Vital signs are physical indications that let you know that your horse is living, such as temperature, pulse and respiration. These signs can be observed, measured, and monitored to indicate the horse’s level of physical functioning.  Vital signs change with age, sex, weight, fitness, and condition. Any abnormalities in vital signs should prompt you to consult a veterinarian. In order to tell what is abnormal for your horse, you must first know what is normal.  

Equine herpesvirus infections are very common in horse populations. Familiarity with the types of equine herpesviruses, clinical signs, transmission, diagnosis, treatment and especially, ways to protect your horses from infection are the best practices in managing the disease.  In this fact sheet, we will focus on EHV-1 and EHV4, which are the two that result in serious clinical disease in the horse.

For horse owners, vaccination is a part of the routine maintenance of the animal’s health. Vaccination can prevent disease, reduce the severity of disease, and minimize the spread of disease. With one horse, the focus is on disease prevention. With more than one horse, the focus is on reducing the impact of an outbreak. 

First recorded in 1975, near Lyme, Connecticut, Lyme disease can be troublesome. Knowing the signs, treatment, and prevention, can lead to better protection for horses from this disease.   

Whether you’re buying your first horse or your twenty-first, it is both an exciting and scary process. Dreaming of the day when you could own this horse, you want everything to be perfect. There are several things you can do to improve your chances of selecting a suitable horse for you.  

Flying insects are always a nuisance, but their activity definitely increases in the summer. New fly control options, where we are defining new as non-traditional, involve combining the use of chemical or organic methods with manure management. 

Having hay analyzed is the only way to determine the actual nutrient content of it. It is important to know this so that you can be sure your horse is consuming an adequate diet. There may or may not be a need to feed grain depending on the quality of the hay.  The better the quality of the hay, the less grain you will need to feed, which can be a significant savings.

Concerns about plants found in pastures include whether they may be poisonous to horses. In general, a horse usually would need to consume a large quantity of a specific toxic species for it to be an issue. However, a few ornamental plants are toxic in small quantities, even only a couple of mouthfuls. Prevention is the best approach to dealing with plant toxicity to horses. There are some things you can do to prevent your horse from having issues.

Warmer weather often leads to thoughts of being out on the trail with your hourse, considering goals for riding, driving, showing, or trail riding this year. In a previous fact sheet, we discussed aerobic conditioning and the effects of age, genetics and nutrition on conditioning.  This fact sheet provides additional tips and best practices for the health of your horse. 

Being outdoors and camping is a fun pastime for a lot of people. Many people feel there is nothing like spending time camping with your horse. This factsheet contains a few guidelines for camping with your horse. 

By managing horse pastures more effectively, horse managers can increase forage production, lower production costs, improve aesthetics, and promote a healthier environment.  

In 2010 some coronavirus outbreaks occurred throughout the world in adult horses (and causing diarrhea in foals), but luckily, horses never transmitted to humans. It is also extremely unlikely that the disease would jump into humans from horses.  In late summer 2018, several horses were affected by equine coronavirus at a horse show in the Northeast United States.  

The hot summer heat should be a concern for horse owners. Horse owners need to provide extra care during hot weather to decrease stress and maintain the health and well-being of their horses. This fact sheet will describe overheating, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke in horses, and ways to protect them in times of high heat.