As might be expected for horses that are relinquished to nonprofit facilities, poor body condition is apparent in many of the horses, with a number of them considered emaciated, very thin, or thin. | Photos.com

Here, Stull, an animal welfare specialist at the University of California, Davis, shares some of her thoughts on malnourished horses and provides research-based information on refeeding and rehabilitating starved horses.

It is difficult to comprehend the long-term neglect and surrounding situations that produce such a devastated, depressed creature as a starved horse. The bones are so prominent that the skeleton appears to belong to a larger horse, the head is disproportionately large compared with the body, and the tail is always low and motionless.

But the low hanging head tells it all. The ears barely move to any sounds in the environment, no extra energy is spent interacting with herd mates. The eyes are dull, without expression, without expectations