Keeping your horses healthy

Horse health is a popular topic on the Living the County Life radio show, mainly because listeners have a tremendous need for information in this area. Horses are wonderful pets and useful animals around an acreage. But they do get sick, and emergency veterinary care for these large animals is expensive.

Here are some tips on equine feeding and husbandry, gleaned from the radio show scripts. If there are horse health issues you would like addressed, send an e-mail to staff@livingthecountrylife.com.

Put your horse on a diet

Some think every time a horse whinnies it must be hungry. So there's a tendency to dole out extra treats or grain. However, overfeeding a horse causes a number of problems, including joint and cardiovascular issues. Debra Hagstrom, equine specialist at the University of Illinois, says because people consider horses companion animals rather than utility animals, extra feeding is more of an emotional thing.

"It's a combination of feeding it something we know it enjoys and not understanding what the proper quantity of food is for a horse that's not working heavily, which is a good portion of the horses around the country today."

Since it's not easy to put a horse on a scale, the best way to tell if your horse is gaining weight is to run your hands over it, says Hagstrom. "A horse lays fat down over the ribs, behind its front leg, and over its tail head. A horse also lays fat down over the crest of its neck, which is where its mane grows. When your horse is extremely fat, it will lay fat deposits down on either side of its backbone, and then I say it is able to hold rainwater, which means it has an inverse crease down its backbone."

A horse active in light riding only needs to be fed about 1% of its body weight a day. A horse will dine just fine on quality grass hay and a trace mineral and salt block. As much as a horse loves grain mixed with molasses and corn, use it only as a reward mechanism, not for regular feeding. The best method for weighing hay is to use an inexpensive fish scale. Just put the hay in a plastic sack and hang it off the scale hook.

Choose the right hay

For some horse owners, finding and buying quality hay is a never-ending task. Dennis Cash, Extension forage specialist at Montana State University, says all hay is not the same. So the first thing you want to do before buying is to ask for a hay analysis. "Have the hay evaluated for crude protein and its energy content. Then test for major macro elements such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. In different areas of the country you might have trace mineral toxicities or deficiencies, and those can be tested for as well."

The biggest variable affecting hay nutrient content is the stage of maturity at harvest, says Cash. Very early maturity hay often has a soft texture, is leafy, and has a high nutrient density. Plants harvested in late maturity will have coarse, thick stems and less leaf. The older the plant is at the time of harvest, the lower the nutrient value and the palatability.

A working horse needs a diet higher in protein and energy. Alfalfa hay meets that requirement very well. A pleasure horse should not be fed alfalfa, because that will make it fat.

"Match the hay quality to the horse's needs," says Cash. "A grass hay that's quite mature is very low quality, so it wouldn't meet the nutrient needs of a lactating mare or working horse. Mix a legume like alfalfa or a clover-mix with orchard grass or Kentucky bluegrass."