Leisure Horse or Hack

Challenges Leisure Horses or Hack Horse

To find out more, click on the relevant challenge and see the recommendation from our team of Vets and Nutritionists:

• Horses kept in sub optimal conditions or those needing a boost
• Excitable or anxious horses
• Poor quality hooves, less frequent shoeing
• Reduced mobility
• Intestinal changes
• Increased risk of respiratory disease

Horses used for hacking and leisure riding may be kept at livery or at home. They may be required to live out in all seasons and they may only be ridden intermittently, especially in the winter when the days are short. Often these horses may be kept in suboptimal conditions without access to high-quality forage and feed or in pastures where grazing is tired (“horse sick”) or there are large numbers of horses competing for food. Many leisure horses are not shod or because they may live out in wet or excessively dry ground conditions they may have poor-quality hooves. Leisure horses are often older animals or retired competitive animals and are susceptible to all the conditions associated with age, such as poor dentition and a reduced capacity of the intestine to absorb nutrients. In addition, arthritis/restricted mobility and chronic diseases such as chronic airway inflammatory disease and equine metabolic syndrome (Cushing’s disease) are encountered in these horses.

Depending on the age and activity level of the leisure of hack horse, there are several ways in which dietary modification and the use of nutritional supplements can support good health and good quality of life in these horses.