There is more talk in the horse world nowadays about the importance of forage in horses’ diets, about their gut microbiome, and about methods of managing pasture to produce healthier grass. This is all so needed. There is also a deeper consideration for what is meant by terms such as health, welfare and wellbeing. I wonder whether, if we considered the wider and deeper ecosystem implications of many of our horse practices, we might be led towards some ancient and wise answers from their bodies and our planet.

In my experience as a vet so far, I have seen many cases where a horse’s lifestyle is having an impact on their health and wellbeing. Sometimes it may be the predominant cause of ill health or wellbeing, sometimes it is just another contributing factor. Sometimes, improving their lifestyle towards a state we often think of as ideal for our horses (usually because it is closer to how they would live in the wild) risks exacerbating certain existing health conditions.

This is a blog article based on the Q&A call co-hosted with Kathy Price of Point of Balance. What is evidence based veterinary medicine? How are we best served by it? When and how is it ethical to look beyond current scientific understanding in health care and in healing? What is the placebo effect and what can we learn from it? What about risk and health outcomes? How do we listen to our intuition?

What is stress and how is it linked to physical, mental and emotional wellbeing? Is stress needed physiologically and for learning? What is pressure, is it necessary in training and can it be used compassionately? Does stress cause or contribute to certain diseases?

How are anatomy, conformation and posture linked? How do these affect movement? And how is this linked to mental and emotional wellbeing? What can posture and motion tell us about all-round wellbeing? Can we influence these with our management, training and riding and if so, how do we do so beneficially and avoid detrimental effects?

Are you convinced your horse has pain somewhere but can’t seem to find it? Maybe this is showing up as a change in behaviour or performance. Perhaps you have done the standard “back, tack and teeth” check, which has returned nothing but the behaviour is happening and you’re not sure where to go next. You might have gone much further than this and done extensive diagnostics that have still returned few findings. Or you might be treating or managing a known painful condition such as an injury found during investigations, or perhaps a chronic condition, laminitis, or gastric ulcers. How do you know whether you have found the underlying cause, whether pain relief is working, when you might need to alter your management and when the pain has gone away?

Veterinary and husbandry procedures approached with communication, compassion and consent.

Forage for physical, cognitive and emotional wellbeing