Feeding Issues

Six colics in a month? Seriously? Yes. Six horses have colicked at my stables in the past month. One horse died, as nobody noticed until it was way too late to do anything but put the poor animal out of his misery. Qrac inherited his stable, which, for him, was a good thing, as it’s far nicer, lighter and roomier than his old one. But the thought of what that poor horse went through still makes me ill.

I only moved Qrac there in November, when the place where he lived before didn’t manage to build their indoor in time for the winter. Initially, everything seemed pretty hunky dory. The indoor is fantastic; it’s huge with a great floor. The new stable block (where Qrac now lives) is fab. There’s a solarium (pay per go) which I almost always use before and after a ride as it’s great for Qrac’s muscles, not to mention lovely to be under when it’s minus a bazillion degrees. There’s a nice, friendly crowd (although, like in every stable, there’s bound to be a little meowy stuff going on). Until very recently, I always thought that the only real negative point was the fact that it’s 60 kms from where I live.

But in the past couple of weeks it’s become blatantly obvious to me that this place’s giant negative point is that the horses aren’t fed properly. Feeding times are mega irregular; for instance it seems that last night the horses only got their grain at eleven o’clock. Hay is distributed at around six in the evening, after which the horses don’t get any more until eleven o’clock the next morning, when all the mucking out is over, which means the morning feed (I’m guessing around seven, give or take an hour) is served on an empty stomach. Lunch is served between eleven forty-five and twelve-thirty, although when Qrac was in the old stable block there were a couple of times when he didn’t get lunch at all. I complained and, as far as I know, it didn’t happen again. Also, since they don’t provide bran mash, I buy my own and feed Qrac three small portions a week. I’ve never been at a stable where bran mash wasn’t provided on a weekly basis, but maybe I’ve been spoiled. I don’t know.

The crazy thing is that, from what I’ve been told, whenever anyone has pointed out that horses need regular feeding hours to cater to their delicate stomachs, they’ve been blown off. Like, yeah yeah yeah, whatever. Insist a little too vehemently and you’re apparently given an earful. But in the last few days, when yet another horse developed a colic, people are getting worried. I’m very worried. Today, there was talk of calling a meeting and confronting the owners, as people who have been there for a long period of time say there’s no way anything will change unless everyone comes together as a group, and that, even then, chances are there will just be angry words exchanged, lots of eye rolling and maybe a slight improvement for a couple of days. Hmmmm.... Another worrisome issue for me is that nobody checks on the horses in the late evening to make sure everyone is alright. If someone did, the previous occupant of Qrac’s current stable might still be alive…

As you can imagine, I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Qrac means the world to me and the idea of him being in danger because of ignorance/laziness/negligence/whatever really freaks me out. I’m going to drive up to look at another place closer to where I live early next week, since the yard where I’d like to end up still has no vacancies, and I’ve been told my chances of getting Qrac in there before next year are slim to none.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? What would you do? Should I sit tight, join in with "pestering" the owners, feed bran mash and hope for the best until I can get Qrac into the stable of my choice? I know that no place will be perfect, that there will be issues in every single yard, but, as far as I’m concerned, good quality food fed at regular hours is the foundation of horse care. Maybe things will change if enough people speak up. Maybe…