It’s a beautiful day and you’re ready to take your horse for a ride. As you enter the paddock with halter in hand, you see a steady stream of blood dripping down his lower leg. Where did that come from?
Sure enough, he’s managed to get into a bit of trouble with the fence and now has a sizeable laceration that needs to be dealt with. It goes without saying that it’s always best to be prepared for the inevitable.
Let’s look at a variety of items that you’ll want to have in a barn emergency kit that enables you to care for your horse while waiting for the vet. In all cases, be sure to store all supplies completely out of reach of children, pets and other animals, and in as temperature-controlled an environment as possible.
These materials in your barn emergency kit will get you through most horse crises while you await professional help. There may be other items you find important to include, so be sure to have those ready as well. Many of the supplies for your horse can also be used for human emergencies, with the exception of the oral or injectable medications.
It’s nice to have a full horse first aid kit of these items on hand in your barn or horse trailer, but when out on the trail or far from facilities, you’ll have to simply make do with the bare minimum that can be carried on your saddle. Many issues that occur off site can be temporarily patched up until you can get your horse to a barn with clean water, light, additional supplies and professional help.
You may find that you’ll have everything ready at hand for a horse emergency, yet never need to dive into the first-aid kit. Wouldn’t that be great? But that’s unlikely, horses being horses, after all.
Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, proclaimed, “A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens.” This is sound preparation advice for horse owners, as well. Stocking an emergency barn kit is the first step in that direction.
This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!
Nancy S. Loving, DVM, is a performance horse veterinarian based in Boulder, Colo., and is the author of All Horse Systems Go.
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