A horse owner says her pet is 'about to explode' due to overfeeding from walkers. Sarah Cross bought her horse 'Blackberry' two years ago, with her initially living on a secluded farm.
However, the horse had to be moved to Sarah's farm in Newport this year. In her new home, Blackberry is now easily accessible to walkers and her owner says she has become 'clinically obese' due to people throwing the horse food, reports Wales Online.
The food thrown over the fence includes carrots, apples, potato peels, green vegetables and lawn cuttings. However, the latter items of grass cuttings, potato peels and select vegetables can be toxic for ponies and horses, who should not be fed them.
Whilst, it is safe for horses and ponies to eat carrots and apples in moderation, Sarah says 'Blackberry' can be fed over 60 carrots a day from people passing by the horse. The 32-year-old says it is 'unbelievable' the amount of sugar her horse is having daily, with one carrot containing more than four grams.
Sarah explains that she has to inform walkers that it is not just 'one carrot' when she catches them in the act of feeding her pony. She says if it happens several times it is an 'extortionate' amount of food for her horse to chow down on daily.
Sarah said: "The other day I asked a gentleman to stop feeding her carrots and he sort of shrugged it off as just a carrot. But it’s not just a carrot because if that happens 60 times a day that’s an extortionate amount of food.
Sarah says Blackberry has “doubled in size” as a result of all the “treats”. “It became so bad that I noticed she started to struggle walking. People seem to think it’s okay to do this but they couldn’t be more wrong. She’s going to explode at any minute if it doesn’t stop.”
Sarah has now started putting her own signs up warning people to not feed Blackberry, fearing that if the feeding continues Blackberry could get colic and laminitis. “She is my pride and joy and she’s also a therapy horse,” Sarah said. “I’m really concerned that in a couple of months she could die.
“We’ve just come off the back of a difficult summer with little grain so she should be eating more hay than usual because she should be thin and healthy. Instead I need to be really careful what I feed her through the winter now.
“I’m stuck because she’s so fat. I don’t know what to do to be honest.”
Sarah is not alone. Last year the RSPCA said it was "essential" the public do not feed horses without permission from owners after a rise in illnesses and deaths as a result of lockdown walkers feeding the animals.
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