Cribbing Control

Cribbing is the way a horse deals with stress or possibly physical/abdominal pain. Try to:

• Minimize or eliminate grain and provide access to pasture and/or hay.
• Keep the horse turned out with a buddy for as long as possible.
• Keep the horse in regular work.
• Use a cribbing collar.
• Discuss possible treatment for gastric ulcers with your vet, or try a supplement for a few weeks to see if this decreases the cribbing.

There may be times when you are confronted with a problem you cannot solve and would appreciate the assistance of an equine expert.

Dr. Carey Williams, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Cook College, and other faculty and staff of the Equine Science Center are available to answer your questions on equine care and horse management. Send your questions to Dr. Williams at the Equine Science Center via this link.

Helpful Tips for Horse Owners

1. Set aside a few moments to label equipment so it doesn't "walk away."
2. Take snapshots of your saddle, tack room, trailer and any other equipment that you might need to identify later on, should it get stolen.
3. Set up a file or at least a plastic sleeve for each of your horses--Coggins papers, photos, shot record and other important papers.
4. Take pictures of your horse from the front, back and each side, including any scars or identifying marks and put them in his/her file.
5. Make photocopies of your horse's file, your truck registration and copies of other snapshots and put them in a safe place.

In-Trailer Emergency Kit

Here are some essential items to keep in your trailer's emergency kit:

Extra halters and lead ropes
Tool kit (screwdriver, pliers, wrenches, hammer and crowbar)
Tire-changing kit
Emergency flares/warning triangles
Flashlight with extra batteries
Electrician's tape
Duct tape
WD-40
First-aid kits--equine and human
Fire extinguisher
Sharp knife
Cell phone (fully charged)
Change for pay phones where there is NO cell service
Credit Card

Keeping a Barn Shipshape

• Haul muck using a wheelbarrow.
• For outside cleaning in barn areas Metal rakes hold up better than plastic. Plastic manure forks glide easier than metal ones and won't rust.
• Brooms should have heavy bristles to hold up around the barn. Use a light broom for removing cobwebs and other debris from ceilings.
• Pine oil is excellent for reducing ammonia odors in barns.
• For cleaning buckets, brushes and water tanks, use baking soda.
• For disinfecting all types of equipment, use bleach.
• Use a water hose to wash down aisles, stalls, etc. The hose should be crush-resistant, and an easily coiling hose that resists punctures.

• Keep the foot trimmed correctly, balanced and landing flat.
• Have the horse on a regular exercise program.
• Use cooling therapy for flareups and after exercise. Cold therapy includes: hosing, bucket soaking, whirlpool, ice wraps, chilled poultice and liniments.
• Use heat therapy for chronic stiffness and before exercise. Heat therapy includes: warm water hosing/soaking, whirlpool, heating and neoprene wraps, sweating, heated poultices, liniments and massage.
• The horse's diet should have generous amounts of hay; do not let the horse get overweight.
• Make sure the horse is getting the correct amount of key vitamins and minerals.
• Feed a joint nutraceutical at a high enough dosage to get pain relief. Start with glucosamine.
• Add chondroitin or a combination product if you don't get adequate results from glucosamine.
• Try a product with HA (hyaluronic acid) or an herbal, like devil's claw, for pain and inflammation control if needed.
  

Ointment Tips

Ever try to get an ointment or cream out of its tube or jar in cold weather?

• Put it in your pocket while you do your barn chores. Your body heat will soften it enough so that you can dispense it.
• If you don't like the idea of a gooey tube in your pocket, put a couple of inches of warm water in a bucket and plop the tube or jar into that to warm it up.

Scratches

To help prevent scratches, drain any standing water from your pasture and control mud. If your horse develops scratches, take immediate steps to stop it from progressing.

Clean the area - use an antiseptic cleanser (i.e., Phisoderm with hexachlorophene) OR use a mild iodine scrub.
Pat dry - use a clean towel to dry the area--pat don't rub. Rubs can cause further irritation.
Apply a topical solution - two such treatments are Desitin and Furacin. Rotating topical medications will increase the chances of success.

Stay cool without leaving your saddle. Pack a 1/4" diameter, 6 ft. piece of rope and a few large sponges (preferably rectangular in shape). At a stream or other water source, tie the end of the rope onto the middle of the sponge, then dip the sponge into the cool water. Use one sponge to cool your horse (wringing it over his neck, shoulders and croup). Use another sponge to cool your face and neck.

Be sure your horse accepts the sponge bath at home BEFORE you mount up.

Teeth Talk

How often should you have your horse's teeth checked?

Regular exams are important to catch dental problems early. Annual exams for mature horses and bi-annual exams for 2- to 5-year-olds should help keep your horse's teeth in good shape. According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), you should seek veterinary attention when the horse:

• Has difficulty chewing, salivates excessively or feed falls from the mouth.
• Has a loss of body condition.
• There are large or undigested feed particles in the manure.
• The head tilts or tosses, tongue lolls, or the horse fights the bit when bridling.
• Lugs on the bit or fails to turn or stop.
• There's a foul odor from the mouth or nostrils, or traces of blood from the mouth.
• Has a nasal discharge or swelling of the face, jaw, or mouth tissues.

Tubesock Tips - gathered from Myhorse.com Newsletter

1. When applying oily fly repellent, slip your hand into a plastic bag, then into a tube sock. Your hand stays clean and the fly repellent goes exactly where you want it to.
2. Put your hand inside a sock to wipe your horse's eye, inside his ears, his nostrils or under his tail. Cut off the toe when it gets yucky and continue using the rest of the sock.
3. Use the hand-in-sock technique for cleaning leather, polishing silver or any other dusting chores.
4. To keep cuffs of your long sleeved shirt clean, cut off the toe of a clean sock and slide the sock up to cover your cuffs and lower arm.
5. For a quick bandage to hold ice in place on a horse's leg, slide a tube sock onto the leg, then put the ice inside the sock. Wrap above and below the sock to hold it in place.

Water bottles with squirt tops have many uses around the barn. Because the water leaves very little residue that can react with other substances, they are better than empty containers of things like dish soap or other cleaners.

Use them to hold oils or other liquids to be added to feed, as well as liniments, alcohol, liquid hoof dressings and shampoos. They're useful for getting insect repellants down to skin level along the thick hair at the base of the mane and tail. They also come in handy when cleaning open wounds.

Best of all, they cost you nothing and you can put them in the recycling bin when you've finished with them.

Wintertime Feeding

Good quality forage helps your horse stay warm.

Estimate his normal requirements. An average adult horse needs 1 1/2 to 2 lbs. of hay for each 100 lbs. of body weight every day. At least 50% of his feed should be in the form of roughage rather than gains. Fiber from hay promotes your horse's gut health, reducing the chance of colic, laminitis (founder) and nutritional imbalances.

Feed for warmth. Your horse's nutritional needs increase about 5-10% for every degree below freezing. During cold snaps, provide good quality grass hay.

Add caolories if necessary. If yur horse needs more calories to maintain his condition, supplement hay with a small amount of alfalfa hay and/or grain. Oats offer greater fiber content but corn provides twice as much energy as an equal amount of oats. You can also supplement your horse's diet with vegetable oil or rice bran to add fat and calories.

Provide fresh water. Provide plenty of fresh, clean and wet (ice free) water at all times. If your horse stops drinking water, he'll be at rish for impaction colic. Your horse needs at least 5 to 10 gallons of water per day in winter--more if exercised.

Winter Hoof-Care Tips

• Think ahead. Meet with farrier to discuss any adjustments to the shoeing/trimming schedule.
• Eliminate hazards. Remove anything that can be an under-snow hazard to a loose horse. Fence off areas where water collects and inspect fences.
• Create safe paths. Decide in advance which barn and pasture areas you'll plow and where snow piles will go. Chart safest paths between stalls and turnout area.
• Stock up on traction aids. Keep supply of shavings, old carpets and sand on hand to spread on icy areas.
• Increase turnout time. Allow horses maximum time out to get used to footing changes.
• Check blanket fit. Make sure horse's blanket fits properly and straps are snug. Remove excess strap length.
• Plow turnout. Plow a small turnout area for your horses if area is accessible and snow is deep.
• Limit sand and salt use. Use loose sand and salt for traction only on pathways NOT in your horse's turnout area. If horse ingests sand and salt grains, the horse could suffer colic.
• Let pastern hair grow. Pastern hair protects the hoof head in winter.