Basic Horse Care
- By Rob Daniels
Horses are amazingly beautiful and sensitive
creatures. Horses require not only understanding and
patience to have a horse as a pet, it also requires a
whole lot of care.
Herd Mentality:
Observe horses in the herd system, each horse's
welfare in the wild depends upon an instinctive
submission to the discipline of the herd. The
instinct is for immediate action. To the horse,
action is survival. When horses live in an herd
environment, they often take turns sleeping and
standing guard for any predators. When the leader of
the herd signals danger they take flight.
Learning respect and ascending to authority starts on
the first day of life for the foals, there is a
distinct pecking order in herds of horses.
It is important to keep a quiet profile around
horses. Horses naturally do not like unnecessary
noise because in the wild their survival depends on
detection of predators with their hearing. Extraneous
noise interferes with this predator detection. This
predator detection is tightly coupled with a horse's
flight reflex. Due to these survival genetics, horses
have a physiological wiring in their brains that
predisposes them to prefer quietness and to become
bothered by unnecessary noise. Many horses can get
startled easily from abrupt noises and this could
result in injury to the horse, the rider, or people
around the horse. Talk to your horse in a quiet,
reassuring voice.
Relationship With Horses:
A horse will love you if, first and foremost, you
treat it fairly, and secondly, if you allow yourself
to develop a relationship with it in the same way you
would a human partner. There are too many who will
look after the horse's material needs but put nothing
back into the partnership itself. The horse born in
captivity will identify with an alternative provider
and companion, resulting in a healthy relationship
from the beginning. A healthy relationship with your
horse requires: trust, coupled with respect, fondness
with compliance, and a desire to please.
Check Your Horse:
Examine your horse every day and especially prior to
riding the horse. Carefully examine the horse's legs
and back for any unusual heat or lumps. Make sure
that the horse's eyes are alert and not glazy. Listen
for any excessive noise or gurgling sounds coming
from your horse's stomach. Catching problems before
they become serious is critical to keeping a show
horse sound and alive.
Exercise caution and discretion when around stallions
and mares when they are in heat. They are dealing
with hormones on an order of magnitude that you
probably can not comprehend. Stallions typically bite
and some may be easily triggered into violent
behavior.
Grooming Horses:
Keep your horse clean. Keep your horse's entire coat
free from dirt, mud, sand, and sweat. Brush your
horse every day. Pick out your horse's feet every
day. Wash out any sweat residue from the saddle pad
or girth every day. Wash out any dirt or sand
residue, as from the riding arena, on your horses
legs every day. A number of different problems can
result if a horse's coat is not kept clean.
Barn Care:
Keep your horse's stall clean. Make sure that your
horse's stall is cleaned every day. Be sure that any
wetness is removed with the manure. Replace the
removed bedding with fresh, clean, dry bedding. Water
should be dumped from buckets every day without
exception. Unhealthy dirt and bacteria can build up
in a bucket if it is not cleaned on a daily basis.
Clean water is essential to maintaining a healthy
horse. Make sure your horse always has clean, fresh
water available.
Training A Horse:
The intelligence of the horse increases rapidly with
education. An intelligent trainer can make an
intelligent horse. A kind but firm trainer will
result in a disciplined but pleasing horse.
Horse Feed:
Feed your horse(s) at the same times every day. A
horse may get upset and colic or injure themselves by
kicking the stall or pawing, if not fed when feeding
is expected. You should not make radical changes in a
horse's feed program. If you must make a change in
the feed program, make the change gradually. Drastic
changes in a horse's feed program can cause the horse
to colic and in some cases, may die. Your horse's
stomach is a highly sensitive bio-reactor that
maintains a delicate balance of the organisms that
digest food in your horse's digestive track.
Visitors should not feed a horse that you do not own
without the owner's permission; no carrots, no
apples, no treats, nothing. The horse could
potentially, get sick if they have an allergy or
sickness.
Pay attention to everything that goes into your
horse; that means all feed, all hay, all water, all
treats, all supplements, all pills, and all shots.
This knowledge could save your horse's life in an
emergency situation. Post this information on your
horse's stall door so that it is available to a vet
if you are not around in an emergency. Make sure that
your horse gets high-quality feed and hay. Your
horse's health and soundness depends on the nutrition
that you provide for them. Take good care of your
horse. A rider without a horse is no rider at all.
Vet Care:
Make sure that you have a good equine veterinarian. A
good vet will save you money in the long run and may
save your horse's life some day. An ounce of
prevention is worth a pound of cure. Make sure your
horse has all the vaccinations that are normal for
your geographical location. All horses should be on a
good worming program to control intestinal parasites.
A horse should be wormed by a vet at least twice a
year.
Horse Flies:
In the summer spray your horse trailer down with fly
spray about 10 minutes before you load the horses.
The flies should leave, and your horses will be
without those pesky flies!
Cooling Horses:
Never spray a hot, sweaty horse with cold water
immediately after working the horse. This can cause
muscle spasms and binding, or shock that can lead to
death. Wait until the horse is breathing regularly,
and use warm water if it is available. If a horse has
heat shock, consult your vet and the vet may instruct
you to cold hose the horse, even if still hot and
sweaty. Never put a horse in a stall or confined area
while sweaty or while they are still breathing
heavily. This can result in shock and/or colic that
can lead to death. Walk the horse until the horse is
cooled out and the breathing is normal.
Shoeing:
Horses' hooves generally grow approximately 1 cm in a
month, and take nearly a year to grow from the
coronet band to the ground. Horse's hooves need to be
trimmed regularly (about every 6-8 weeks). Shoeing a
horse does not hurt them. If you were to grow out
your finger nail, you could put an earring/pin
through it without causing discomfort; however, if
you pushed the pin through the part of your nail that
is attached to the soft tissue of your finger, it
would hurt. When horse shoes are nailed in, they are
nailed at an angle so which the horse doesn't feel
it.
Make sure that you have a good farrier, especially if
you show your horse over jumps. The concussion from
landing from jumps amplifies any problems in a
horse's shoeing. If a horse gets sore feet or legs
from bad angles or bad shoeing, the horse can not
just take his shoes off, sit back on a couch, and rub
their feet, or find another pair of shoes like you
can. Bad shoeing can result in your horse becoming
lame due to a number of problems including: bowed
tendons, popped splints, or shoulder/back soreness or
spasms. Bad shoeing can ruin a good horse, so don't
be penny-wise and pound-foolish where shoeing is
concerned. A laid-up horse is far more expensive to
maintain than a good farrier. And remember not all
horses need to have shoes, only if they are
competing, walking on hard/rocky surfaces, or have
hoof problems.
Sleeping:
Horses do lay down to sleep, but only if they feel
completely comfortable in their environment. It is
not enough to provide a dry stable, food and water.
Horses will often sleep standing up by locking their
knees. Horses are one of the few animals that can put
one half of their body asleep while the other half is
wide awake. Emotionally and mentally, all horses need
to feel they have and be comfortable in their own
space!
To fully enjoy a horse's finer qualities you must
treat them with both kindness and quality care. In
the end, a happy horse will mean a nicer ride and a
happier rider.
Rob Daniels has been an equestrian rider for 25
years. He has studied various disciplines additional
articles are available at: Riding Stable - http://www.riding-stable.com and Horse
Stall http://www.horse-stall.net.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rob_Daniels
