365 Days in Horse Country – Pasture Care If you are one of those lucky horse owners who has pasture for your equine charges, make sure you take good care of it.  You can do this by carefully managing the pasture in a way that will provide your horse with the nutrition they need while also preserving the land. To help maintain a healthy pasture, keep the following in mind: Rotation – ...

365 Days in Horse Country – The Equine First Aid Kit You never know when your horse may injure itself.  Horses are large animals that seem to easily hurt themselves, especially when kept in small confines.  For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep an equine first-aid kit at the ready, both in the stable and when you are traveling with your horse.  This kit can come in very useful while ...

365 Days in Horse Country – The Friesian Horse The Friesian is a horse breed that is near and dear to my heart; having one myself.  The Friesian is a glamorous horse with a legendary and romantic past.  According to some, the Friesian goes back to the Ice Age, when a large primitive horse called Equus Robustus is believed to have lived in Friesland, the area of Europe now knows as the T ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Dental Care  As I await the arrival of my veterinarian this morning, today’s topic seems rather apropos.  Your horse’s teeth should be at the top of your preventative care list.  Horses with tooth problems can develop serious health issues, such as colic and infections. Horses in the wild don’t need dental care because they wear their teeth down naturally ...

365 Days in Horse Country – The First Equine Movie Star   The first equine movie star was discovered in northern California in the early 1800s.  Photographer Eadweard Muybridge shot a series of photos of a trotting horse named Abe Edgington pulling a sulky.  The horse owner, Leland Stanford, hired Muybridge to photograph their racehorses so he could better understand their movement.  ...

365 Days in Horse Country - Companionship for Your Clip-Clop Horses are most happy, and healthiest, when they can live with members of their own species.  Horses are herd animals and rely on their herds for safety from predators, and for companionship.  Imagine spending your life with no one to talk to and the impact that might have on your emotional health after a while.  Unfortunately ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Minerals for Good Health  Just like us humans, horses need minerals to keep their bodies functioning property and running at peak efficiency. The major minerals horses need are much the same as what we require: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride and sulfur.  Horses also require trace minerals: cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, manganese ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Trailer Maintenance  As the better weather has now arrived, today is a good day to check your trailer; the safety and comfort of your horses depends on it. Follow these steps to make sure your trailer is in good working order and road worthy: Check tires to ensure that they have at least ¼ inch (6mm) of tread. Evaluate tires for proper inflation, includin ...

365 Days in Horse Country – Tying Up Syndrome  Also Known as azoturia or exertional rhabdomyolysis, tying up syndrome is a systemic condition that results when horses are put through extreme exercise after several days of having little or no exercise, and after eating grain or another high-carbohydrate feed.  Some horses tie up simply because they aren’t physically fit for the job they ...

365 Days in Horse Country – The Power of Psyllium  For horse owners living in regions where the soil is sandy, worrying about sand colic is a fact of life.  Sand colic is caused by the accidental ingestion of sand during feeding.  It can be incredibly painful, expensive to treat, and potentially fatal. Besides avoiding feeding your horse directly off the ground, the best way to avoid ...