Easy Keeper. I heard this wonderful phrase for a good-doer the other day and thought how lovely it sounded. However easy keepers can soon be the hardest keepers. Ponies that put on too much weight whilst living on thin air are likely to succumb to recurrent laminitis, Cushing's disease and Equine Metabolic Syndrome and from that point on require constant monitoring, special diets including soaked hay, muzzles, restricted grazing and expensive drugs. Owners of ponies with these illnesses face continual worry and finger crossing hoping that their pony will not suffer or die as a result of their condition. Meanwhile the pony's freedom reduces down to the size of a womb as his capacity for exercise and using up calories is curtailed by pain.
The art would appear to be not to turn what should be a low maintenance pony into a high maintenance one by over feeding, over rugging and excessive stabling. Once they are overweight and on the brink of laminitis they are forever high maintenance and a permanent rod for their owner's back. Hardy ponies need some hardship.
