Easy keeper
Encyclopedia
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
) good doer is a livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
animal that can live on relatively little food. The opposite of an easy keeper is a hard keeper
Hard keeper
A hard keeper or poor doer is a horse or other livestock animal that is naturally prone to be thin, will lose weight quickly, and has difficulty gaining weight....
(poor doer), an animal that is prone to be too thin and has difficulty maintaining adequate weight.
Easy keepers tend to be found most often in breeds originally developed to survive under harsh conditions. Most pony
Pony
A pony is a small horse . Depending on context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. There are many different breeds...
breeds are easy keepers, and smaller, hardy horse breeds such as the Arabian
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...
or Mustang
Mustang (horse)
A Mustang is a free-roaming horse of the North American west that first descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but there is intense debate over terminology...
have many representatives with this trait. Many draft horse
Draft horse
A draft horse , draught horse or dray horse , less often called a work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred for hard, heavy tasks such as ploughing and farm labour...
breeds, such as the Percheron
Percheron
The Percheron is a breed of draft horse that originated in the Perche valley in northern France. Percherons are usually gray or black in color. They are well-muscled, and known for their intelligence and willingness to work. Although their exact origins are unknown, the ancestors of the breed were...
are also easy keepers, as are most mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s and donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
s. If overfed with a too rich modern diet, the easy keeper is prone to obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
and other health problems, including laminitis
Laminitis
Laminitis is a disease that affects the feet of ungulates. It is best known in horses and cattle. Symptoms include lameness, and increased temperature in the hooves...
and metabolic disorders.
Easy keepers may be confused with a mare
Mare (horse)
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine.In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse age three and younger. However, in Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old; in harness racing a mare is a...
that is pregnant. However, an easy keeper tends to gain weight all over its body, not just in the belly. Easy keepers are not always easy to distinguish from a normal horse that is too fat from simple overfeeding. However, an easy keeper will gain weight quicker and lose weight slower than an ordinary horse, and when fed a standard diet geared toward an average horse, will gain, rather than maintain, weight.
While it is not a problem to keep enough weight on an easy keeper, modern animal husbandry
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
practices are often a challenge to such animals, as a modern diet can lead to a number of health problems, including obesity
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
and, in some cases, laminitis
Laminitis
Laminitis is a disease that affects the feet of ungulates. It is best known in horses and cattle. Symptoms include lameness, and increased temperature in the hooves...
. Some easy keepers may be prone to insulin resistance
Insulin resistance
Insulin resistance is a physiological condition where the natural hormone insulin becomes less effective at lowering blood sugars. The resulting increase in blood glucose may raise levels outside the normal range and cause adverse health effects, depending on dietary conditions. Certain cell types...
, Equine Metabolic Syndrome
Equine metabolic syndrome
Also known as Peripheral Cushings Disease and Equine Syndrome X.It is an illness affecting Equidae .This is an area of much new research and is increasingly believed to have a major role in conditions such as laminitis...
(EMS), and possibly are more likely to develop Cushing's disease
Cushing's disease
Cushing's disease is a cause of Cushing's Syndrome characterised by increased secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone from the anterior pituitary. This is most often as a result of a pituitary adenoma...
later in life. Easy keepers with a susceptibility to various metabolic problems are also more prone to develop a "cresty" neck, and to not lose weight in that area, even when placed on a diet.
While easy keepers often thrive in the wild and can survive where other horses might starve, domesticated
Domestication
Domestication or taming is the process whereby a population of animals or plants, through a process of selection, becomes accustomed to human provision and control. In the Convention on Biological Diversity a domesticated species is defined as a 'species in which the evolutionary process has been...
horses require strict monitoring of their diet. In particular, easy keepers require very limited amounts of fructan
Fructan
A fructan is a polymer of fructose molecules. Fructans with a short chain length are known as fructooligosaccharides, whereas longer chain fructans are termed inulins...
and other non-structural carbohydrates (NSC). NSCs are found in higher concentrations in fresh spring grass, cool-season grasses, whole grains, late fall grass that has been exposed to a light but not killing frost, and drought-stressed pastures. NSCs are lower in healthy summer pastures, warm-season grasses, and in pelleted feeds.
Proper nutrition
Equine nutrition
Equine nutrition is the feeding of horses, ponies, mules, donkeys, and other equines. Correct and balanced nutrition is a critical component of proper horse care....
for an easy keeper involves restricting the diet to mostly a low-NSC hay
Hay
Hay is grass, legumes or other herbaceous plants that have been cut, dried, and stored for use as animal fodder, particularly for grazing livestock such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep. Hay is also fed to pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs...
or very time-limited amounts of grazing on healthy pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
s.
Any grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
or other concentrated feed is only required in very small quantities, if at all, even for a horse that is getting regular work. However, an easy keeper may occasionally require vitamin
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
or mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
supplements. When this is the case, a separate commercial supplement added to a very small quantity of feed that is not premixed with supplements is preferred to a premixed "complete" feed that has supplements added. A complete feed has to be fed at a certain quantity for the animal to obtain proper amounts of the added supplements, which is often more food than an easy keeper requires.
If a complete feed is needed because the horse is used for intense physical activity with high energy requirements, or as a supplement due to a hay shortage or when there are very high prices for fodder
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
that make a complete feed a cost-effective option, there are specialized complete feeds designed for ponies and easy keepers. These mixes are low in calories and NSC, but with necessary nutrition. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, these feeds are sometimes called "pony nuts." In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, there is no special term, though such feeds are often labeled as "Lite" feeds, or marketed as a pony mix.
Management
Horse care
There are many aspects to horse care. Horses, ponies, mules, donkeys and other domesticated equids require attention from humans for optimal health and long life.-Living environment:...
of an easy keeper requires not only monitoring of diet but also regular exercise, ideally aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is physical exercise of relatively low intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. Aerobic literally means "living in air", and refers to the use of oxygen to adequately meet energy demands during exercise via aerobic metabolism...
obtained by riding
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
or driving
Driving (horse)
Driving, when applied to horses, ponies, mules, or donkeys, is a broad term for hitching equines to a wagon, carriage, cart, sleigh, or other horse-drawn vehicle by means of a harness and working them in this way...
the animal on a regular basis.