Does anyone own a horse with EMS?

[Mydogissnoring]

Can you please tell me what the reality is a few months down the road?
I have just lost one pony to laminitis. She tested positive for EMS and PPID back in January. Got her through the first bout of lami and gave her a good Summer but she came down with lami again at the end of October and I made the decision to pts.
Only one month later and my cob has now been diagnosed with EMS.
He is overweight, I’m the first to admit it and because of my working hours and his fear of hacking out, exercise levels aren’t great, we have been ticking over at 4 schooling sessions a week. He is now out of work due to lameness - probably lami- and will be on soaked hay only for the next 4 weeks to see if I can get his weight down.
But what does his future look like? I hate keeping horses in stables, it’s unnatural, so I always do minimum stable time, at least 10 hours a day outside unless the weather is horrendous.
Does anyone manage to keep a horse with EMS out on grass?
What type of exercise do you do daily and for how long?
I don’t have transport. He hates traffic, and it is getting ridiculously busy on the roads near me, so hacking out is dangerous, we both hate lunging, but could probably manage once, maybe twice a week. I could possibly walk him out in hand in Summer if we went out very early or very late but will really struggle in Winter.
please tell me your stories warts and all.

My friend has an EMS pony who is muzzled all summer or turned out alone in a bare paddock. The first summer she was diagnosed she literally lost half her body weight and had a new lease of life.

She is a very greedy pony and gets minimal hay when in and personally, I feel the pony is really unhappy this last year. Exercise wise she is rarely ridden and she’s ‘too slow’ and just kept as a kids sit on pony now.

I think muzzling is Ok for a certain amount of time but it takes away a pony’s ability to groom
and interact properly with others. It’s a tricky act to balance the health of the pony and giving them a decent quality of life. It can be done though I am sure.

sorry you are going through this again. Horses know how to break our hearts

My lovely highland gelding had EMS. I managed his health with him living out as he didn’t like stables. I set up a track around the perimeter of his field for him and my highland mare (who was overweight but never had lami and was tested negative for EMS) and I moved the electric fencing in a bit at a time. This gave them much more movement than fencing into a small paddock plus access to all the natural shelter which was on the outer edge of the field.
In winter I removed the electric once the grass was past the autumn flush so we didn’t end up with mud, mud and mud.
Fed adlib old hay, soaking was just too difficult for me to manage at my yard with distance and layout. Plus my vet said old hay was almost as good.
Exercise about four times a week.
Metformin absolutely worked wonders for him. Twenty tablets twice a day ground to powder in a mortar and pestle and fed in fast fibre.
My boy remained trim and never had another bout of lammi once diagnosed and on this regime.
He was plump to start with but never as fat as my mare so clearly not just a weight issue much like diabetes.
PS I don’t like muzzles and so not a route that I would try. Neither would I keep a pony in their own or permanently off grass. To me that is no life for a horse.
My boy was a very happy chap under our regime and the Metformin was fantastic for him.

I have an EMS pony diagnosed January this year ,he’s doing really well ! He has a track round the field to keep him moving he wears a muzzle when out he has had no laminitis this year and his glucose levels are now in normal range.

Exercise - we hacked out or walked in hand. I am lucky though as live in the New Forest so we had no road work at all.
In your position is there any chance of moving yards?
If not can you walk out in hand in summer and in winter mix your schooling sessions with groundwork agility or long reining?
We didn’t do school stuff as neither of us liked it but would walk for hours in hand and train on the forest for useful things like standing in a ditch so I could get on and off easily. I used clicker training which my food orientated boy really enjoyed.

Track system and out 24/7 365 days a year with friends.
Always feed soaked hay.

Thank you.
yes it’s quality of life I worry about.
I actually bought my own land because Winter turnout around near me is almost non existant and I hate seeing horses stabled 24/7.

The vet mentioned medication but not for at least a month. Trying to get weight down as naturally as possible due to side effects of medication.
I did used to use a track system, but a friends horse has moved on and it doesn’t suit her, plus my cob has no respect for electric fencing and barges through it to get to better grass on the other side.
I tried a muzzle over Summer, but he always managed to get if off!

What do you feed? Do you soak hay?

No option to move yards as I bought the one he was on when the owner wanted to sell!
It would be easier if it was attached to my house, but it’s the other end of the village. I wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy a house with 5 acres of land attached though so I’m grateful for what I do have.

I feed Lean and light balancer, molasses free chaff and soaked hay ,he is turned out in winter from approx 7am - 6pm with his buddy ,he is not overweight .
He has a blood test every month to check on his glucose levels ,his last one this week was within a ‘normal’ pony range

If you've got your own land I would suggest let him live out 24/7 and don't bother rugging, he'll drop a lot of the weight over winter which will help. Then try to keep him off the spring grass as much as possible, you'll need good electric fencing or proper fencing to control him - you could maybe install a permanent track around the perimeter of the field. After the first flush has gone you might be able to let him on the grass if he's getting some exercise, maybe try some pole work to help him use himself?

I couldn't soak hay and so gave adlib straw every winter, it worked a treat! 28 years and she's still going strong (wears a rug now on bad days).