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Geraldton TAFE Meets Save Equus

yvonne — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 02:31:26 +0000

Save Equus thanks the students of Geraldton TAFE Equine Studies for their interest in Save Equus and the welfare of horses. The students and teachers recently spent the morning with members of the Save Equus Animal Welfare Team and Ballesteros a recently rescued horse in the care of Save Equus.

Animal Hoarding – Trends in Equine Welfare – April 2008

yvonne — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:49:57 +0000

The Management Committee of Save Equus would like to provide the following advice concerning the situation known as Animal Hoarding. Save Equus has experienced a number of significant cases of Animal Collecting or Animal Hoarding in the past 24 months and believes this phenomenon is a serious threat to the welfare of horses in Western Australia

Our message is directed at people who are selling or rehoming horses, we want to inform you about Animal Hoarding and ask that you to be aware of the behaviour of hoarders when you are rehoming or selling your horse. The advertisement “free to good home” is very attractive to an Animal Hoarder so Save Equus urges you to give your horse a $dollar value and sell your horse for that $dollar value.

Save Equus also urges you to thoroughly investigate the person you intend to sell your horse to, so you are assured of their income, skill and capacity to care for the horse. Save Equus also urges you to sell your horse with a simple written contract that has provision for the horse to be returned to you if it is neglected or cruelty treated.

Animal Hoarding stems from a variety of causes and shows itself in different ways – it is a complex issue, as is all animal cruelty in our community. The work of Save Equus has been greatly assisted by the research of The Hoarding of Animal Research Consortium in America and acknowledges the following information is from the research of this Consortium.

An Animal Hoarder is a person who’s behaviour towards animals is driven by a their personal psychology. This also means hoarders display a number of psychological disorders including addiction. We describe the behaviour of hoarders below to increase your awareness and ability to recognise an Animal Hoarder.

Tonto

yvonne — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:17:22 +0000

TONTO is a very attractive 10 year old gelding pony who has been horribly frightened by people. He is very wary of people and has a patient foster carer who is taking the time he needs to change his understanding of human contact from cruelty to kindness. Tonto, nevertheless enjoys to company of other horses and ponies and is not cut off or distant from them. He has a playful nature and Save Equus believe with care and a gentle approach he will develop greater willingness to be near humans.

How skinny is too skinny?

admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:06:15 +0000

Save Equus regularly receives calls direct from members and the public about horses of concern. We work cooperatively with the other agents of the Animal Welfare Act 2002 and once we have identified that the horse reported to us appears to be neglected or being treated cruelly, we liaise with special inspectors. We work to follow up and make sure the concerns raised with us are addresse

A very important indicator to us of a horse’s physical condition and general welfare is its weight, so gauging a horse’s weight to reflect its condition is an important part of Save Equus’s initial assessment of a horse. The following body score rating system, created in Victoria by Patricia Ellis (Attwood) of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, is the system used by Save Equus. This system helps us communicate about the condition of the horse.

We would like to advise members of this system, so that if you ever have the need to call us about a horse you are concerned about, you will be able to describe the horse’s condition to us more effectively.

An important thing to note when reading this body score rating system is to take account of the horse’s activity level. This information is noted in the body score rating system.

We do not recommend members go out assessing horses with this body score rating system – that is our job and we have trained our volunteers to do this. What we would appreciate is that if you are talking with us about a horse you are concerned about, you tell us about the horse’s neck, back and ribs and pelvis as per the body score rating system, so we get a better idea (first up), through your description, of the condition of the horse.

Methods of estimation

Assess visually and by feel, the horse’s pelvis and rump, back and ribs and neck.
Give those areas individual scores using a scale of 0 (very poor) to 5 (very fat).
Intermediate assessments can be given half scores.
Using the pelvic and rump assessment as the base, adjust that score by a half point if it differs by one or more points from the score for the neck or ribs.
Height measurement should be performed on level ground when the horse is relaxed and standing squarely. Use the highest point of the withers as the measuring site. Allowance should be made for shoes.

Body condition scoring system

Score	Neck	Back and ribs	Pelvis
0 Very poor	Marked ewe neck. Narrow and slack at base.	Skin tight over ribs. Spinous processes sharp and easily seen.	Angular pelvis – skin tight. Deep cavity under tail and either side of croup.
1 Poor	Ewe neck. Narrow and slack at base.	Ribs easily visible. Skin sunken either side of backbone. Spinous processes well defined.	Rump sunken, but skin supple. Pelvis and croup well defined. Deep depression under tail.
2 Moderate	Narrow but firm	Ribs just visible. Backbone well covered. Spinous processes felt.	Rump flat either side of backbone. Croup well defined, some fat. Slight cavity under tail.
3 Good	No crest (except stallions). Firm neck	Ribs just covered. No gutter along the back. Spinous processes covered but can be felt.	Covered by fat and rounded. No gutter. Pelvis easily felt.
4 Fat	Slight crest	Ribs well covered – need firm pressure to feel. Gutter along backbone.	Gutter to root of tail. Pelvis covered by soft fat – felt only with firm pressure
5 Very fat	Marked crest. Very wide and firm. Folds of fat.	Ribs buried – cannot feel. Deep gutter. Back broad and flat.	Deep gutter to root of tail. Skin distended. Pelvis buried – cannot feel.

0 Very poor		Very sunken rump Deep cavity under tail Skin tight over bones Very prominent backbone and pelvis Marked ewe neck
1 Poor	<	Sunken rump Cavity under tail Ribs easily visible Prominent backbone and croup Ewe neck – narrow and slack
2 Moderate		Flat rump either side of backbone Ribs just visible Narrow but firm neck Backbone well covered
3 Good		Rounded rump Ribs just covered but easily felt No crest, firm neck
4 Fat		Rump well rounded Gutter along back Ribs and pelvis hard to feel Slight crest
5 Very fat		Very bulging rump Deep gutter along back Ribs buried Marked crest Folds and lumps of fat

Typical body score conditions of various classes of horses

Endurance horses	1.5 – 2.5	Allowing body condition to fall below a score of 1.5 is likely to compromise a horse’s welfare. During winter, a long heavy hair coat complicates visual appraisal. You need to run your hands over the horse to get an accurate score. Poor body condition is not always due to lack of feed but could be related to parasite infestations, poor dental health, chronic injury or illness or lack of mobility affecting the horse’s ability to forage.
Polo ponies	2.0 – 2.5
Standardbred racehorses	2.0 – 3.0
Thoroughbred racehorses	2.5 – 4.0
Equestrian horses	3.0 – 4.0
Show horses	>4.0
Broodmares	2.5 – 4.0