Caring For Your Horse Takes More Than Just Love

It is vital for your horse’s health that the two of you have a close and loving relationship. Horses need love and attention just as much as we do, and this companionship will have a positive impact on your horses health! If you take good care of him, you can develop a long lasting bond with your horse, which in turn leads to excellent horse health, close companionship and a happy horse that should live a long life.

Treat Your Horse like He’s Family.

Most horse owners treat their horses as a part of their family, feeding them well, including exercise into lifestyle, keeping him well groomed and showering them with lots of love and attention. Owning and riding horses is a fantastic experience whether for sport, show or leisure as they are simply so beautiful and capable of infinite love and affection. Having a horse is a rewarding experience for the both owners and those in charge of caring for them.

The Correct Way to Care for your Horse.

The amount of horse care or maintenance required will vary depending on the horse’s breed. Horses are strong and loving animals with easy-going personalities, but horses just like any animal need certain things in order to keep them happy and healthy. The list below should give you an idea in just how much is required in terms of care if you want to keep a horse.

• Horses are large animals that require constant care and upkeep.
• Horses are herd animals – they are sociable and require attention and lots of love.
• Horses need daily visits and companionship, and you’ll need to love and care for them like any other family member.
• Horses need daily activities to keep them from becoming bored.
• You must provide horses with a nice sized stall for them to live and sleep in.
• You must provide a healthy horse diet.
• You must provide the horse with lots of water daily.
• Horses require certain vaccinations yearly.
• Regular health checks which include dental care and worming treatments.
• Foot care (hoof maintenance).
• Training (obedience).
• Horses must have a large area in which to exercise that will have to be cleaned often.

If horses do not get the attention they need you may notice them trying to act out. For example, they may try to break out of the stall to roam nearby fields to find things to do. Small changes in their general behaviour should alert you to an issue before it gets this serious, though!. They can behave in a similar fashion to children, and will disobey or act naughtily to try to gain attention from you!

If you plan to get horses make sure you are ready because more than any other pet owning a horse is a huge commitment. Horse care can be very expensive, particularly if your horse has an accident or develops an unexpected illness and needs veterinary treatment. This is just one of many reasons for which you will need to ensure you have good horse insurance.

Exercise is Essential for a Healthy Horse.

Horses love to have fun just like you and me. Perform regular exercises to keep your horse healthy and happy. You should not exercise your horse all day. Horses need adequate periods of rest as well. Remember also that it’s important to include a variety of different work and exercises for your horse as otherwise he will get bored quickly. You need try to change of similar activities or work frequently so the horses remain interested all the time.

Exercises to Help Maintain the Health and Strength of your Horse.

• Bending exercises, or riding in circles: using a figure of eight movement to exercise in circles. Perform this movement alternately on the left and right rein so as to maintain balance and even suppleness on both sides.
• Lateral work: this is a bit like gym for horses. First you need to do groundwork exercises with your horse. Once accomplished, you will notice how the horse will  improve and maintain flexibility, obedience, and strength of the hind limbs.
• Pacing: these exercises help train your horse to control his movements while walking with you. Focus on training your horse to increase or decrease their speed in a mannerly fashion. For example, moving to a trot from walking.
• Training and control techniques; including endurance, jumping and dressage. The purpose of the dressage technique is to focus on improving pacing and lateral work. The purpose of endurance riding, is to focus on improving the horses stamina.

You can have horse exercising sessions anywhere as long as you have enough space. Make sure the horse is exercised in an area where he cannot escape. Also make sure the area is safe, so that neither you or the horse gets hurt. You can buy horse insurance to cover you if you are riding someone else’s horse; so be safe rather than sorry, as accidents can and do happen even to the most cautious of riders. 

Horse exercise works well when executed in an area where the horse can concentrate. You can use either an outdoor or indoor arena, or a fenced-off area in a farm or larger field.

Riders as well as Horses will Benefit from Horse Exercises.

Both horse and rider will benefit from these exercises, as a rider can practice balance and position whilst performing them. The rider’s skills can improve dramatically over a short period. The goal for a horse rider is to develop good “contact”. “Contact” is the feeling of togetherness through your hands to the horse’s mouth and through your upper body to the horses back. Your level of “contact” is determined by how well your horse has been trained and how much the horse has retained. The horse will have the ability to work through his back and hindquarters if he has been well-trained. You will know when you have established a good contact when you feel the reins soften as your horse arches it’s neck in front of you and rises it’s back under you, you will also notice that your horse will use its hindquarters to thrust itself forward, rather than pulling onward from the forehand.

When good contact has been achieved, you can then begin to work together to improve the health and happiness of your horse by performing exercises with your new best friend.

While exercise is key to a happy horse, other things can occur which may effect the health of your horse. It would be nice if a happy horse was always a healthy horse. Sadly there are plenty of ailments and illnesses from which horses can suffer, which is why it is important to also have good horse insurance to cover the cost of unexpected vet’s fees.