Hi,
we have some new people living nextdoor to us and they've bought there two horses along with them.The horses are kept in a paddock right oppersit ours and the new neigbours house,basically there in our garden,there isnt any shelter and they just have a little coat on.when its been snowing they dont have any grass,shelter and there coverd in snow.i dont really know anything about horses but was just a bit concerned for them??
thankyou for reading & maybe wasting your time as i have no idea about horses

aww poor things. Are they being given food and water? Do they look underweight or can you not tell because they have their rugs on?

When you say no shelter do you mean nothing at all.. no trees or anything?

horses are actually better at keeping warm in the cold than at dissapating heat in extremely hot weather - depending what type of horses they are and the fact they are rugged - they are probably fine - many native types live out all year round without rugs - my only concern would be that they are getting some form of forage (hay) to eat - as it is the digestion of this that creates huge amounts of heat that keeps them warm - if they are not getting any additional food then i would be a little worried. best thing to do is actually to talk to the owners - not in an accusatory way -but just admit your ignorance about horses and say you were a bit worried so thought it best to ask them about it - this generally goes down better that when gossip and rumours get back to the owners - had it happen to me when someone in our village started saying she was going to call the rspca on me cos my horses had rugs on in the hot weather - if she had only asked me why i could have explained they were fly rugs - so well ventilated - and they wear them as its really midgey round my fields and one of my horses has sweet itch so needs to stay covered.

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hi thanks for the replies!
yeah they get hay,food and water daily.they dont have any shelter including trees.
i will stop worring about them now i know that they are warm.thanks for the good advise merlyn26!

Hey I did not want to create a new thread as I am not sure I need to.

I just wanted some advice to I guess about two horses. I put my hands up and admit I know nothing about horses.

I pass some very old sheds etc that are quite out of the way by a river most days while on a walk and have come used to seeing the same two horses. There is a very battered shed there for them to go into but they look sad somehow! Very, very bored is my guess. There is no grass in the square fenced off part they are in just soil/mud.

I very rarely see them eating at all. How much is healthy for horses to eat per day? I saw a woman go there the other day. She opened the gate and the horses run to the far end quickly. She filled one bucket up with the river water and emptied it into the horses bucket then quickly left. The horses then rushed over to drink from it for a while.

Guess I am probably making much of nothing. Would love to be able to get down there myself and give them my sunday roast peelings and such.

hi jackie... any concern you should contact world horse welfare - dont bother with the RSPCA they are useless.

another thing - for the peelings thing - dont! there is a condition called cOLIC - which is very painful for horses and can kill them. Not saying your peelings would but its not advisable.!

I have a few horses at the back of me - they are being fed and watered and they are as sad as the ones you see - never eating - just stood there, i almost bought one of the foals just to help it out.

sad how some people treat thei rhorses -

It all depends what breed they are. Some of my welsh ponies here are a very hardy breed and they can keep warm well and I do not rug them up during the cold weather. Horses and clever at keeping warm - you may see they are covered in mud also? This is because they roll in and it clogs to there hair, holding in extra heat! Do they look like ponies or horses and are they quite leggy or short and stumpy? Only reason I ask is because most horses with alot of leg on them ie. Throughbreds, Riding Ponies do need some sort of rug or shelter because they are not as substantle in the cold weather asapose to a welsh pony or fell pony who are bred to be able to withstand the cold.

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