Walking a Colicking horse

Colic is a general term for stomach/intestinal pain or distress. Signs include laying down and rolling, looking at the flank, and general restlessness. Colic can be an obstruction caused by sand, enteroliths, dry matter, gas, or tumor strangulation. Twisting of the intestines or prolonged obstruction can cause intestinal death and will result in the death of the horse if surgery does not correct it.

The old information always told us to walk a horse until it stops colicking - that letting it lay down would cause death. However, this is just not true. As long as a horse is not thrashing/rolling constantly when it lays, it is perfectly fine for the horse to rest on the ground. Think about it: if laying down or rolling would "twist a gut" and kill the horse - horses everywhere would have perished.

The truth is - colic death is caused by internal injury to the intestines - complete blockage/rupture or intestinal tissue death. These can sometimes be remedied by timely surgical intervention. You do need to get the horse promptly to a surgical center on your veterinarian's advice. Time is critical in these cases.

The best ways to up your chances of having your horse remain colic-free has to do with your horsekeeping practices. Horses were made to have a constant low-level gut fill paired with almost constant movement - grazing all day is ideal. The way a lot of us keep our horses - in a stall with two large meals per day - is very unnatural. We should always do our best to keep something in front of the horse to munch on - hay or grass - and keep them moving in a paddock or pasture. Walking stimulates the gut, and constant fiber keeps everything moving downstream. Grain meals are also high in carbohydrates - which causes other problems which I will discuss later.

That being said, it IS possible to care for a horse and keep it healthy while living in a stall. However, it takes a lot more work and dilligence than most casual horse owners have the time to provide. If you are a weekend rider and only dump a scoop of grain to the horse once or twice a day, it will be a lot easier and healthier to put your horse on pasture.