Get your horse in order
Good horsekeeping skills require attention to detail. Whether you're a horse novice or a horse expert, a new book called Horsekeeping can help educate you about horse behavior and needs, management methods, and ideal facilities. These seven tips from the book can help maximize your horsekeeping skills.
1. Get into a feeding routine
When it comes to feeding, horses have a strong biological clock. Their sensitive digestive systems are adapted to many small meals each day.
Feeding late or inconsistently can result in colic and other digestive upsets. It's vital that you don't feed a horse immediately after hard work. And avoid working the animal until at least one hour after a full feed.
2. Feed horses individually
Horses have a pecking order, so feed individually to avoid fighting. This also helps keep some horses from gulping feed while others get too little. If you have to feed in groups, feed in a large space using more hay piles or feeders than there are horses.
Confined horses should be fed at least two times each day. Three times a day at seven-hour intervals is ideal.
3. Don't feed on the ground
Avoid feeding horses on the ground where they might consume sand or decomposed granite along with their feed. This can cause sand colic, a dangerous type of impaction. Feeding on clean concrete, pads, rubber mats, or snow-covered pastures is best.
4. Limit pasture intake
Pasturing is an ideal way to keep horses. When turning a horse out to pasture for the first time, do so when the pasture grasses are mature.
Each horse responds to pasture differently, but use this plan as a guide. First, let the horse fill up on grass hay before you turn it out. Limit grazing to 30 minutes per day for the first two days. For the following two days, allow the horse to graze for one hour each day. Next, turn the horse out for a half day for two days. For the following two days, turn the horse out for the full day. Finally, you can turn the horse out on the pasture full time.
If a horse has been off pasture for a week or more, reintroduce it to green feed gradually.
5. No barbed wire fencing
Horses like to congregate over the fence, even when they have access to large pastures. The sharp points of barbed wire, coupled with a horse's natural tendency to fight when tangled and flee when frightened, can lead to horrible injuries. Choose fencing that will keep horses from getting hurt.
6. Companionship is key
Since horses are social creatures, a single horse can often be lonely if it can't interact with others of its species. Sometimes a companion animal, like a burro or a goat, will help alleviate a single horse's loneliness.
If you don't have another horse or companion animal, you can interact one-on-one with your horse. This will provide the horse with some of the aspects of companionship it would normally get from other horses.
7. Exercise daily
Horses are born wanderers, but sometimes they have to be confined, especially on small acreages. Their nomadic tendency can lead to confinement behaviors such as pawing, weaving, and pacing. Adequate turnout space and exercise time can prevent the development of these vices.
To purchase the book Horsekeeping, call 800/678-5752 or visit the Web at www.farmhomecollection.com.
