A more dangerous form of pica is dirt eating. The equine intestinal tract is not designed to digest dirt, and if too much sand or dirt collects in it, it can cause sand impaction. Often, a horse that eats dirt and sand will stop or at least reduce the amount that they eat when provided with a salt or mineral block.

Yet another of the common non-food things that horses routinely eat their own tails and manes, or those of other horses. The best explanation anyone has ever come up with for this one is… boredom. Horses chew on things. Its what their mouths were designed to do. If their food doesn’t give them enough to chew on, they’ll chew on and ingest other things.

And since horses are naturally curious and do most of their exploring with their mouths, its not unusual for them to ingest foreign objects. Depending on the object, this could cause colic, blockages or irritation in the digestive tract. The best way to avoid this is by keeping the stable floor and pasture as free of foreign objects as possible.

Like All Horse Vices,
You Want To Avoid This

Ohio State University’s Extension Department brings up a point worth taking home:

“Oral” vices include eating non-food materials, tail or mane chewing, cribbing, and wind sucking. These vices seem to develop mostly in horses with no opportunity to graze. Some of these will resolve if the horse is given access to pasture, more hay, exercise, and companionship, but others will continue even then, having become a habit.

The “habit” is what you want to avoid. Once a horse starts eating non-food items, there’s a better-than-average chance he’ll keep doing it. Even if he’s full. Not good. Try like heck to dissuade him from his pica practices as soon as you see the habit developing.

As always, the best thing to do is make sure your horse has access to some fertile pastures, preferably with plenty of room for exercise. The idea here is if there’s more for your horse to do, the less bored he’ll be. And less boredom should result in fewer of these vices.

But if you’ve been reading my articles for very long, you I’m a big fan of stopping a problem before it starts. That’s why I say the best treatment for pica is a balanced diet high in roughage, give your horse plenty of pasture time with other horses and keep his pasture and stall picked up.

Yours For Better Horse Health,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Health

Its been commonly thought that horses who engage in pica are trying to compensate for a lack of nutrients in their diet, but thats been called into question by several studies. Its not completely ruled out as a cause of pica, though, so if your horse is routinely eating things that aren’t food, a good physical and nutritional workup is the first step in treating the problem.

Why Some Horses Eat Manure

But do you want to treat it? According to vets, that depends on a number of factors. There are some types of pica that seem to be natural developmental behaviors in young horses. Specifically, coprophagia eating manure is commonly seen in foals up to about a month old.

Its believed now that eating feces may actually be important in developing the intestinal bacteria that young horses need in order to digest their food. If you see it in an older horse, though, it may be an indicator that theres not enough roughage in his diet. If possible, if you see an older horse eating manure should be pastured and allowed to forage for fresh grasses to satisfy that need.

When Horses Eat This, They May Just Be Bored

Eating wood is another fairly common equine pica behavior. Horses who chew wood or eat their bedding are also often exhibiting a need for more roughage or boredom. Horses are designed to roam and graze for up to sixteen hours a day. When theyre confined to a box, those natural needs aren’t met (for a quick solution to this problem, check out my article on horses who eat their own bedding).

In addition, when theyre fed on a concentrated and easy to digest diet, they dont get as much chewing as their bodies tell them they need. In either case, theyll often compensate by chewing and eating wooden posts, stall doors and anything else wood that they can reach. You can try to reduce the behavior and its attendant damage by painting wooden surfaces with creosote or with oil based paints.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this series on horses eating non-food items. And don’t forget, you can always stay up to date on the latest in horse health and behavior by getting my Horse IQ RSS feed.

Yours for Better Horse Health,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Health

Miniature horses can be trained to be family pets, herders or guides for those with sight impairment (they are not suited for hearing impaired persons.) Horses must be extensively tested and accepted into the guide horse program. They must measure less than 26 inches tall at the wither, must be determined to have structurally sound legs, be in good general health, demonstrate stamina and must pass an intelligence exam.

Training miniature horses as house pets can be as easy as training a dog or pig (another notably intelligent animal.) They can be taught to use a large litter box, eat at the table, fetch items, sleep in their own quarters, open and close doors, among other tasks.

You can begin training miniature horses at any stage but the earlier in their life you begin, the easier it will be for both you and the horse. Occasional bathing and daily grooming teaches the horse trust, patience and is great for their overall health.

Hoof care is of the utmost importance with miniature horses. Trim hooves early on in life and pick them out daily. Regular trimming will help balance and support proper bone growth. Optimally, the farrier you choose should be very experienced with miniatures.

As with other horses, miniatures need a dental check up early in life and routine check ups thereafter. Waiting until a dental problem has arisen can be very harmful to minis, as their teeth are smaller and more brittle than fill size horses.

Yours for Better Horse Care,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Health

Feeding

One of the biggest health risks among miniature horses is their habit of overeating. Unlike many full sized horses, miniatures must have rationed grain and hay available twice to four times daily, as they will often consume all they are offered. Clean water should always be available. Pasture feeding should be limited to grass that is maintained and kept trimmed (more on this under Exercise)

Housing

Miniatures enjoy the outdoors and love to play and run in pastures. All miniature horses love to play, whether for show or not, so make sure you let them out, even during show season. A shelter or barn provides adequate protection from most elements. They do need airflow, as they are lower to the ground, so make sure the shelter you choose accommodates this need.

Exercise

Pastures are great for exercising your miniature horse but you must maintain low cut grass. Ground covering that is allowed to get too lush can cause founder in your horses hooves. Founder is a term used to describe the effect of the bone of the foot sinking or rotating, a crippling, painful and often permanent injury in miniatures.

Make sure to come back here tomorrow for part 2 of my series on miniature horse care. Or better yet, point your feed reader right here at Horse IQ.

Yours For Better Horse Health,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Health

I’m going to be changing servers this weekend, so Horse IQ will be down at some point during the weekend of April 14-15.I’m hoping to have all of our technical issues rectified by the end of the weekend.

So if you happen to visit during this time, you may find Horse IQ with a totally different look and very little content. Please don’t be alarmed. I’m not shutting down. Just changing servers.

Thank you for your patience. And don’t forget - you can always read valuable Horse IQ articles by subscribing to my RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/horseiq .

Yours For Better Horse Care,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Facts

Why Horse Owners Fear Horse Air Travel

I have some friends who have owned horses for decades. They were terrified of shipping their animals by air. But the more I spoke with them, it was clear to me what they were really afraid of: the unknown.

They didn’t know what was going to happen to their babies once they handed them over to the shipping company. And because they didn’t know, they were very nervous about it.

How To Put A Horse On An Airplane

Putting a horse on an aircraft is kind of like getting brain surgery. You could do it yourself, but I wouldn’t recommend it. This is one of those tasks that is much better left to professionals who do it every day.



There are lots of services out there that offer “door-to-door” service. They’ll come to your barn, put your horse on a trailer, take him to the airport, file his papers, put him on the plane without your having to do much of anything. Except pay them.




They usually have a list of cargo airlines that accept horses or ponies for transportation. Be advised, though, most will accommodate it only on a non-stop flight between origin and destination cities. As a matter of fact, I don’t know of any airlines that will ship a horse to a destination that requires a layover.

During the flight, your horse must be accompanies by an attendant - what you and I would call a “groom.” Your horse will need a shipping stall constructed according to airline specifications. But some of the better horse shipping services will provide this as well. They’ll even include the loading and unloading ramps, like the one you see below…



These photos came from Overseas Horse Transport near Calgary, Alberta. Although I’ve never used their service, I’ve heard very good things about them. They offer complete horse air transportation services…

• Export and import formalities and documentation
• Veterinary inspection, blood tests, health certificates
• Pre-export and post import isolation facilties
• Vanning to/from airports
• Loading and unloading supervision
• In-flight care with dedicated, experienced grooms
• Stable-to-stable transit insurance available on request

This is the kind of service I’d use - one that totally takes all of the grunt work away from me so I can concentrate on selling or winning or whatever reason I might be shipping one of my horses.

As I mentioned, shipping a horse via aircraft used to be a big problem with a lot of worry on your part. Not anymore. There are shippers out there who only do air shipping and provide excellent service. You may have to look hard for one that can give you door-to-door service like this. But I’d rather pay for that than try to cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s myself.

Yours For Better Horse Care,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Transportation

What Aspirin Does To Horse’s Blood

Like our human blood, your horse’s blood contains cells called platelets (so named because they look like tiny dinner plates under a microscope). These cells are important for his blood’s ability to clot properly.

Aspirin changes the way the platelets work in your horse’s bloodstream, making his hooves less able to transmit pain signals throughout his nervous system.

When we humans take an aspirin for a headache, the pain-relieving effect can be gone in a matter of hours. But aspirin’s pain-relieving effect on your horse’s platelets can last as long as 3 days after you give it to him.

Again, I want to emphasize that NSAIDs should not be used as a long term solution to navicular disease, or any other hoof care problem your horse has. It doesn’t cure anything. It only masks the symptoms.

If your horse has navicular disease (or something like it), please get your equine vet our to your barn as soon as possible. He’ll be able to catch any horse diseases before they get out of hand. And that’s what you want.

Yours for Better Horse Health,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Health

Warning Signs of An Over-Exercised Horse

• Patchy Sweating- sweating more heavily in certain places of his body and hardly any in others. If you touch a horse like this and it feels cold and clammy, he’s overtaxed.
• Loss of Appetite- as I’ve mentioned before, a horse that has no interest in food is a rare…and not to be confused with normal.
• Clumsy Movement- if he stumbles around after a workout like he’s somewhat disoriented, that should raise some red flags too.

Bear in mind that this is what I’ve found from my experience and also what I read in my equine veterinary manuals. But I’ve also been around long enough to know that you can’t be dogmatic on this.

If you live in a high-humidity area, for instance, all horses may feel clammy, especially at night. And I’ve certainly known some that are naturally clumsy.

A More Scientific Way To Tell
If Your Horse Has Overdone It

As I pondered my veterinary books, I found a sort-of-scientific rule of thumb to measure horse exhaustion. In order to use it, you’re going to have to measure your horse’s pulse. If you’ve got a stethoscope, great, but you really don’t need one in order to do this.

If you’ve finished exercising your horse and feel he may have gone too far, keep him still for 5 minutes. Then find the artery that crosses the jawbone with your finger (or if you have a stethoscope, place it just below your horse’s left elbow).

Count the number of pulse beats you feel in a 15 second period. Then multiply that number by 4. You’re trying to determine how many beats per minute your horse exhibits.

Unless you have an overweight horse, he should have a heart rate of 64 beats per minute or less. If he’s got 70 or more, he has overdone it.

This Will Take The Guesswork Out of It

Just to be sure, you can jog with him around his pasture (or ring area if you have one) for about 125 feet, then stop. Then wait another 30 seconds take his pulse again. Ideally, this number you get this time should be less than the first.

However, if it’s 10% or more higher, he has definitely been worked beyond his level of physical fitness. Cool him down and get him some rest. And some water.

A lot of factors go into the physical fitness level of your horse. But even so, it’s good to know when your horse is over-exerted. Now that you know the warning signs and have a scientific way to measure how exhausted he is, you have a better chance of protecting him from injury.

Yours for Better Horse Health,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Health, Horse Issues

Bash & Boswell

Her big horse, Bash’s is 19 hands tall. Yep. 76 whopping inches of Belgian Palomino from horseshoe to withers. Her small horse is also a potential record setter. Boswell is a 35 1/2 inch-tall miniature. Those numbers just may qualify the duo as the largest and smallest trick horses in the world.

And while she’s been training Boswell for years, Penny Wheat has been working with Bash for only two months!

She does use a a special piece of custom horse tack. Her husband built a unique haltar that Penny uses for training the pair. But here’s what I found so amazing: she doesn’t use a bit to train her horses. Not even a snaffle.

According to the Branson Daily News…

“No bit goes in the horse’s mouth, only a metal ring that fits around the horse’s muzzle. Wheat guides the horse by touch, and bump and release when he errors. He and Boswell know about eight tricks, including picking up a handkerchief and taking a bow.”

The paper describes the trick you see in the picture above…

“As the crowd watched, Bash mounted the pedestal about five feet across, made a complete circle first to the right then to the left. Bowsell mounted the pedestal and stood for a moment under the huge horse.”

I’ve never trained horses to do tricks, but I can’t imagine training them to do much without the use of a bit. But it seems to work for Penny Wheat.

Amazing. I can’t imagine.

Yours For Better Horse Training,

Sierra Lynch

P.S. I must say, when I looked at this photo for the first time, I didn’t see poor Boswell completely beneath the giant Bash. I was so completely taken by the size of the giant Belgian, I totally missed the poor mini.

Tags: Horse Training

How Your Horse Can Master Any Task

You’ve probably heard the phrase “repetition is the mother of all learning.” I’d take that one step further and say repetition is the mother of doing almost anything. Or at least doing it well. Same goes for physical fitness.

In order to get your horse truly physically fit, you have to stress his muscles and joints repeatedly at regular intervals. And once you start down this path of getting him in shape, you have to follow through with it consistently.

It doesn’t have to be every single day. But whatever schedule you choose for getting your horse in shape, you have to stay committed to it. After a good workout, you have to let him rest. But if give him too much rest, you could be nullifying the benefits of all that exercise.

Why Too Much Rest Can Be A Bad Thing

In order to strengthen your horse, you have to stress him again before he has had a chance to fully recover from the previous day’s workout (unless he’s injured, of course). I know that sounds backwards, but here’s why it’s not.

When you apply progressively small amounts of stress over a long period of time, you’re essentially challenging his body to adapt to the load. I’ve yet to see a horse whose body didn’t respond to the challenge.

You want his bones, cartilage, ligaments, and tendons to slowly respond to the increased workload. When they do, he’ll get progressively stronger, not to mention more confident. But the health benefits don’t just stop at the muscles: you’ll be increasing his cardiovascular health as well using this same method.

However, if you give him too much rest, his muscles will rebuild themselves into the condition they were in prior to his previous workout. Without more exercise in a relatively short time, his muscles will have nothing to build upon.

In other words, his body will have “forgotten” about the prior exercise. The net result is his body will have reset itself. And he will have lost any physical conditioning gain he might have had. So the key is to stress his muscles again before they have a chance to completely recover from the last workout he had.

The Payoff For Your Horse: Strength and Endurance

Regardless of what activity you’re preparing your horse for, you can never go wrong by getting him in good physical condition. Exercise is crucial. And so is rest - as long as they’re done in the right amounts. Too much exercise could injure him. Too much rest may nullify the health benefits.

So how much exercise should you give him? And how often? Those are great questions for a trained professional. If you have one available, by all means ask. But if you don’t, a great place to start is your equine veterinarian. Nobody knows horse training better.

And when your horse is in good physical condition, he’ll be a lot more capable of taking you where you want to go, whether it’s a longer trail ride or an equestrian competition.

Yours for Better Horse Health,

Sierra Lynch

Tags: Horse Training