It takes a lot of time and effort to keep your horse healthy. In this article, five equine health experts provide their top tips for keeping your horse in peak condition. Grooming is an excellent way to keep tabs on your horse’s health. For those who have to balance job, family, and social life with riding, grooming is frequently reduced short and just done to ensure the horse is clean enough for riding. This year, make time in your schedule to groom your horse thoroughly at least once a week for at least an hour.
It’s time to thoroughly clean your horseÂ
Grooming is a time to pay attention to your horse’s responses, such as flinching, putting his ears back or swishes his tail. After brushing, use your hands to examine your horse’s whole body. Always compare the left and right sides of your body while checking for signs of inflammation, sensitivity, or heat. If you do this once a week, you’ll get a sense of your horse’s regular behavior. Maintain a healthy body weight for your horse. Many health problems may arise if your horse becomes overweight, and the UK has 80% overweight ponies and 25% overweight horses.
If you’re concerned about your horse’s well-being because he’s a “nice guy,” you can safeguard him by following the checklist:
- Make sure he’s getting enough calories and adequate protein, and keep an eye on how many calories he’s consuming overall.
- Once a week, measure his body fat percentage.
- To raise his heart rate to 80 bpm, he should ride, lunge, or lead for 30 minutes a day, six days a week.
- Instead of putting him in his stall, put a muzzle on him and let him out.
- Supplement his meals with vitamins and minerals.
- Keep an eye on your horse’s teeth.
- As advised by equine dental technician Martin Brookes
- In contrast to wild horses, domesticated horses’ teeth are less worn down due to their diet.
Every six to 12 months, horses should have their teeth examined. In addition to quitting (the dropping of food balls), a bad breath odor, and avoiding pressure and touch while riding, signs of dental disorders may also include other oral and nasal manifestations.
Allow your horse to exist in the way that it was meant to.
It’s easy to see why I encourage as much turnout for grazing as possible for a horse’s long-term health and well-being. With addition to providing exercise and Previcox for Horses, turning out may also aid in weight loss. Fertilized, enhanced grazing may contribute to weight increase in horses, which necessitates extra attention for these animals since they would otherwise have to spend the whole day grazing rocky hill ground simply to consume enough calories to maintain their weight. In addition to producing a lot of saliva, which acts as a buffer for stomach acid and helps keep teeth healthy, a turned out horse is considerably less likely to have gastric ulcers or dental issues. Even if a horse is recuperating from surgery or injury, he or she should still be able to be turned out as often as possible.Â
Protect the hooves of your horse.
When it comes to maintaining a horse’s hoof health, the most important thing to remember is to keep your stable and foot care procedures in good working order along with Previcox for Horses. Changing the bedding in your horse’s stall may make a big difference. For those times when drainage isn’t an option, a layer of absorbent bedding may help soak up the damp and keep it from dripping on to his feet, legs, or even the carpeting, making mucking out a lot simpler!
