Horse Care

Your Horse Care Routine

First Aid Kit

Feeding and Watering your Horse

Caring for Your Horse’s Feet

Health Records of Your Horse

Signs of Good Health

Indicators of Illness

How to Measure the Height of Your Horse

Your Horse Care Routine                      

As you do your chores you should be watching for signs of illness, discomfort, or any other problems with your horse and for any broken fences, open gates or broken latches, nails sticking out, or any other potential problem.   

• Feeding and watering – throughout the day

• Exercise – daily by hand, or by the horse herd if turned out with other horses

• Grooming – always a good way to do your check-up even if it you only do a quick rub over the horses body and legs

• Hoof care – program outlined by your farrier

• Vaccinations - program outlined by veterinarian

• Deworming – program outlined by veterinarian

• Checking Teeth - program outlined by veterinarian or equine dentist

First Aid Kit

Keep a few basic items on hand in your barn and horse trailer. They may include but not limited to the following items:

• Sterile dressing or gauze

•  Bandages, or wraps for holding dressings in place

• Surgical tape for holding dressings in place

•  Hydrogen Peroxide

•  Antibiotic spray and cream

• Sharp scissors and a sharp knife

• Thermometer

Feeding and Watering your Horse

• Your horse needs to have constant access to water. Keep your horses’ water bucket clean and filled with fresh water.
• Horse feeding programs are based on the weight of the horse and on the horse’s activity level. To find out a horse’s weight, buy a weight tape from your local feed store. It will help you keep track of a horse’s approximate weight to tell if your feeding program is working or not. Your horses’ weight is something you need to know for giving deworming and other medications, too.
• Horses kept on pasture need to be monitored for excessive weight gain. The pastures should be kept free of all harmful weeds. Some ‘weeds’ are really the horses natural herb garden so do not destroy everything but the grass. Learn to recognize dangerous plants in your area and remove them leaving the beneficial plants. Let your horse naturally feed on the plants that they require. For example, chamomile is a plant that some horses know to eat for relaxation from tension and anxiety.
• Always feed good, clean hay to your horse. If you buy hay, buy it from a reputable hay dealer. Ask if they have had the hay tested to be sure it has appropriate levels of protein, minerals, and fiber and does not contain harmful contaminants.  
• In their natural environment, horses feed by grazing. So, once you determine their daily food requirements, feed smaller amounts in several feedings to mimic their natural routine.
• Horses eat with their heads lowered to the ground so it is best to feed at ground level. Don’t use hay nets hung on the wall to feed and NEVER lower hay nets to the ground to feed – horses can easily get tangled in hay nets and can do serious damage to themselves.
• Knowing what to feed your horse requires continual monitoring of the horse and ongoing investigation of what is available. It’s grocery shopping in a big way! Feeding requirements change from horse to horse and from season to season; horses grow and age and the type and frequency of activity changes; hay crops change to from field to field and from year to year; and manufacturers of concentrates and supplements make new products and change formulas. Nothing about what you should be feeding a horse is a constant.
• Take courses in equine nutrition, search the internet for ideas, and visit with a horse feed nutritionist if your local feed and supplement manufacturer has one on staff.

Caring for Your Horse’s Feet

• Keeping your horses’ feet in good condition is of utmost importance. There is an old saying ‘No foot – no horse’!
• Horses’ hooves grow approximately 1/4 “ (6mm) a month and take nearly a year to grow from the coronet band to the ground.
• Most horses must have their feet trimmed every six weeks. A farrier is trained to do this work. If a horse is kept on certain types of ground and moving over that ground enough, it can wear the hoof growth off. 
• For a horse that has shoes on, the shoes must be removed every six weeks, the hoof trimmed, and the shoes put back on.
• The horse is a heavy animal for the size of its feet plus each foot absorbs the concussion in each stride.
• A horses’ foot that is not trimmed regularly will cause the horse to become lame. Once lameness develops it can easily become chronic and the horse suffers permanent damage to the internal structures of the feet.

Health Records of Your Horse

• Start a health record for your horse and include age, breed, health history, vaccinations, farrier visits, veterinary visits, feeding/supplement requirements and all other relevant data.

• Record your horse’s resting respiration rate in breaths per minute.

•  Record your horse’s resting pulse rate in beats per minute.

• You may want to buy a thermometer and record the body temperature of your horse. Check it if you notice anything suspicious about the health. Recognizing the signs of ill health early may save your horse’s life

Signs of Good Health

•  Alert with bright, clear eyes.

• The coat is shiny and lying flat.

• Stands or moves about on all four feet easily.

• No heat, swelling, or abnormalities anywhere on the body or the legs.

• Eating and drinking the normal amount of water for your horse.

•  Not overweight or underweight.

• Normal pulse, temperature, and respiration rate for your horse.

• Urine a pale yellow, or colorless and at the normal frequency
   

   Indicators of Illness 

• Not eating or drinking as usual
• Shallow or rapid breathing
• Elevated pulse rate
• Coughing or wheezing
• Discharge for the nostrils or the eyes
• Sweating for no apparent reason
• Not passing stool, or stool very loose
• Dehydration – the skin does not spring back to normal position when pinched
• Black, brown, or red urine
• Standing with the front legs pushed noticeably forward from normal position.
• Pointing one front leg forward and sore when asked to step onto it.
• Limping
• Behaviors that indicate discomfort in the belly (colic) such as kicking at or reaching around to look at the belly, pacing back and forth, pawing the ground, rolling and getting up, then going back down 

How to Measure the Height of Your Horse 

• A horses’ height is measured in hands. One hand is 4 inches.
• Buy a tool that is specifically for measuring horses. It is a tall measuring stick that is marked in 4” sections, or hands. It has an arm that reaches out at 90 degrees from the top of the measuring stick. You place the arm over the withers of the horse and the stick measures from that position to the ground.
• A horse that is 15.2 hh (hands high) is 62 inches high at the withers (the top of the shoulder). You can calculate horses’ height in inches as follows:    15 x 4 = 60 + 2 = 62 inches
• The decimal only indicates the number of inches more than the number before the decimal. That is, a horse is said to be 15.1hh which means 15 hands plus 1 inch; 15.2hh is 15 hands plus 2 inches; 15.3hh is 15 hands plus 3 inches; there is no 15.4hh, it is then 16hh!