Equine Head to Tail by Billie Morris

07/06/2026

Well that’s only been a matter of time. Poor animal, recently gelded as well. Bloody disgrace.

‼️ RSPCA Appeal ‼️ | , Cumbria | horse dies at Appleby Horse Fair in distressing circumstances.

The RSPCA is appealing for information following the discovery of the piebald gelding on a grass verge on the unnamed road into Brampton from the south.

Animal welfare officers attended the scene at 12.40pm on Saturday 6 June with support from vets, fire and rescue officers and police.

The horse, described as approximately 14 hands high, was mostly white with black patches, all white legs with feathers, and a black tail.

He is believed to be between five and seven years old and had been recently gelded.

What is believed to be a trader’s mark sprayed on the horse’s body in blue-green paint appears to have been altered in what is said to be an attempt to disguise the trader’s identity.

RSPCA chief inspector Lyndsey Taylor said: "This is a very upsetting incident.

"At the moment we don’t know the cause of this horse’s death, but it seems as though he may have died in suspicious circumstances.

"We are looking for evidence of him being worked, handled or traded and want to hear from the person responsible for him, or anyone who can help us to identify them.

"Do you know what colour sulky or tack was he wearing? Was he tied to a horsebox? Can you give us any numberplates associated with him if he’s been pulled off a lorry?

"If you have any information that will lead us to establish what happened to this horse, please approach an RSPCA or police officer or call the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999 and quote incident number 01822356."




https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/26172908.rspca-investigating-death-horse-appleby-horse-fair/

07/06/2026

Farmers are struggling to survive. If these ponies are lumped together with cattle and sheep, there is no way the Dartmoor Hill ponies will survive.

"Once the ponies are gone from the moor, they will be lost forever..." 😭🌲

A massive battle is erupting over the future of Dartmoor National Park, with warnings that new red tape could wipe out 90% of its legendary pony population.

New grazing contracts are forcing a massive reduction in livestock on the moors. Because the rules don't separate wild ponies from commercial sheep and cattle, campaigners say the ponies are being squeezed out completely.

A petition to save them has already exploded to 23,000 signatures, with locals arguing that the ponies are actually the secret weapon to saving Dartmoor's biodiversity, not destroying it.

Defra says it will monitor the situation and explore ways to prevent a further drop, but is it too little, too late for a herd that has already shrunk from 7,000 down to just 900?

Who loves heading out to Dartmoor to see the ponies? 🙋‍♂️ We cannot let them vanish.

04/06/2026

https://c.org/fST4x4QKst

This is the link 👆to sign to protect our Dartmoor ponies who Natural England want to reduce. After they have obliterated Dartmoor ponies, no doubt they will turn their attention to the Exmoor ponies. Their numbers were very low a few years back, but by careful managing their numbers have come back up.

Natural England needs to have a look at the ponies in Wales, particularly the Blackdown Hill ponies. Those ponies are overbred, with too many stallions running with them. The mares are in a dreadful state, but they are still churning out foals year after year.

But then again being a gov organisation what can you expect?

Dartmoor’s Hill Ponies face extinction. They need YOUR help now.

03/06/2026

We only have five equine licensed slaughterhouses in England. There are no licensed facilities in either Scotland or Ireland. The Irish horses going for slaughter are mainly brought over here to England. God knows where the other poor things end up. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

And yes, racehorses are still being slaughtered on a silly scale and yes, they are entering the food chain. If they have been given certain drugs in their lifetime, then their bodies shouldn’t be sold for meat.

This why I bang on about all this unnecessary breeding. And I shall keep on banging on about it.

Maybe with the cost of living keep going up, people will become more responsible. 🤔

31/05/2026

This needs supporting👇

Ban "Big Lick" Riding Practices Nationwide

30/05/2026

Edit on the original post.

This may have happened a few years ago, but the point I am making is that these mares were still being sent to stud, despite the stud owner being in difficulty. And as for the owners of the mares taking their mares away, they clearly didn’t, I am assuming that these particular mares were actually owned by the stud.

A small thoroughbred stud in Newmarket has closed down. It had hit financial difficulties. The stud had 23 horses. These included a 3 month old foal, pregnant mares and elderly mares.

The bailiffs had been called in. All the horses were due to go to slaughter. Every single one.

What I am struggling with, is that the owners must have had some idea last year that things were not going well, yet they still sent their mares to be covered by stallions.

Surely it must have crossed their minds that there was a strong chance that these mares were not going to have a very good future in a years time. That they were possibly condemning unborn foals to death. Mares need veterinary treatment before going to visit a stallion. They need feed etc. They were just running up more debt.

Was it blind faith that the owners carried on regardless, business as usual or arrogance? I’m sure that seeing your dream and business going down the drain is soul destroying.

These are living breathing creatures just being churned out. Where are they going to go? The youngstock will no doubt be destined for the sales, horses are going for ridiculous money. But they are the cream of the crop, the ones who are being sold for huge amounts of money. You have to be realistic when you are breeding, are your mares/stallions good enough to breed from?

My take on this stud is that they were probably hoping to sell their youngstock for a lot of money. It would possibly clear their debts.

Unfortunately that didn’t happen and yet again an animal charity has stepped in to save every single horse from certain death.

When will people actually put the horses welfare first, think through what they are doing, think about the impact of their decisions? It’s all about the money or lack of it.

It’s the horse who suffers every time.

29/05/2026

Interesting read. How horses are kept, are nearly always blamed for them having gastric ulcers. Maybe that isn’t always the case.

Have We Accidentally Bred Horses More Susceptible to Ulcers?

When people think about equine gastric ulcers, the conversation usually focuses on management:
diet, turnout, feeding frequency, stress, travel, confinement, and training intensity.

And rightly so. These factors absolutely matter.

But research showing gastric lesions even in pre-weaning foals raises an interesting question:

Could some horses be inherently more susceptible to ulcers than others?

One study found that prior to weaning, 21% of foals already had gastric ulcers. Following weaning, lesion prevalence increased dramatically to 98%.

Weaning itself is clearly a major physiological stressor. But the pre-weaning numbers are particularly interesting because these foals were still nursing, living socially, and had not yet experienced separation from the mare.

So why were ulcers already present?

The answer is likely complex.

Ulcer development probably involves an interaction between:

* management
* stress physiology
* temperament
* nervous system sensitivity
* feeding behavior
* microbiome health
* inflammation
* genetics
* and individual resilience

Some horses naturally appear more stress-reactive, vigilant, sensitive, or sympathetic-driven than others. These same horses may also show tendencies toward:

* chronic muscle tension
* anxiety
* difficulty maintaining weight
* stereotypic behaviors
* body tension
* or recurrent digestive issues

Selective breeding has already shaped many traits in modern horses:
speed, athleticism, responsiveness, sensitivity, flexibility, reactivity, and even connective tissue characteristics.

So it may be worth asking whether some physiological traits associated with performance and sensitivity could also indirectly influence ulcer susceptibility.

That does not mean ulcers are “genetic” in a simple sense.
And it certainly does not mean management is unimportant.

Ulcers are probably best understood as a multifactorial condition where biology and environment constantly interact.

Wild horses likely experience ulcers too. Life in the wild includes predators, drought, injury, competition, and environmental stress.

But horses also evolved under conditions of:

* near-constant forage intake
* continuous movement
* stable social structures
* and freedom to regulate behavior naturally

Modern horses may experience fewer survival threats overall, but often face a very different kind of stress:
confinement, intermittent feeding, transport, social disruption, training pressure, and chronic low-grade sympathetic activation.

Perhaps the better question is not:
“Do humans cause ulcers?”

But rather:
“How do genetics, nervous system regulation, evolution, and modern management interact to influence which horses become ulcer-prone?”

In case you think foals are too young to develop digestive issues:

“Prior to weaning, 21% of foals had gastric ulcers, with 9% glandular and 7% squamous lesions. Following weaning, 98% of foals had gastric lesions with 97% squamous and 59% glandular. Severity of lesions was more pronounced after weaning.”
— Nancy S. Loving, DVM

Even young horses who have “never had a stressful day in their life” can develop ulcers.

Talk with your veterinarian about ways to help support your foals gut health during the weaning process.

https://equimanagement.com/articles/blood-sucrose-as-a-diagnostic-tool-for-foal-gastric-ulcer-syndrome

https://koperequine.com/groundbreaking-study-links-gut-bacteria-in-foals-to-long-term-health-performance/

https://koperequine.com/a-guide-to-understanding-biotics-prebiotics-probiotics-and-postbiotics/

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28/05/2026

The words on number 4 are on the ball.

28/05/2026

Something worthwhile to read on horse welfare.