03/08/2026
There is some super advice in this post. People sometimes struggle with this advice when they call for help, but its SO important!!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EoACZ3KAT/
*** WHY YOU MUST NEVER FORCE A HORSE WITH COLIC TO MOVE WHILST WAITING FOR THE VET ***
To those who got very upset on my recent colic post, and told me I was wrong; try reading that title a few times. There is a key word in that title. Can anyone tell me what the key word is? Do I say “do not allow a horse with colic to walk”? Do I say that you never lunge a horse with colic after a veterinary diagnosis? No. I say neither of those things. It is absolutely, categorically correct to never force a horse with colic to move if he doesn’t want to, whilst waiting for your vet. You can’t “disagree” with me, as it’s not my opinion; it’s fact. So now that’s hopefully covered the small group of Facebook Vets, who have “had horses for 80 years and always walked a colicking horse”, who will have just misread the title of this post, and told me that I need to “go back to school”, we can continue.
Why do you not force a horse with colic to walk? Have a think about the worst cause of colic - a “twisted gut” (intestinal torsion). Do you think you’d want to walk briskly around, or be chased around with a lunge whip, if your intestine had twisted? Firstly, that’s actually cruelty, as a horse with an intestinal torsion is in agony, and secondly you’re about to significantly worsen the situation. So DO NOT FORCE A HORSE WITH COLIC TO MOVE if he doesn’t want to (whilst waiting for your vet).
I’ll try to spell the reasons out clearly. Why don’t you force a horse to move? At this stage, you don’t know why your horse is showing signs of colic. You absolutely cannot tell what the reason for the colic is until your vet has been. You may have owned horses for 600 years, been a groom for Grand Prix horses for 90 years, or be a qualified BHSI (yep, they are all reasons that have been on my page, with some exaggeration of duration on my part), but you aren’t a vet. You can’t listen to the guts, get a heart rate, perform a re**al exam, monitor response to pain relief, and problem solve using all of the above to conclude what is actually the reason for your horse’s colic and what the next steps should be. So don’t try. Keep the horse quiet and safe - if he wants to roll then make sure he’s in a safe field or school and not next to fencing. If he wants to walk, then let him walk. If he wants to stand quietly, then let him stand quietly. If he’s in the field then do get him up and get into the yard, ready for the vet - this is the only time you may force a horse with colic to walk.
If your horse has the worst reason for the colic signs - a “twisted gut” - you will make this much worse by forcing your horse to move. Why?
1. If there is a torsion, then brisk movement will increase the rate at which toxins leak out of the gut due to the twist, thus resulting in a much sicker horse.
2. Exhaustion- why would you force a horse in extreme pain, with no diagnosis, to walk (or worse) for an hour whilst waiting for the vet? It will simply result in an exhausted horse.
3. Pain - it is cruel to make a horse with extreme abdominal pain run around. We will give the horse intravenous pain relief before deciding if he needs to run around.
So why did my vet tell me to lunge my horse?! You’re saying my vet is wrong!!! No, no I’m not. There are many, many reasons that a horse shows signs of colic, and as vets we will (hopefully!) know if the horse likely has a “twisted gut” or even a trapped intestine (epiploic foramen entrapment) - in these 2 cases, we would never, ever advise lunging. The other causes of colic - spasmodic, impaction, displacement, nephrosplenic entrapment, to name a few - will absolutely all require movement of some description. Some require walking, whilst others will need regular trotting on the lunge. You cannot tell what is causing your horse’s colic. You may “get lucky” and we will tell you to continue doing what you were doing. This is luck, so just not worth the risk.
To summarise. If you have to drag/pull/whip/flap your arms around to get a horse with colic to move, then don’t. Let him stand quietly whilst waiting for the vet. If he wants to walk, then do let him walk, but don’t ever start lunging until you have a diagnosis. Yes, we (vets) may well advise lunging, but that is after we have examined and administered pain relief.
