Letting Horses Roll?

[j_maki]

I have a freind that doesn’t let his horse roll if he sees them doing it. He will start to yell and fling his arms to get the horse to stop rolling. He was told by someone that is how they end up with twisted stomachs. I tend to just let our horses roll just because it seems like a very natural thing for them to be doing, I’m sure wild horse roll around all the time.

So what are everyone elses opinions on letting horses roll around.

Jeremy

[jen judkins]

Jeremy, Rolling and lying down are very natural and healthy for horses. Your friend has made an incorrect association..that of a horse with colic who is rolling or flailing violently. The rolling doesn’t cause the colic…the colic causes the violent rolling.

Its a common misunderstanding.

[j_maki]

That was kind of what I was thinking but we are newer to horses so I just wanted to make sure.

Jeremy

[Marshall]

Mine roll from time to time. Especially after they have been working and I turn them out after taking the harness off. Never seemed to cause a problem.

[Carl Russell]

I actually had a horse with a twisted gut from colic roll and un-twist his gut.

It’s kind of like thinking that women shouldn’t have hair on their legs, to think that horses shouldn’t roll.

Carl

[Simple Living]

@Carl Russell 16812 wrote:

It’s kind of like thinking that women shouldn’t have hair on their legs, to think that horses shouldn’t roll.

Carl

Carl,

I hope that one doesn’t come back to bite ya!!! It sure made me laugh out loud!

Gordon

[Carl Russell]

Simple Living;16813 wrote:

Carl,

I hope that one doesn’t come back to bite ya!!! It sure made me laugh out loud!

Gordon

Gotta take’em the way they come out of the box, right? No alterations, just pure and natural.

An animal is an animal no matter how we try to dress it up. We can’t possibly truly think that after millions of years of innate genetic expression that somehow it should be different.

:DCarl

[MNMULE]

If rolling was bad for them all mules would be dead seeing as how they feel it necessary to “waller” anytime they: get out of there harness, anytime they walk out of the barn, anytime they see another horse/mule rolling, anytime they find a good spot, anytime its raining, anytime, anytime, anytime…….. Lets just leave it at rolling is definitely normal as long as its not involved with colic, if they’re acting normal let them roll. As far as colic goes I’ve always been told not to let them roll, perhaps Carl is right though and they can untwist their gut?

[CharlyBonifaz]

perhaps Carl is right though and they can untwist their gut?

sometimes they can: in a case, where the colon is hooked on the connective tissue between the spleen and the kidney, rolling is a good chance to free it up again, in fact such a good chance, that it is used (under general anesthesia) as therapy in horse clinics

[Carl Russell]

CharlyBonifaz;16819 wrote:

sometimes they can: in a case, where the colon is hooked on the connective tissue between the spleen and the kidney, rolling is a good chance to free it up again, in fact such a good chance, that it is used (under general anesthesia) as therapy in horse clinics

In fact my horse was in a clinic, and as I was hoping that non-surgical care would work because there was no way I would be able to pay for that, they released the gas, with a needle through the gut wall, that was causing the pressure that caused the twist, and then we let him roll. It worked, and gave me four more years with him, when he finally died of the same thing. He had colic at least once every year that I owned him, while the other horse never had one symptom managed exactly the same way.

Carl

[jac]

Liquid parafine is a handy substance to have in the medicine chest for the
1st sign of the colic.. Our two geldings roll as soon as they get turned out after been worked, as if to say ” ha.. he wont put the harness on now we’re dirty”.. The mares on the other hand just go and eat grass:).. dont think I’ve seen them roll since yearlings, though they probly do. Read your horses.. a colic roll is totally diffrent to a roll of exuberance. I certainly wouldnt worry every time your horse rolls. Enjoy…
John

[mink]

ive heard the old farmers say you need to roll a cow with a twisted stomach…mink

[dominiquer60]

Mitch, that is one of the ways that vets treat a Left Displacesd Abomasum. “Rolling a cow through a 70° arc after casting her on her right side corrects most LDA; however, recurrence is very likely.”- Merek

[Geoff saltwater cowboy]

@Carl Russell 16822 wrote:

In fact my horse was in a clinic, and as I was hoping that non-surgical care would work because there was no way I would be able to pay for that, they released the gas, with a needle through the gut wall, that was causing the pressure that caused the twist, and then we let him roll. It worked, and gave me four more years with him, when he finally died of the same thing. He had colic at least once every year that I owned him, while the other horse never had one symptom managed exactly the same way.

Carl

we were on a trail ride and a horse in our group got twisted gut and a old horseman told us to pour beer into the horse . So we had nothing to lose only three beers and then we walked the horse untill the vet came . The vet said that the beer probably saved the horse.

[mother katherine]

Carl, you are so funny. Never could see the attraction to shaving legs and pulling eyebrows(plucking). Tried once as a young kid watching aunts and cousin – seemed too much like S & M to me to be worth it.
When I was little, I used to love to watch the old workhorse roll; my mother was terrified he’d roll on me. It’s one of the few things I remember about him.
oxnun

[Author]

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