Take Care of your Steed

Since horses are at rest due to the Covid-19 interruption, they may suffer some loss of performance. However, this time can be utilized to take care of the horses. More ground work can be done to keep them flexible and responsive. Sudden halt in activities, global warming, frequent climate changes and socio-economic pressures are making it difficult for owners to recognize the importance of horse management. Timely care cannot be under-emphasized.

“Preserve his natural gaits. Preserve his personality. Preserve his instinct to go forward. Do this and you must be successful because you are respecting nature's wisdom.” – Franz Mairinger, Former Australian Equestrian Coach
 

“Education is the key. If you equip people with knowledge, they have no excuse for not being responsible. You’d never let a driver on the road without any lesson, so why do we presume every horse owner or breeder automatically knows what to do?” asks Lucy, horse expert and founder of horsefactbook.com.

Being involved with horses for a long time, she realized that information about horse care should be easier to come by and therefore came up with the idea of sharing her experiences through the online medium.

It is important to teach the next generation about environmental impacts like global warming, loss of biodiversity, deforestation. All these have an impact on the health of our pets too. Horse owners have the responsibility to keep things as local as possible, she says. For example, if you can buy hay from a nearby farm then the carbon footprint will be less than it would be if we bought from a company based miles away. The resources should be reused as much as possible.

Good stable management is the most important aspect of horse care to prevent them from any harm like sunburn, fireworks, mosquito menace, etc. Prevention of diseases is ultimately far better than cure, and vaccinations play a crucial role. There are some diseases or virus such as equine influenza that can’t be completely prevented but good stable management can go a long way in minimizing the risks. Vaccinations should also be considered against diseases like EVA, EVH, Ringworm, etc.