To ask you not to feed horses you don’t know

[lastqueenofscotland]

With the weather improving and the government giving us the green light to travel to other places. If you are off walking around where horses are kept please don’t feed them without the permission of the owner.

Some horses have laminitis and you feeding them treats can cause this to flare up and in some cases cause them to need to be put to sleep.
Some things you feed them could disagree with them, horses can’t be sick, this could literally kill them.
Horses can be territorial around food and incredibly aggressive. This is dangerous for you or if they decide they are jealous of their field mate getting fed and decide to beat them up.

Please please please just leave other people’s animals alone unless you’ve permission from the owners.

Judging by the aggressive responses given when people are politely asked and have it explained why it's not ok, I don't think it's just ignorance.

The Scottish SPCA have a poster you can download and print here: www.scottishspca.org/hold-your-horses

I'm glad I've seen this thread. I'll admit I have fed horses a bit of grass in an attempt to pet them before (I'd never enter their field or give them human food though) as I assumed they were grazing and eating it anyway. It honestly hadn't accrued to me that I could be potentially harming them which i apologise for and can assure all you horse/pony keepers it wont happen again.

Ignorance only explains a minority. Feeding a handful of grass from outside the field under the impression it's only what the horse is eating anyway is a lack of knowledge that can indeed be educated.

But there's a big difference between that and the sort of ignorant entitled fuckwit that thinks it's fine to feed treats, garden waste or indeed any old shit. The former is someone mistakenly thinking they aren't feeding anything the horse hasn't already got free access to, the latter know full well they are making decisions based on fuck all knowledge about what someone else's horse can eat.

And let's face it, media campaigns for people to follow the Highway Code when driving past horses haven't been publicised enough when it's people being injured and killed alongside horses. I very much doubt anything solely about horses suffering or being killed would attract much interest. And even if it did, people like @Mustfly would still consider photos such as a pp posted of less importance than their own pleasure.

@Mustfly are you a horse owner?

Your post has really annoyed me. It isn't just a carrot. Excess sugar can cause laminitis. Sever lami is absolutely agonising - the pedal bone can come through the sole. All from a few carrots.

www.horseandrideruk.com/expert-advice/articles/laminitis-everything-need-know/

Or it can cause colic. If you're lucky you catch it early and the horse is fine. If not, the gut can twist and die. Again, the horse is in agony and depending on the severity, there's often nothing you can do but put them down.

Horse can also get something called choke which is horrible. The oesophagus gets blocked with food. It can run out of their nose. It can get into their lungs. It can kill them. A major cause? Whole carrots. www.horseandhound.co.uk/horse-care/vet-advice/choke-in-horses-41184

www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/two-horses-die-after-lockdown-walkers-picnic-in-their-field-713242/amp

www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/owners-appeal-not-to-feed-horses-after-potato-gets-stuck-in-elderly-mares-throat-711860

www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/warning-pony-fed-bread-walkers-develops-colic-697039

www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/were-in-bits-mares-death-likely-caused-by-walkers-feeding-her-714792/amp

www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/horse-came-close-to-death-after-suspected-feeding-of-mincemeat-by-walkers-712615/amp

STOP FUCKING FEEDING HORSES UNLESS YOU HAVE PERMISSION FROM THE OWNER.