Hi, I'm new and in need of a bit of advice. My Aunty & I are thinking of loaning a pony from a friend but we're a bit worried about a condition she may have.

I have looked online but can't seem to find anything that fits what the pony does. She is 14 and when eating food, other than grass, she lifts her neck up and rubs it on the fence. The food then comes out of her nose whilst she makes a funny noise (this is what we have been told).

She is by no means skinny and apparently she didn't do it with her previous owner due to the poor fencing. Also she does a little cough after a canter or such. At the moment her current owner isn't feeding her anything other than hay and grazing.

Does this condition sound familiar to anyone and is it life threatening or something we should worry about? She's a sound pony and is only going to be used for light riding & my young cousin to play with.

Any advice would be really appreciated, thank you

Has she had her teeth regulary checked?

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she's choking, yes it can be life threatening. she's rubbing her throat to help the food go down/come up. horses can't be sick so it comes through their nose. choke is serious and the vet should be called if you suspect a horse is having a choking episode.

one of the first things i would check is the horses teeth, a vet needs to do this. teeth grow all the time in horses and wear unevenly this leaves sharp edges which will cut the inside of the mouth and tongue and make it very difficult for the horse to chew. the vet should come every 6mths to 2yrs (depending on how the individual horses teeth wear) to rasp away the sharp edges. it normally costs about £30 for a rasping session, but the vet callout may be as much as £100. if the teeth have been neglected they may be in a very sorry state and cause problems with eating such as choke. in this case the horse may need extensive work with an electric rasp, which costs about £350 maybe with a callout fee on top, and may cost more if the horse needs sedating to have it done.

another thing to think of is because the horse can't eat, it has lost weight. if you yourself were a bag of bones you would be subdued and sluggish. with the horse in it's present condition you cannot assess the horses true character to be certain it will be suitable for you. once it is receiving adequate nutrition from it's diet the horse may be a much more lively character than you bargained for!

the coughing after canter could be due to unfitness or a dust allergy (is the hay fed dry or soaked?) or it could be the start of COPD (a bit like asthma and may need ongoing medication).

personally I would report the horses owner to the british horse society welfare dept or world horse welfare or the blue cross. in my opinion the rspca are not so good with horse welfare cases. where ever you choose, you can report annonymously if you want. if the horse is under veterinary care, then there's no harm done. But i suspect the horse is being neglected by it's present owner. if neglect is down to ignorance of correct horse care the charities will offer advice, or the owner could sign the horse over to the charity where it will be retrained and any medical conditions dealt with, then rehomed. your friend will not necessarily get in trouble, and something needs to be done to stop this horses suffering.

I decided to try nutria-system. We bought one month only just to try it to see if we liked it, we split it in half and that way we’d get two weeks each out of it.

I have to say ‘most’ of the food is good. BUT….I am really really really (did I say really?) picky about meat. I’ve never been able to buy frozen dinners with meat in them, nothing re-packaged with meat, etc.

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Coul dit be cribbing or windsucking? It sounds like windsucking to me. Does she do it when she eats hay, or just when she has a bucket feed?