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.

When horses are experiencing back pain, it can often lead to poor performance; many different types of horses suffer from back problems. Early recognition of back pain is important, since damage may be cumulative. This fact sheet provides information to help horse owners and riders prevent, recognize, and pursue treatment for back pain in their horses.   

After a long season with little color, when Spring arrives it’s great to see the greening of the grass and blooming flowers. Horses shedding definitely is another reminder. As a horse owner, when you think of the word SPRING, it can help bring to mind some tasks to focus on. 

It is important to prepare prior to designing a pasture by considering the use of the pasture, land resources available, seeding (including what to seed), design, and location of sacrifice areas. A sacrifice lot will help prevent over-conditioned horses by reducing pasture intake as well as protecting land resources. The expression ‘Failing to prepare, we prepare to fail’ is never more true than when it comes to pasture management. 

It might be observed at the end of a horse show, event or trail ride. A horse is lathered, huffing and looks exhausted. Is the horse exercise-intolerant?  No, most likely it just has not been properly conditioned. Conditioning is defined as getting one’s muscles into better shape through graded exercise. Age, genetics, and nutrition play major roles in conditioning. 

Properly managing horse manure will reduce flies and dust, and prevent pollution to nearby water bodies. The best time to consider manure management is before adding horses to a property. However, there’s no time like the present to reevaluate what you are doing and determine if you can manage your manure more effectively.

All horses should receive a complete dental exam, at least yearly, starting from their first year of life. By the time most horse owners recognize that a horse is having trouble eating or is losing weight, that horse’s teeth may be severely abnormal.  Proper dental care from the beginning of the horse’s life can help eliminate problems before they start. Seek an experienced equine dentist or equine veterinarian to undertake these necessary horse care issues. 

Colic refers to any type of abdominal pain. There are many things that can be done to help prevent horse colic issues. By being aware of the risk factors and implementing these preventative measures, the horse can avoid this painful and costly disorder.  

Insulin resistance is defined as a reduced sensitivity of the body’s cells to insulin’s facilitation of glucose uptake. This article discusses equine insulin resistance including its causes, effects, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.  

As spring and warm weather approaches, horse owners typically consider deworming. Recent discussion has centered around how horse owners should switch from rotational deworming–or time-based deworming with the same drug–to strategic deworming also known as targeted or selective deworming. Following that will be consideration of ways to prevent reinfestation of horses that were dewormed.  

Time on the water, either with or without horses, is often restorative and a fun way to cool off. A horse owner’s thoughts may turn to dreams of riding on the beach or swimming with horses. However, here are some considerations of horses around water bodies.

To blanket or not to blanket? Some scientists from Norway decided to give horses the chance to answer that question. In a paper entitled Horses can learn to use symbols to communicate their preferences, scientists taught 23 horses three different symbols that either meant ‘take blanket off’, ‘put blanket on’ or ‘no change’. 

One of the benefits of living in places that experience true winter is the ability to enjoy the changing seasons. By being properly prepared, there is no reason not to enjoy winter horseback riding. Here are a few tips for being prepared, using the letters from the  the song Let It Snow for inspiration. 

Mosquitoes cause three of the major diseases that affect horses today. Eastern and Western Equine Encephalomyelitis have been around for many years and can be caused by mosquitoes or arthropods, and by now you have probably heard of West Nile Virus that recently emerged and became a problem in the last few years. Knowing the cause, clinical signs, treatment and prevention of these diseases are important, since letting these diseases go untreated can lead to the demise of your favorite horse.

Circadian and circannual regulation in the horse refers to the internal timing in the equine athlete. A circadian rhythm lasts approximately 24 hours and exists under constant conditions. It can be synchronized by external signals (light/dark the most important) and is endogenously (within the body) generated. It is unaffected by changes in temperature. Feeding and exercise schedules are secondary cues that help synchronize circadian rhythms.

Fall can often be a busy season as temperatures drop, trees change colors and leaves fall and crisp, cool air often leads to more time outdoors. It’s also a great time for land, home and horse owners to consider dealing with not only leaves, but drainage issues, acorns, and storm preparedness. It is a great time to take a look around and assess the horse-keeping situation and be sure that acorns, leaves and drainage don’t cause issues. It is also a great time to get ready to deal with whatever Mother Nature may bring in the time and seasons to come.