Horseman's Report

The words “equine fitness” hold different meanings for various horse owners and riders.  A horse’s ideal fitness level depends on his workload and training schedule.  All horses should generally be in average physical shape and maintain a median body condition score; however, many factors contribute to overall fitness.  To understand the full picture of your horse’s fitness, you’ll need to look at elements beyond age, weight and soundness. 

As an equestrian, you understand that your horse is an athlete and manage his care so he’s in top physical condition and able to perform at his required workload.  But what about your physical wellbeing?  Yes, equestrians are athletes – and your fitness matters too!  Riding requires a certain level of horse-rider coordination, symmetry, strength and endurance that can be enhanced through specific exercises to keep your body in motion.

When you’re picking your horse’s stall, the composition of his manure is probably the last thing on your mind.  Nevertheless, analyzing your horse’s manure can reveal important information and is one of the best ways to monitor your horse’s health.

In addition to a horse’s normal, resting vital signs, every horse owner should know how much their horse weighs.  Knowing how much your horse weighs will not just help you to feed him properly and monitor his overall health, but becomes extremely important when deworming your horse and dispensing certain medications where an under- or overdosage could lead to potential health issues.

You’ve had your horse for a few years and have a great partnership with him, but do you really know him? Horses communicate to other horses and humans with their body language, which can sometimes be misinterpreted by horse owners.

Your horse’s skin is his largest and one of his most important organs. The skin does everything from help your horse stay hydrated to hold his body together; healthy skin also blocks invading pathogens and provides protection against bugs and the sun.

Just like people, horses can suffer from allergies. Allergies are an abnormal reaction to foreign substances (called allergens) by the immune system to which it has become hypersensitive.

The word “choke” normally makes us think of an emergency situation where a person has food stuck in the airway, unable to get oxygen into the lungs.

Most horse owners love to feed their horses treats. After all, it’s a great way to reward your horse and tell him that he’s appreciated.

In the late spring and early fall, you will often find horses in their pastures lying flat on their sides while soaking up the sunrays. The sun feels good and is important for Vitamin D production, which helps ensure proper functioning of the bones, joints and muscles; however, getting too much sun can create some problems for your horse as well.

Thanks to better nutrition, management and veterinary care, horses are living a much longer, and in many cases, productive life than their forefathers just a decade or so ago.

The saying that beauty is skin deep is only partially true when it comes to your horse. Your horse’s skin is a very important part of his anatomy and health, and understanding the makeup of his skin is the first step to keeping it healthy and maintaining his beauty!

Despite the fact that the cecum is one of the most important parts of a horse’s digestive system, most horse owners ignore (or don’t fully understand the functions of) it until their horse shows signs of upset.

Horse owners understand the need to have a fairly accurate idea as to the weight of their horse(s). This is important in determining how much to feed, how much dewormer to give and a myriad of other reasons.