The ecosystem within the horse and the horse within the ecosystem

There is more talk in the horse world nowadays about the importance of forage in horses’ diets, about their gut microbiome, and about methods of managing pasture to produce healthier grass. This is all so needed.

There is also a deeper consideration for what is meant by terms such as health, welfare and wellbeing. We can even allow ourselves to consider such bold terms as vitality and joy. I remember a lecturer during my time at vet school introducing the concept of a life worth living, rather than just acceptable welfare as determined by certain minimum requirements. I like the word vitality, it depicts thriving, flourishing, and vibrancy.

I feel strongly that, because all beings are so deeply interconnected, achieving a collective vitality requires a lens of nurturing healthy ecosystems. The inside of the horse is an ecosystem. The wider ecosystem that horses are a part of (and you can consider this on many scales, from their paddock to the planet) influences them and is influenced by them.

We maybe tend to think about what impacts on the health of the horse, in terms of the gut flora inside them and the pasture outside them. But maybe we think less about the impact horses themselves have on the health of the ecosystem they are a part of, and about how the horse’s internal environment is so influential to the health of their internal ecosystem.

The impact of horses as grazing, browsing, fertilising and trampling animals can be towards burgeoning biodiversity and greater ecosystem resilience in some cases, or the opposite in others, depending on a great many factors. Horses can be ecosystem engineers in beneficial or deleterious ways to how other species, the soil, and water, survive and thrive.

How the ecosystem within the horse comes about is as a result of a complex interplay between the state of their gut, immune system, endocrine system, nervous system and more. The inputs to this web of systems, from food ingredients to medicines to microorganisms to pollutants and more, also create this ecosystem of the horse’s being.

Several health conditions in horses tend to lead us to manipulate either the internal or external ecosystem of the horse, perhaps unknowingly. For example, we alter gut microorganisms, manipulate pH, add medications and change nutrient inputs to the internal ecosystem. In the external ecosystem we place restrictions on grazing, browsing, fertilising and trampling, we cultivate and harvest different types of plant material, and we divert water and produce and store waste, especially when we keep horses indoors. 

I am interested in body and nature wisdom. As a vet, I also hold a huge sense of responsibility towards the patients in my care. I will not deny a patient medication when it is needed to safeguard or improve their welfare. And sometimes “unnatural”, for want of a better word, interventions are needed.

But I wonder whether, if we considered the wider and deeper ecosystem implications of many of our horse practices, we might be led towards some ancient and wise answers from their bodies and our planet. And not just for good health and welfare, but for bursting vitality and for lives really, truly worth living.