The most common causes of weight loss in horses

* Teeth can be a problem. Have the teeth checked by an equine dentist. If the teeth are not in good condition, the hay is no longer ground properly. Older horses suffering from osteoarthritis chew more slowly, which reduces the amount of hay they eat. You can check this by hanging up a 20 kg hay net. This should be empty within a day. A horse needs 2 to 3 kg of hay a day for every 100 kg of body weight.

If this is not the case, you can supplement his diet with hay pellets, 1 kg of hay being equivalent to 1 kg of pellets. It's best to soak the pellets...

* Bad industrial food, the packaging contains beautiful descriptions, but when you read the list of ingredients, you see that they contain a lot of waste, too many cereals and starches, etc.

Good nutrition is extremely important, but you also need to look at the bigger picture and find the cause.

If your horse is constantly stressed, it will not be able to digest its food properly and this chronic stress can lead to gastric ulcers, as the blood does not circulate sufficiently to the stomach lining, which then becomes vulnerable.

* Stress

Stress is a very common problem in the herd. When there is a change of horses in the herd, the older horses are often driven out.

Change of habits.

Restlessness in the stable.

Always in the stable, then suddenly put out to pasture with other horses.

When feeding a herd, it's best to keep your horse out of the way so he doesn't have to fight for food.

Horses need 1 to 3 hours of deep sleep. If they don't, they are stressed.

Chronic pain, such as osteoarthritis, is also a source of stress.

A frequent cause of leanness is chronic stress (often associated with gastric ulcers). When a horse is constantly stressed by the way it is housed, the group it lives in or a lack of forage, its sympathetic nervous system is constantly active.

In the case of acute stress, this is functional and not serious, but if your horse remains in this state of stress, it can have serious consequences.

In all cases, you can have his teeth checked, rule out the presence of gastric ulcers, give him 24/7 hay, determine the cause and reduce his stress.

I know this can be a difficult puzzle to solve, as traumas from the horse's past can also play a role.

So don't hesitate to contact me and we'll work together to find the best solution.