The horse in the field near me looks a bit fatter than when she came (oops thought it was a boy.. but she's a her.. I looked..) anyway, how do you tell if its fat from being on grass, or pregnant?

I am calling the council tomorrow to find out who owns the land to get in touch with the owner.
I am also considering ringing the sspca, due to the state of her water.. When I checked last time if she had water, I couldn;t get close enough to see what it looked like, only that there was some, well tonight with the help of next door we cut away some of the brambles next to the fence at the back, and the water has got old stones and leaves in it, the water is really really dirty and had a few bits of litter. We fished the bits of rubbish out though.

Her headcollar came un=-clipped again, and as she was leaning over the fence, it caught. Luckily I had a carrot and was able to save a panic, and do it back up but what if I hadn't come by?


Anyway.. the reason I am looking out for her, is when I was in high school, there were horses in a field 4 miles away from me, I used to cycle to see them every day and brush them, I knew their owner, he wasn't nice. There were 2 horses in one field, their feet needed trimmed. I'm surprised they didn;t get sick, there was ragwort in the field.
The female in the other field was pregnant to one of the other horses and she wasn't being cared for properly. I named her Solo she was a lovely horse, always waiting for me to come and I would walk round her field with her following closely.
She had her foal one cold night, it died and she was put down due to complications.. the guy who lived in the house next to the field heard the poor girl screaming and rang the vet. It was too late by then. I got told the next day when i went after school

xx

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You can't tell just by looking if they are pregnant, needs a vets examination and bloods. I suspect it's grass belly, this time of year even the littlest grass has a high sugar level so she's more likely abit podgy!!

If you are concerned I'd certainly ring the SSPCA or even better Horse Welfare (was ILPH) as they have more experienced inspectors.

The sspca are Useless! I rang them..
They asked if the horse was injured or in discomfort, I said no.
They asked if it had water I said yes but it's dirty.
They asked if there was hedge/trees I said yes but the sun shines towards the hedge and she's got a white face.
They said they will send someone over at some point to have a look but it sounds doubtful they will do anything!

So I will ring the Horse Welfare. I am waiting a call back from the council (I will prob have to ring back) so I can find out who owns the field.

x

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Yeah can't say I'm surprised! Horse Welfare is MUCH better, they will take you more seriously and hopefully will have a local inspector they can send out to take a look. I've never known them not act on a complaint...unlike certain other welfare agencies.

dont give up i have reported horses many a times and its not because they are not kept up2 my standards its the fact you see them on a daily basis and know they are being neglected but unfortunatly there is water there even though they are going to get caught up in brambles to drink scum that is the way rspca etc have to look at it or they would be un indated with rescues. unfortunatly with them if you have a rusty can in the field then that is a problem.what im trying to say is what is bad to us is nowt to them.but dont hold it against them as they do do their job when its needed.one of the cases i reported was a veteran horse was neglected in our eyes but they knew how the rspca worked about rugs and the poor horse still had a rug on in summer he had no coat it was on his rug and because he was so so under weight didnt take the rug off so we did and then reported it and because he had water nowt was done,we were told that if we felt that strongly feed him on the quite but carefully and be aware of health problems that could occur.he got put down the horrible way in the end through neglect.