Everything You Need To Know About Horses

Horse Strangles

Strangles

This is a highly contagious bacterial infection. The horse presents with a depressed, dull outlook, high temperature (around 39.5 degrees), nasal discharge, swollen glands under the jaw. It is a condition horse owners should always be concerned about, especially on properties where there are horses coming and going on a regular basis, such as studs and agistment facilities.

It is not a rountine disease to vaccinate against, but in high risk areas, such as agistment properties and studs, vaccination will reduce the incidence and severity of strangles, although the vaccination is by no means 100 per cent effective.

A course of three injections is given two weeks apart followed by an annual booster. You need to maintain this annual booster to maintain some degree of immunity, but the injection can also cause some local irritation. Horses that have previously contracted strangles are not immune to the disease for any more than about twelve months.

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Horse With Tetanus

Tetanus

Clostridium tetani is a resistant organism, found in soil that produces a potent toxin that affects the nervous system.

The chances of a horse surviving tetanus are very low but fortunately the incidence of the disease is also quite low since most horses today are protected by vaccinations. If a horse is affected, it becomes hyper-excitable to noise, stiffens up through limbs, the third eyelid partially covers the eyes, the horse has difficultly in eating and drinking and finally dies from asphyxiation as muscles of the respiratory system become affected. Treatment is rarely successful. It is definitely a veterinary emergency.

If you have bought a horse and you are unsure of its cover against tetanus, assume the cover is inadequate and commence a series of vaccinations, one every month for two months followed by an annual booster. Always consult your veterinarian first.

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Horse With Ring Worm

Ring Worms

This is a fungal infection that has lesions which are typically roughly circular in shape, showing raised hair patches. When the hair is plucked from these areas, it leaves grey, glistening skin which develops a surf or scale in 1-2 days.

Fungal infections are most commonly spread between horses by contact with contaminated saddles, girths, bridles, boots, whips, grooming gear and horse floats. Slightly less common is direct transmission by contact between horses. It is fairly common among young horses that are being broken in if they are exposed to saddles and bridles that have been used on infected horses previously. Common sites of infection are the head, girth, shoulders and neck. It is a self-limiting condition over time providing equipment is cleaned and exposure to the fungas is reduced, but iodine washes and specific fungicidal washes and creams can help.

Needless to say, equipment should be cleaned thoroughly before being used on a new horse.

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Rain Scald

 Horse With Rain Scald

This is a baterial infection associated with wet weather, most often seen on paddocked horses which are neither stabled nor rugged and are exposed to the rain.

This condition is self-limiting if you can remove the horse from these conditions. Extreme cases require antibiotics and medicated washes. The lesions tend to run their own course and the skin repairs itself. However, steps have to be taken to get the horse out of the situation that is causing the rain scald or the condition may deteriorate. 

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How To Keep Your Horse Rugs From Being Stolen

A simple way to keep your horse’s rugs where they should be…..

Rugs are expensive. Particularly when one isn’t enough for your horse. Buying second hand rugs can make things easier, as it is a popular way to save some money, but BEWARE ! It’s happened before and will happen again, rugs have known to have been stolen right off your horse’s back !

This crime mostly happens at agistment centres with lots of horses, or on road side properties. Theives drive in, take rugs off as many horses as they can find, and leave, while horses stand out in the chill for the remainder of the night. If you are lucky enough to have your own paddocks, make it as difficult as possible for theives to access your land and your horses. If you don’t have control over this, the easiest way to discourage would-be rug theives is to clearly mark your horse’s rugs with paint, markers, whatever you can find. Sure, it’s not all that pretty, but it might mean the difference between your horse all rugged up at night, or standing in the cold after a visit from a rug thief.

So what should you write ? Firstly, a phone number is a great idea,, nice and big and bold. You can also write your horse’s name on there, the more writing, the more the thief will be discouraged. Would you want to buy a rug that had been written all over with someone else’s details? Having both your horse’s name and your phone number can also mean that in an emergency, if something were to happen to your horse he can be easily identified, and you can be contacted as soon as possible.

Another popular idea is to mark your rug with your (or your parents) car registration number. That way, if it turns up, or is reported as stolen property, it can be easily identified, or traced back by the car registration number.

Also, if a thief is showing a prospective buyer a rug with a huge phone number written on it, all you have to do is call the phone number to ensure that the rug isn’t stolen. Helping fight rug theft goes both ways, do your best to prevent your rugs from being stolen, and always be careful when buying second hand rugs. If it looks dodgy, or is too cheap (yes we all love a bargain, but keep your guard up) then look elsewhere. As long as we keep supporting rug theives by buying rugs from them, they’ll keep stealing them !. So be wary. If you purchase stolen property knowingly, you are breaking the law, and you can get into serious trouble.

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Horse Riding In The Rain

• Riding in winter, particularly in the evenings, can mean you bring your horse back sweaty and warm, even though the temperature is freezing… Here’s what to do

Horses will easily catch a chill if they are sweaty and left to stand, uncovered after a ride. And what about rugging? You should NEVER put a rug on a sweaty horse and turn him out for the night !

So when you’re low on time, you’ve finished your ride and the evening is creeping up, follow these steps to make sure your horse is warm and happy when you put him back into his paddock or stable.

Firstly, EVERY time you ride, you should thoroughly warm up and cool down your horse. This means lots and lots of walking. It’s important all throughtout the year, particularly when it’s a bit on the chilly side. After work, your horse needs to stretch his muscles out, and have a relaxed walk until his respiratory rate comes down, and he literally cools down.

Once he’s cool, hop off and un-tack. If your horse is a bit sweaty under the girth, but no where else, you can put his rug over him to keep him warm. If he is sweaty where his saddle was, you need to dry this area right off before rugging him. While you wait to feed him (we all wait at least half an hour after riding, don’t we?) you can begin to dry him off with soft towels, rubbing in a circular motion. This can be very time consuming, particularly with big woolly ponies, but it is very necessary. Once you’ve removed most of the moisture, you can place some fresh, dry towels on his back, and put his rug on over the top. The towels will soak up any moisture missed, but you have to remember to take them out before you let your horse go !

Another alternative (that you often see in horse care books) is to pile straw under an anti-sweat rug, which in effect, does the same job as the towels. Again, the straw must be removed before your horse is turned out. If you are leaving your horse to dry naturally, fluff up his coat, to allow the air to get in to dry him off. Don’t just leave your pony out in the cold, always remove as much sweat as you can from his coat.

Never turn your horse out wet under his rug. Your horse will not dry by himself, the sweat from his coat will soak into the lining of his rug, which will mean he will have a very uncomfortable, wet and cold night ahead of him. It would be better to leave the rug off all together than rug him up wet.

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Interesting Horse Facts

Did You Know…………

Draught horses are the world’s strongest animals apart from elephants, but proportional to their weight, men are stronger than horses.

Horses dislike windy days not only because of what they can hear but also what they CANT hear.

It’s been said that horses, like humans, have one leg (or in the case of horses, two legs on the same side) shorter than the other and that the mane falls towards the shortest side.

Did You Know……

Equinophobia and Hippophobia means “fear of horses” while a person who loves horses and riding is said to be a “Hippophile”. Notice how two of these words start with “hippo” which is the greek word for horse

During the American Civil War, enlisted soldiers were paid 50 cents a day for providing their own horse.

Rhinoceros are in the same family as horses, and are thought to have inspired the myth of the unicorn.

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