shetland ponys

Question
QUESTION: Hi Rick,I am 41, have no horse experience although I have been researching for 3 months about ponies.I am adopting two elderly female Shetland ponies ( 20 and 26 yrs). A friend of mine rescued them a 1 1/2 yrs ago, they were in horrible shape, farrier had not seen them for over a year,but he has them looking good now. She is moving back home to Florida so I converted a 20x23 building into a barn for them and fenced in 1 1/2 acres for them. I have a few questions. How many hours a day should they be pastured? I will feed them their senior food in the morning before I let them out to pasture and then again in the evening. Do you know how long they live normally?They ate nothing but pasture grass and were never wormed or vetted before they were rescued. Also the younger one has what the farrier calls mudbutt or poopy tail.I don't know if she isn't lifting her tail high enough or what. She does have regular stools also. My friend gives them a bran mixture that has helped somewhat, and worms them every two months. That pony also has a hard time getting up in the morning and they both have been getting bute for their arthritis. Occasionally when the farrier comes every eight weeks they have healing abscesses but she soaks them in Epsom salt and puts a boot on them which works well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I usually rescue and foster dogs. Thank you for your time.

ANSWER: Hi Laura, you are very good hearted to take these guys.  Horses and ponies are about the same as far as they are herd animals and prey animals.  Read my web site, it will give you better idea on how horses think and why they act like they do.  Horses are very different than dogs, which are predators, like us humans, so we relate and communicate much better than with horses, who are prey animals that know we are predators and can eat them.  After you read my site if you have more questions feel free to write back, I will try and answer your questions from above.

Worming every two months is too much, this will mess up their system and may be part of the cause of the runs.  Worm four times a year, even three times would be fine since you don't have lots of horses.  All horses have worms, worming just controls them, too much wormer is not good for horse and the worms can develop a tolerance and not be as effective.

Pasture is best for a horse all the time.  As long as they have shelter and water, I would leave them out all the time.  As horses get older, they don't chew or eat as much, so allowing them to "free access" to grass hay and pasture is best, they can eat when they want, it keeps their digestive system working best and keeps them occupied like in the wild.  Giving them senior feed could also be causing the runs, but getting the vitamins for their age is more important.

Bute is like aspirin to us, giving it all the time is rough on the stomach, but if they are in pain, that has to be a personal choice, if they are out in pasture, moving and grazing and getting good food, I would think they do not need it all the time.  If you notice pain then use it, if it was started and just continued, I would back off and see how they do with less and less and then you decide when and how often to give it to them.  I must admit women tend to be too motherly and want to baby horse too much some time, but it is your choice.

Foot care is needed, but if you shoe the horse, I would stop, these horses are too old to ride and horses do fine in the wild with no shoes, a barefoot trim is fine and lets the hoof work better, so no shoes and just trims as needed (every 6 to 8 weeks).

Horse live as old as 40 in rare occasions.  In the wild they die by 7 to 10, since these guys were neglected and lived so long they may have good genes, but I don't see too many horses over 25 to 29.  The thing that will kill a horse in nomally colic.  So make sure they have good water all the time, a salt and mineral block in pasture and don't feed hay twice a day, always have good grass hay available (rye, oat or grass) that way they don't eat all at once  and they will graze all day, which is best for them.

Hope this helps, if I missed something let me know, thanks again for taking these guys, after all the abuse, they finally got lucky!  :)

Rick

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QUESTION: Thank you so much for the great advise. Like I said I am new to horses.My pasture used to be my front yard so it is a mixture of weeds and grass. Should I overseed seed it with rye, oats or some other type of grass or anything? Also, my friend has been worming them every three not two months, I was wrong on that.I don't think she gives the bute every day just when they are showing signs of pain.They aren't shoed and they won't be ridden so the farrier will just trim their hooves every eight weeks.Thank you again.

ANSWER: Glad I could help, you can seed but it will not take with horses walking on it all the time, but if you put them in at night and water it should stay green.  Horses can eat weeds and will know what to eat and what not to eat, you can have your vet or farrier to walk your pasture and see if they see anything that concerns them.  If you are putting up fencing, NO CORNERS, read my site on horseman tips about corners and horses.

Good luck and let me if I can help,

Rick

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My ponies arrived on Thursday. The first day they were a little slow getting around, the younger one took about an hour to get up. Once they were out in the pasture they grazed all day.Same thing Friday. They would not take their bute. So I chose to watch them closely. Sunday morning they were both up and raring to go. Again wouldn't eat the bute. I can't believe how much better they are doing on the fresh grass. They are really getting around. They were up bright and early again this morning. I gave them their bute with their senior food before I let them out to the pasture because I am not home today and they ate it. So I think I will just try to gauge their needs every day as far as the bute goes.Just wanted to thank you again for the advise and let you know how awesome they are and what really cool attitudes they have. Thanks again. Laura

Answer
Thanks for the kind words, glad I could help.  It they don't show signs of pain, keep them off the bute, like all meds they will develop a tolerance or get dependent on it and then when they really need it, it will not be as effective.  Not to forget, bute can cause stomach issues.

Nature takes care of these guys if we keep it as natural as we can.  

Glad you are enjoying them, they really are so good for the soul.  :)

take care,

Rick