Category Archives: Horses
Horse Training – Loading Your Horse
Mistake #1 – Thinking your horse is like a dog or a cat.
Unless the new horse owner has been educated, they may think their horse is like a cat or dog. The new horse owner may pat his thigh and say, “C’mon” a few times and the horse will just leap into the trailer like a happy dog.
Mistake #2 – Using food as bait
Another mistake they often make is putting hay, grain, apples or some other food at the front of the trailer to tempt a horse to step in to get the food. This almost never works. If it did, it would be a stroke of luck. Some horses will lean in and try to get the food, but they wouldn’t step into the trailer if their life depended on it.
Mistake #3 – Forgetting to hook the trailer to the truck
Some new horse owners will forget the hitch the trailer to the truck before trying to get the horse into the trailer. With the trailer unhooked, when the horse steps into the trailer, the trailer is going to wobble around.This will more than likely frighten the horse, making it even more difficult to load him in the future.
Mistake #4…
What Nobody Told You About Equine Parasites
Internal bugs – out of view, out of mind – can be lethal to your horse. While they may be out of sight, they are doing extensive damage internally. At a minimum, bugs can nab nutrient elements from your pony and cause stomach irritation. The bad news is, rash they could cause colic, abdominal ruptures and death.
The 3 top things you should provide for your pony for his good health are clean water, top of the range feed and a good de-worming programme. And this may make you stop and think. Did you realize that are more than 150 parasites that infest horses? The most common are large stronglyes (aka bloodworms), small stronglyes, ascarids, pinworms, bots, tapeworms, threadworms and lungworms. And think about this, some of these species lay up to 200,000 eggs a day. Those numbers are staggering.
The thing with all these parasites is that they may all be present in your horse at the same time, just in different lifecycle stages. So yes, while your horse may look healthy and happy, you don’t know what is going on inside. These silent killers can damage tissues and organs, major arteries, cause obstructions and ulcerations in the digestive system. Pinworms…
How To Prevent Hoof Difficulties
Like the expression goes, “no hoof – no horse”. It is highly recommended that you keep your horse’s hooves in the finest condition possible. Trust me, by demonstrating a little extra care and compassion it is possible to save your equine from suffering agonizing discomfort.
Let us take a look at prevalent hoof problems and methods to avoid them. When a horses hooves are left in a continuously wet or dirty area for a long time period, they can develop what is recognized as thrush. It is a bacterial infection which is characterized by an undesirable odor along with a deposition of powdery substance around the frog. A clean and dry stall together with some over-the-counter medicine may help get rid of the condition. However, if it is extreme it is better to take professional guidance.
Abscess is yet another typical problem. This problem is attributed to injury to the delicate area of the hoof. Improper shoeing can quickly lead to a bad abscess on your horses hoof. Abscesses if left unattended may trigger lameness in the horse. Always call a professional for help the instant you believe you have noticed an abscess. If the pointed object is still lodged, by no…
Five Steps To Achieve Healthy Hooves For Healthy Horses
In taking care of your horse’s hooves, you should understand your horse’s feet, pick your horse’s feet regularly, trim your horse’s hooves, make sure the horseshoes are the right size, and take regular visits to the farrier.
As goes the proverb, “No foot, no horse,” you appropriately get the message how much significance you must pay towards the maintenance of the hooves of your horse. If you neglect the hooves of a horse then it leads to discomfort, pain, disfigurement and even lameness. Hooves can become infected or diseased, without proper care. Horse hoof supplements are a good investment as they make your horse’s hooves healthy. You should also make sure that you regularly check your horse’s hooves and know what you need to do to keep them healthy.
Know about your horse’s feet
If you are unfamiliar with the characteristics and anatomy of a horse’s foot, then you might want to do a bit of research. General knowledge and background information will help you understand how your horse’s feet should look and will help you determine whether the feet are healthy and normal or if they have abnormal characteristics. The frog portion of your horse’s foot should normally feel like a brand…
Pasture Hints
The modernisation of the horse these days signifies that so usually this can not be the case; be it since of the lack of space for all horses on the yard, needing to rest the pasture there’s accessible or availability of grazing space. It will be the owners responsibility that this be available, enabliing them to interact with other horses in a natural and totally free environment.
There are numerous areas to excellent pasture management and quite a few problems that can arise resulting from lack of a good pasture management schedule.
Horses had been born to eat grass, it truly is their natural food. The supplemental feeding of grain was made by man to be able to keep weight on horses as they have been becoming applied for beasts of burden. This is possibly when feed bags were invented. As man settled and began to farm, horses have been crucial for plowing and traveling lengthy distances either for supplies or for herding cattle; again demonstrating the require for grain.
-Parasites (worms) are a popular trouble steming from poor pasture management, particularily on yards with numbers of horses making use of the same fields.
–The most effective worm control schedule requires that you…
What Nobody Told You About Horse Language
Yes, horses have a language of their own, and sadly many folks aren’t as mindful of it as we should be. It is a huge mistake to not to understand their language, as it may mean issues for us in the end. Every swivel of the ear(s), hip movement, tail flick and facial expression means something. This is the language horses use to speak to other horses and to us – if only we would listen.
We need to know what OUR body language says to them first before we can understand them. Flapping arms while trying to get the halter on will cause concern. Running at them in a pasture rather than walking up to them calmly can make them think – predator chasing me. We have all heard about bombproof horses – sorry, there’s no such thing. Something, a little time will spook your pony – any pony.
In the meantime, keep your body language quiet, slow, easy and calm. If you are calm, this helps your horse remain calm.
Horses talk to us with all body parts and that encompasses the back and front end. Both ends can cause us untold grief if we do not pay attention to what…
The Importance Of Horse Riding
Within the overall heading of ‘horse riding’ there are unique ‘disciplines’ or ‘types’ of riding, every single of which represent a various aspect of horse riding skills.
For many, the two most popular types of riding are ‘English’ and ‘Western’ – the latter being especially popular within the USA and effortlessly identified to spectators by the form of saddle utilised ( the Western Saddle is larger and deeper).
The English discipline also functions some lesser recognized styles of riding including saddle seat and side saddle.
Followers of horse riding competitions will be nicely acquainted using the disciplines of Dressage, Show Jumping and Three Day Eventing (a combination of dressage, cross country and stadium/show jumping).
In reality most kids will either start off with studying English or Western style riding, but understanding the basis or the rudimentary foundation for every of the disciplines will provide you with a broader understanding of the sport and assist you comprehend how the sport could develop for the child.
So for your information, let’s take a appear at the three primary competitive horse riding disciplines:
Dressage: Deemed the ballet of equestrian sports, the term dressage comes from the French and roughly translates to training. Early levels focus on basic skills whereas…
What Nobody Told You About Buying A Horse At Auction
Purchasing a pony at an auction is a crap shoot at the very best as customarily there are reasons that explain why the pony is there first of all – reasons you may not desire to discover if you take the pony home.
Typically , unless you should happen to be a horse trainer or Vet, you will not have the opportunity to do a pre-purchase examination. In which case, all you are able to do is try to pick up red flags from the horses you are considering. Yes, they can be truly sophisticated and can also be masked thanks to drugs or perhaps the plain fact the pony was rested before you having a look at it ( which wouldn’t show some sorts of lameness ).
Start your inspection from nose to tail for any swelling or warm spots. Run your hand down all the legs (if the horse will let you and if not – red flag ) and compare appearance and the feeling of the left and the right. You might find a bowed tendon or a fluid filled knee – an indication of arthritis. Try flexing the joints if you can.
Now take a good look at general…
Ways To Fix Your Horse’s Hooves
An equine can only be as good as its weakest point. Even though horses have enormous power and strength, they become very weak when their hooves are damaged. For this reason it is essential that horse owners take care of their horse’s hooves. In this article I’ll talk about some of the things you can do to ensure your horse stays hoof healthy.
Firstly, you need to try and keep any hoof injuries from starting. You’ll want to take all necessary steps to ensure that you do not cause any equine hoof problems for your horse. This can be done by ensuring that you do not intentionally do anything that might harm a horse’s hooves. Do not ride your horse or make it do work in dangerous conditions.
After this, you need to be sure to find any hoof deficiencies before they get time to become worse. Hoof problems get worse the longer you let them go. The best way to spot hoof problems right away is to inspect your horse’s hooves on a regular basis.
Be sure you properly inspect your horse’s hooves each time you take him or her out. You can start the process by simply picking and cleaning the…
Pasture : Caution
The maintenance routine will involve often spreading manure droppings or selecting them up. This generally occurs in wet weather. A valuable economic tip would be to spread seeds that fall from the hay onto the bald patches. This will take care of those patches with new grass in season for your horses.
Maintaining your horse pasture with various grasses should be your aim for very good care. Safe herbs and other plants also can be included. Dandelions are an additional extremely nutritious plant for horses. They’re also straightforward to seed. Good edible plants must be encouraged in your horse pasture.
Well fertilized and managed bermuda grass might be utilized very effectively with sheep. Such pastures are excellent just within the course of May by way of July. In detail, 5 to ten ewes for every single acre can often be maintained for the duration of this interval. Buffalo and grama grasses are excellent pastures meant for sheep, but have a decrease carrying space than bermuda grass.
Many producers working with lesser acreages have begun to over seed their bermuda pastures in the fall with Marshall rye grass or wheat to make use of those acreages with year-round forage.
Another technique to appreciate year-round…