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WINTER
BODY CHECKS
With the advent of the shortened days it means that
many horse owners are attending to their horses each morning and evening by
artificial light of varying effectiveness, especially during the week when they
are at work and so on. However good your lighting system is though,
no light is as good as natural light. This means that at the times you do
see your horse in proper daylight it is important to check him over thoroughly
for any little cuts, lumps and bumps that you may have easily missed
previously. This is equally applicable to the stabled horse as the
turned out horse as things can easily go undetected under rugs.
So make it a policy to give your horse a very close
inspection every few days from hoof to ears to check for anything unusual such
as a swelling, check for scabs especially on the legs as these can easily be
hidden by winter feather, check the mouth and teeth, underneath the elbow
and up between the hind legs are also areas where little cuts and scratches can
go undetected.
For the winter woollies it is important to bury your
fingers into the thick coat over the entirety of the body and legs to
ensure a thorough check; this also provides a good opportunity
to check for any weight loss - a thick winter coat can hide a rather lean
torso. Make sure also that all is well with shoes and that the feet are generally
in a healthy condition. The stabled horse is just as prone to such
diseases as thrush as the turned out horse and in many cases more so because at
least the horse at grass is moving around more and so stimulating the
frog. Srubbing the feet and dosing with a mild bleach will help guard
against any nasties.
Horses that are turned out with rugs on need proper
checks to ensure that no areas are becoming sore from chaffing; there are
various products on the market to protect the delicate shoulders and
withers, but the spine and hips can also suffer, especially on thin skinned
horses. The problem is not necessarily caused by rugs that do not
fit properly but the pressure exerted by the sheer weight of some of
them.
FEEDING
- AVOIDING BEHAVIOURAL ABNORMALITIES
Well, to be honest
we find it to make perfectly logical sense as part of the management
regime, that a horse should be fed as naturally as possible i.e. as close to
how he would feed if he were out in the wild. However
this is not always quite so simplistic as it would appear
especially for the competion horsre but with a little
thought much can be done to mimic that wild state even
for the stabled horse.
A scientific study has been done experimenting with different forage feeds and
reactions monitored. However at the same time
the research foods but the project highlighted just what a boring diet the majority of horses
have, yet "variety is the spice of life".
The trouble is today is that either people are not prepared to put time and
effort into and follow the basic rules of feeding - they are happy to forget
about a horse's natural feeding habits, tip a bowl of compound feed into the
manger and a slice of hay in the rack and that's it, job done – or they just
don't have appropriate knowledge.
We had
this conversation at the weekend with clients – after a few riding lessons, so
many people decide owning a horse is for them, but have received no guidance in
any of the management, welfare and veterinary issues they need to be knowing
about.
Anyway, getting back to the topic in hand.
Ok, so it is accepted that for many it is just not feasible to have a
horse turned out 24/7; however ideal and natural this of course is, if you are
getting Dobbin ready for a major competition, there is no way you can keep him
at the peak fitness if he is munching grass for 22hrs a day. So, as in all other aspects of management,
feeding has to mimic nature as much as possible.
To this end, variety in the diet is very important. Part of the trouble is concern about causing
digestive upsets because there are warnings at every corner about colic when
dietary changes are introduced too rapidly.
This of course is a good warning to heed, but we mean regular variety
that is continually taking place, not just once in a blue moon.
Think for a moment how you would feel if you lived in the same room every day
of every week, every month and only came out of it for about 2hrs a day, had
the same meal put in front of you three times a day and that was it, your daily
life? You would soon become pretty
cheesed off and no doubt develop some unpleasant habit that was socially
unacceptable or bad for your health, or both!
So rather than feeding just a plain old mix (which of course there is nothing
wrong with, it's just a bit boring) spice up your hard feeds by interchanging
with cooked feeds such as barley and linseed, add some soaked oats or a little
honey if you need to tempt the fussy or shy feeder; pull up grass
(or
better still, complete sods) and herbage (nettles, dandelions - everything
unless of course it's poisonous) for your horse to rummage through; put
large carrots/apples on the floor for him to chomp at; some horses like things
such as sprouts - do not feed these whole, pull the outer leaves off and give
those- or a swede or play with and finally munch on; rather than always feeding chaff type products as a
"filler" i.e. mixed in with other hard feed ingredients, dampen it
slightly, spice it up if necessary, depending on the actual product, with
a little something and feed it on its own off the floor.
Remember that basically you are just trying to mimic nature by giving your
horse a much more varied diet more akin to what he would get if he was roaming
freely; make him work a little for some of it by rummaging about and
eating from the floor rather than a manger. The fear is for some that by
encouraging a horse to eat off the floor, he will then turn to eating his straw
bed because he think that's food too. Well, if your horse is fed an appetising
diet he won't find straw very exciting and for those that are confirmed bedding
eaters anyway then no doubt they are already bedded on an
alternative.
Unless a horse proves to be particulary wasteful we do not use racks or nets
for hay/haylage as it far better for a horse to adopt a "grazing
stance" to eat; many people set hay racks and nets too high anyway as a
reaction to concern about nets in particular being too low (risk of legs
getting caught, etc.) Years ago, the practice was in racing yards to sweep a
patch of bedding back and feed even the hard feed from the floor - far more
natural and time consuming for the horse.
The old adage of feeding little
and often is of course so true but again not always
feasible but do try to split hard feeds as much as possible;
if your horse does have the tendency to eat his hay/haylage
a bit too quickly, then increase the time span by using
a small-holed net - just make sure it is tied up high
enough.
Remember that the majority of
undesirable behavioural habits develop through boredom!
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