When you have a horse to take responsibility of, it becomes important to take proper care of it in order to ensure that it keeps well and stays healthy. Anyone who has a horse with them wants it to remain strong, fit and healthy but this might not always happen.
Like every human, horses too can suffer from health issues, be it physical or mental. They have chances to get over stressed and depressed too! When that is the case, you’d want to know how to keep your horse away from problems and help it lead a happy, healthy and strong life.
Here are 5 secret techniques that can help you improve your horse’s health:
1) Feeding Well:
Feeding well is an important thing to begin with! Like any other creature, horses too need a proper diet to ensure that they lead a healthy life. Feeding well not only counts in terms of providing ample amount of food to your horse, but also brings in the need to provide your horse with “quality food”.
Roughage, be it hay or pasture, is needed by horses to remain healthy. It supplies them the necessary nutrients and thus extending them good quality roughage will help keep your horse well.
If you don’t know what to feed your horse with, you must visit a vet and get a proper diet prepared for your horse in order to ensure that it gets all the required nutrition and has a balanced diet.
2) Deworming:
Deworming is as crucial as feeding a horse is! No animal would want worms and parasites within themselves and when we talk about long haired animals like horses, worms can literally create havoc and destruct your horse internally.
Regular rotational deworming is the right thing to do in order to keep your dear pets away from parasites! With the world getting easier, there are a lot of deworming products available in the market that can do the job for you.
Not only are budget friendly, easy to use deworming products available online but they can also be found literally anywhere you go, be it your feed store, local shop or supermarket.
If in case you are worrying about what deworming product to use or when to use it, you can talk to your vet or look for guidelines online.
It is usually appropriate to deworm your horse once in fall and once in spring, but anytime you do it on your horse it is recommended to confirm the same with the vet first.
3) Daily Exercise:
Properly exercising your horse on a daily basis will help in keeping it fit and healthy. Horses are meant to run, move and stand constantly. Being active is one of the main characteristics that define a horse and thus proper exercise in the form of timely running, walking and grazing will help in keeping their digestive system good while also ensure proper circulation and stress relief.
While normal level of stress is okay for them, its hike can lead to issues like diarrhoea, depression, anger, bad behaviour, ulcers, etc. Stress can lessen the life of your horse and can also adversely affect their quality of living.
Keeping your horse in internal stables and shades is good but it would be better if you take out time and let it move around in the sun. Keeping them out not only helps them get Vitamin D but also keeps their muscles in shape and their body strong.
4) Good Shape:
Maintaining an ideal weight of your horse is important. Your horse being either overweight or underweight can be disheartening to watch. While underweight horses are weak and fragile, overweight horses have extra weight to carry on their legs which again make them unhealthy and stressed.
Good shape of your horse can be maintained not only by exercising, what is also important is taking care of what you feed them and in what quantity you feed them. Right amount of food along with right quality of food can do wonders!
It will not only let your horse remain fit but will also ensure a longer and happier life for them. You should constantly keep a check on your horse’s weight and visit a vet if there are any chances of it being over or underweight.
5) Vet Visits and Vaccinations:
Vaccinating your horse on regular basis (according to the required amounts) will help in keeping them away from diseases and illness while will also help in fighting against the same if any case of potential risk is found.
Vaccinations are required to fight against diseases like Tetanus, West Nile virus, equine encephalomyelitis, etc. Along with regular vaccinations, timely vet visits are necessary to make sure that your horse is in good condition (health), both physically and mentally.
While you might assume your horse to be healthy by the way it looks and behaves, a vet can assist you and let you know what the actual scenario is. They can catch any kind of risks or problems in the horse and bring out an effective way to resolve the problem and get your horse back to track.
With all the techniques to keep in mind while petting your horse, it is at the same time also necessary for you to stay with your horse, spend time with it and create a sense of belongingness and bond with it. This will make them feel loved, secure and happy. As said earlier, mental health of the horse is equally important, thus building a good relationship with your horse is a thing not to forget!
Author Bio:
Emily Davis works at Cheval Liberte as community manager. Cheval Liberté have been designing, developing and producing stalls, temporary stables and stable equipment since 1995, Driven by their passion for horses, Cheval Liberté was founded by both riders and breeders and since 2005 this passion has been implemented in the UK, with our North Wales company being the sole importers of Cheval Liberté products for distribution and erection throughout the UK & Ireland.
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