether our pony is ‘happy’ or not can be a very difficult thing to do.

Happiness seems to be subjective, meaning it looks different to different people. Unfortunately, our ponies cannot whisper in our ear when they are unhappy and can’t tell us exactly what they want. This can lead to owners making decisions about happiness based on what they think would make them happy if they were a pony. This is dangerous as our ponies have very different needs from us. We, instead, need to do our best to provide our ponies with their species-appropriate needs, keeping in mind that their needs are vastly different from ours.

NOTE: A pony does not care about a warm stable and would rather be moving!

A great starting point to understanding and assessing your pony’s happiness levels is to apply the Three F’s of Equine Welfare: Freedom, Friends and Forage.

Freedom

Horses love to move!

Ponies are designed to move and move a lot! In the wild, horses and ponies are reported to move up to 40 kilometres a day. In contrast to our domestic setup, wild horses and ponies do not spend all day grazing in lush meadows. Instead, they are constantly on the move, browsing briefly as they pass various types of forage. In fact, they are almost migratory in nature. The more they move, the stronger their bones, feet and joints get. Therefore, we must begin by mentioning the first ‘F’ – Freedom to move and act naturally. Ensuring your pony has plenty of space to move and as much turnout time as possible (if not unlimited) is a great first step in having a happy horse!

Friends

Horses and ponies are highly social animals that live in herds naturally. This is no secret. They rely on their friends for safety, alerting each other to possible dangers. They form close bonds with certain members of their herd and often spend the most time with these horses and ponies. Pair-bonds are the easiest bonds to spot as they just involve two horses or ponies, and generally, these individuals will be quite dedicated to each other.

In terms of behaviours with friends, horses and ponies spend a fair amount of time mutually grooming each other, which has two important benefits:

1. Mutual grooming releases a hormone that causes the horses to bond.

2. Mutual grooming can be a soothing activity when horses are recovering from a stressful incident.

Then another behaviour horses and ponies undertake with friends is play. Horses and ponies can be quite playful with their friends even in old age. They sometimes gallop, buck and nip each other, and these activities cause them to bond.

Forage

Horses and ponies are obligatory herbivores, meaning they are designed to eat plants and only plants. They spend the majority of their time consuming roughage in the form of grass, hay, shrubs and herbs. Their stomachs are relatively small, and their digestive system is designed to process a high-fibre diet. Because of this, horses are not suited to digest large periodic ‘meals’, like humans. Of course, horses are capable of digesting small, frequent meals like their concentrate. However, their makeup tells us that they are at their best when they have constant access to forage, which should make up the bulk of their diet, and no big meals.

Take home

There are many things that we can do to keep our horses and ponies happy and healthy. In fact, the multitude of options can sometimes become overwhelming! For this reason, it is important to keep things simple and remember that horses’ and ponies’ needs are not the same as ours. Keeping this in mind, we can begin with the Three F’s: Freedom, Friends and Forage.

Shelley Wolhuter – Libratum Equus | Balanced Horse

@libratum_equus

www.libratumequus.com