Q: Can you feed a purebred Arabian straight alfalfa? I have an 8-year-old Arabian mare who is underweight. The vet said to put her on alfalfa and grain, but the owner of my boarding stable says that straight alfalfa...
What do you do when your horse comes in from the pasture with a loose shoe? You might be tempted to leave it alone and hope that it stays put until your farrier can make a trip out to...
To help your horse overcome his trailering fears, you have to look at it from his perspective. As prey animals, with a flight or fight response, horses prefer to be in big, open spaces where they can easily see...
Points, hooks, waves and ramps…they may not sound connected, but all four are common abnormalities that equine dentists regularly address in their four-legged patients.These issues are corrected in a routine process known as "floating” (also known as "equilibrating”)...
Q: My horse has been diagnosed with severe ringbone. I know he’ll never be ridden again, but I want to keep him pasture sound. Is there any medicine to help keep him comfortable? I don’t want to keep him...
Equine influenza is a respiratory virus that is very common in horses. Highly contagious, this disease can be avoided with a proper vaccination program.The influenza virus family is made of three different types: A, B, and C. Types B...
If you are a pleasure rider or only work your horse hard occasionally, his diet will differ from that of a high-performance competition horse.Both types of horses need to have a dietary foundation of high-fiber roughage—either hay or pasture....
Demands placed on high-performance horses couldn’t be more varied, from reining spins to cross-country jumping. But there are lots of similarities in the way horses at the highest levels of equestrian sports are managed—and that includes the basic principles...
Q:
I have a 5-year-old Paint gelding who has been diagnosed with pedal osteitis. I have done what my veterinarian has suggested: lower his heels, use Equi-pak as a pad and feed a mineral supplement. I have seen little improvement....
We all know it’s important to vaccinate our horses, but do we really know a lot about the diseases we are trying to guard against? Understanding these diseases can go a long way toward helping you make educated decisions...
