The horse is an extraordinarily delicate animal. It can die even from a slight cough or a bellyache, if not treated immediately and appropriately. If your horse is suffering from any of these symptoms – seek professional equine help ASAP!
How do you tell if a horse is not feeling well? If it coughs more than twice during exercise, especially if it is a hard, dry cough not followed by a nose-clearing sneeze, it is probably ill and should not be ridden faster than a walk until the cause of the cough has been ascertained.
Continue reading till the end to know about the horse diseases, signs, and more!
Table of Contents (Horspedia)
How to tell if my Horse or Pony have a Colic?
A horse or pony who rolls abnormally much, particularly if accompanied by patchy sweating, is almost certain to be suffering from stomach pain such as Colic. Since this can be serious, the veterinary surgeon should be sent for at once, and the patient kept on the move until he arrives.
A horse is only as good as its legs and feet. Any lameness is a potential disaster. Run a hand down the legs and over the feet each day before exercise, and if any unusual heat is noticeable, find out the cause before working the horse.
Do Grass-Fed Horses Get Worms?
Grass-fed horses are prone to worms. Unless grazing with cows, which destroy redworm larvae, they should be wormed about three times a year.
Stabled horses should also regularly be wormed, most easily done by adding worm powders to the feed.
Do Horses Get Tetanus?
Tetanus is another hazard, prevalent in many soils and communicable through the slightest scratch or graze. Therefore, every horse should have an anti-tetanus injection and two boosters for life immunity (and so should its owner).
Listlessness, dull eyes, staring coat, a running nose are all signs of illness, and also there are sores, lumps, scratches, parasites, and areas that feel unnaturally hot to be watched for.
4 Tips to Keep the Horse Healthy
#1. Inspect your Horse Daily
Daily inspection of the horse and, in particular, regular handling of its body will soon give an owner a “feel” for his horse’s good health and enable him to spot signs of illness at an early stage.
Catching a disease before it has had time to develop and sending promptly for the veterinary surgeon is at once humane and, in the long-run economic.
Visit the horse daily, even in summertime, to check for injury and general condition.
#2. Check the feet of your horse
Always lift and pick out the feet, partly to check against broken or worn shoes or hooves and partly to ensure that stones are not lodged in the sensitive parts of the feet.
#3. Check the water supply and surroundings of your horse
Check the water supply and make periodic checks for damaged fencing and poisonous plants.
#4. Bring the horse to the Stable early
If the horse is to work the following day, it is often easier to bring him into the stable overnight and dry him off, bed him down and feed him than to cope with a wet animal the next day when time may be limited.
How much should a Horse be Fed?
Feeding varies with the size of the animal and the type of work it is required to do. So specific instructions cannot be given here.
Except to say that a varied diet including appetizers like carrots and apples is far to be preferred to the unvarying feed of horse nuts so often defended by lazy owners and that a bran mash twice a week to clean the intestines is essential to a horse fed exclusively on hard food.
How much feed should a Horse Eat a day?
Three feeds a day are far better for a horse’s digestion than one enormous meal at night. Fresh hay should be given morning, and night-good quality hay is worth a little extra cost, as dust in poorer quality will make the animal cough (a far more serious complaint in horses than in humans).
Fresh water at all times is essential, and two full buckets of it should be left with the horse overnight.
How to make a Horse Bedding?
Bedding should be thoroughly cleaned and replaced each morning, and extra droppings removed at night.
The best bed for a horse is clean, deep wheat straw, though greedy horses who eat their straw sometimes need bedding on peat or wood shavings (both of which are difficult to muck out).
How much Exercise does a Horse need per Day?
Exercise of 1-1 hours a day is necessary if the horse is kept exclusively in the stable. However, most horses benefit from one day of rest each week and on the day following a hard day’s hunting a short, quiet walk to ease stiff muscles is usually all that is wanted.
Why is grooming of a horse important?
Good grooming every day is essential to the health of a stabled horse. The action of the brush promotes circulation and removes loose hairs, which could cause irritation (horses at grass solve these problems by rolling).
How to Groom your Horse?
A horse returning from exercise should never be left in the stable with a wet coat as it could become chilled. A quick way of drying off the body is to heap straw along the wet back and cover it with the rug (inverted to prevent the lining from getting damp) while cleaning off the legs with straw.
All mud must be removed at this stage- not only is it easier to get it off while it is fresh, but the mud that is left to harden later comes away with the many small tearings of the skin, which are known as “mud fever.”
Dry sweat marks should be sponged off with a damp sponge, and mane, tail, and coat brushed over before the horse is left for the night- apart from adding greatly to the horse’s comfort, this prevents the coat from setting overnight into unwanted waves.
Feet, of course, must be cleaned out both before and after exercise, and shoes checked for wear.
How much attention do Horses need?
Keeping a horse stabled requires 2-3 hours a day of attention, spread over a regular routine from mucking out in the early morning to the last look round at night some 12-15 hours later.
Owners who cannot easily afford the time are advised not to keep a horse in this manner.
How to determine the age of the Horse by Teeth?
The six permanent incisors – centrals, laterals, and corners are the basis for assessing a horse’s age. Permanent teeth replace milk teeth by four years of age, and reasonable accuracy can be arrived at up until about 9. At 10, Galvayne’s groove appears at the gum of the upper corners, lengthening with age as the teeth angle out.
In older horses, age is increasingly difficult to tell. Horses over 9 are often loosely described as “aged.”
How to choose a Healthy Horse Briddle?
Choosing the correct saddle and bridle for your horse is important. Saddles and bridles vary according to the rider’s requirements and the function and strength of the horse.
Variations also occur according to differing national fashions.
The double bridle is commonly used in cases where an advanced degree of response is needed, as in dressage or on horses that are too strong to be controlled by the less severe snaffle bit.
Bitless bridles, also called hackamores, are popular throughout the Americas. In the hackamore, control is affected through pressure on the nose.
The racing saddle is the lightest made.
It has aluminum stirrups and can weigh as little as 8 oz.
In complete contrast, the heavy “armchair-like” Western saddle can support a rider in comfort all day.
Hunting saddle type is also worth mentioning since it is required for proper riding experience if you plan to go hunting with your horse.
