Horse life-stage care — foals, pregnant mares and elderly horses have special dietary and care needs; retirement and end-of-life planning (UK DEFRA code)
Source: UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), “Code of practice for the welfare of horses, ponies, donkeys and their hybrids” (December 2017), gov.uk. Crown copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0 — verbatim quotation permitted with attribution; C1 substring-verified against pdf-raw/horse-welfare/horses_welfare_code_2018.txt.
This topic covers how equine care needs change across life stages under the UK welfare code: foals, pregnant mares and elderly horses have special dietary requirements; older horses need increased supervision and veterinary care; and end-of-life planning is a core ownership responsibility.
Claims
A horse’s nutritional requirements will vary through its life and foals, pregnant mares and elderly horses in particular have special dietary requirements.As horses become older their needs may become greater and they may well require increased supervision and additional veterinary care. They may develop age-related conditions, such as dental problems, and their immune systems may become less efficient.When a horse reaches the end of its active working life, or is very elderly, consideration should be given to whether the horse can be provided with a good quality of life in retirement. Owners have a responsibility to ensure that they or whoever is entrusted with the care of such a horse is fully aware of the needs of that horse.Boxes for foaling and for mares with a foal at foot will require additional space.The transport of foals should be considered carefully to safeguard the welfare of both foal and dam.