Liv G.

Your horse’s vital signs and daily behaviors can tell you they are not feeling well. Incorporate checking your horse’s vitals as you groom, and notice their temperment and reactions to handling. Know the signs of colic, respiratory distress, laminitis, and other common horse diseases.

Alfalfa hay is a great option for some horses that need extra protein, energy, calcium, and calories. But, the higher calcium must be balanced with additional phosphorus in the diet. Also, watch out for blister beetles when feeding alfalfa to horses, as they are toxic for horses.

There’s a link between lush, green grass and spring colic in horses. It’s the same mechanism that can trigger laminitis and happens when the hindgut of the horse’s digestive system has too many sugars and starches. Use grazing muzzles and slow feeders to help prevent gas colic in horses.

Lush grass after winter can create founder in the spring for horses, especially those with metabolic conditions like EMS and Cushing’s. The higher sugars and starches react in the hindgut to create gas, endotoxins, and a changing pH that lead to laminitis and sometimes founder. Use grazing muzzles and treat spring grass like a diet change.

Most quarter cracks in horses begin at the coronary band. Many are shallow, some are deep enough to bleed and cause lameness. Corrective farrier work is needed to rebalance the hoof and help this hoof crack heal.

Keep your horse clipper blades sharp, clean, and fast by using clipping coolants, followed by clipper oil.

You don’t always have to be extra with horses. Sometimes, less is more, which allows them to have a more natural life. We should still do what we can to help them be slow feeding grazers, but we don’t have to over-groom or over-train them. Less can be more!

You can help your horse feel their best in winter with a few touch ups using clippers. Switching to a different blade or doing a trace clip over your previous clip can help with thermoregulation and excessive sweat. You can also use clipper combs to modify your horse’s clip in winter.

You can use livestock clippers for horses, they are powerful, light, and easy to use. However, you want to switch the blending or blocking blade to a #10 blade as their coat hair is different. The livestock and equine clippers with detachable blades can easily switch from the cattle blade to the equine blade.

Monensin is an ionophore antibiotic for cattle, other ruminants, and chickens. In horses, it can quickly cause severe neurological and cardiac problems and often results in death. Avoid contamination by using horse specific feeds from trusted mills that are ionophore-free.