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Which Feed Manufacturer Provides The Best Feed For Laminitic Horses & Ponies?
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Maintaining Good Health
 | Your own perception and assessment of your horse's health and condition are vital to his or her welfare, this should be the first thing on your agenda before anything else.
Any deviations from your horse's normal behaviour pattern should be noted and the appropriate action taken.
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Signs of Good Health
 | Characteristics of our horses and ponies if all is normal and well
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Signs of Good Health
| POINT 1 |
Pulse 35-45 heart beats per minute |
| POINT 2 |
Temperature 37.5 degrees (99.5F) to 38.5 degrees C (101.3F)
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| POINT 3 |
Respiration (breathing rate) when at rest 10 to 20 inhalations per minute |
| POINT 4 |
Eyes wide open and bright when examined the membranes under the eyelids and linings of the nostrils should be salmon pink in colour |
| POINT 5 |
At rest no visible signs of sweating except in very hot weather |
| POINT 6 |
Coat sleek and lying flat |
| POINT 7 |
Skin loose and supple to the touch and easily moved over the underlyikng bones |
| POINT 8 |
Limbs FREE from swellings or heat (cool to the touch) |
| POINT 9 |
Urine fairly thick and either colourless or pale yellow and passed several times a day |
| POINT 10 |
Body well filled out (bone structure well covered) but not gross |
| POINT 11 |
Eating well and chewing normally |
| POINT 12 |
Droppings vary in colour depending of diet and should be passed approximately eight times a day in the form of damp balls that break when hitting the ground the smell should be inoffensive. When horse is at grass the droppings may be looser but not as sloppy as a cowpat |
The Important Factors
 | In order for our horses to thrive we have to carry out the listed important factors.
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The Important Factors
| POINT 1 |
Our Horses must be watered and fed correctly |
| POINT 2 |
Work and Exercise must be complementary, Owners MUST be AWARE of how much work or exercise their horse is fit enough to carry out |
| POINT 3 |
'NO FOOT' NO HORSE, Pick out your horse's feet EVERYDAY even if he is out at grass. Check the condition of the feet and shoes Look for any signs of thrush BOOK FARRIER IN GOOD TIME |
| POINT 4 |
Give Regular worming doses - AT LEAST five a year Your VET can advise on the subject |
| POINT 5 |
The Horse should be inoculated against tetanus and influenza Ask vet for advise if needed |
| POINT 6 |
Teeth should be checked twice a year by vet or equine dentist |
| POINT 7 |
If Horse is NOT Thriving SEEK VETINARY ADVISE IMMEDIATELY |
General Health - Taking Your Horse/Pony's Temperature
 | Although much of the vetinary care of our horse or pony requires the skills of our chosen vetinary Surgeon, the basic tasks mentioned can be learnt in a very short space of time, so we can establish whether our horse is healthy or not.
TAKING OUR HORSE/PONIES TEMPERATURE
Smear Vaseline on the thermometer and stand to one side of the horse/ponies hindquarters and grasp the tail.
Hold it upwards, and insert the bulb of the thermometer into the horse/ponies rectum, keep it in for approximately two minutes before removing it and taking the reading.
If the reading is over (39.5-103F)CALL YOUR VET!
The normal adult temperature should be taken 37.5 38 degrees Centigrade (100-100.5 degreesF)
A foal's temperature may be slightly higher
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Jaw Snapper - Dental Facts
 | Like you, your horse will have two sets of teeth during its lifetime, a baby set which starts to shed at around 2 1/2 years of age and a permanent set.
The permanent teeth however, will continue to grow all of the horse's life until there is no more 'crown' left or produced the horse has between 36 & 42 teeth.
The incisors are used to select and tear off blades of grass, stems of hay or kernels of grain,there are 12 incisors.
The molars grind the food and prepare it for digestion,there are 24 molars, 12 of which start as baby teeth, while the remaining 12 only appear as permanent teeth.
Male horses (and some females) have 4 canine teeth located between the incisors and molars, these are sometimes called bridle teeth and usually come through when the horse is 5.
Horses of either sex can have 2 to 4 vestigal teeth known as wolf teeth, which usually appear in front of the first molars. Blind wolf teeth are those that have not appeared through the gums yet.
Nature designed the horse with replenishing teeth in order to cope with lifelong grazing of pasture, however domestication and high performance diets mean that the modern horse has a diet which consists of grains and hay which require a more up-and-down action than grazing and can lead to the development of sharp points.
Moreover selective breeding has ignored good teeth as a requirement for the modern horse and at the same time modern feeding methods have allowed those horses with malformed mouths or poor teeth to survive when they would not have in the wild due to malnutrition.
How important is dental health for Horses?
Teeth are particularly important for the horse, which cannot rely on multiple stomachs for digestion of tough plant material, With poorly performing teeth, the horse's digestive system receives material with longer fibres which are harder for the bacteria in the gut to breakdown.
This can lead to weight loss or worse, impaction colic,any horse which suffers from either or both of these problems should immediately have it's teeth checked.
Bad teeth rank highly as reasons for poor performance, bad behaviour, such as rearing and strange habits, such as head shaking.
Regular dental care is essential if you want your horse to be in the best health and at his most cooperative.
Your horse should be seeing a trained equine dentist at least yearly and it is highly recommended on a 6 monthly basis.
Foals should first have their teeth checked in the first few weeks of life, both to accustom the foal to having its mouth handled and to identify any congenital problems such as overbite.
Wolf teeth (blind or erupted) are best removed at one,this allows a full recovery before any work with a bit is required.
Horses under 5 years old should have bi-annual dental checkups, racehorses or young sport horses may require more frequent attention as do those with problems identified during the foal's first check.
Between 2 and 5 years of age your horse will be losing its baby teeth, or caps as they are sometimes known, and many stable fed horses have problems losing these teeth.
They can be easily pulled by a dentist during a routine check. |
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Conformation Scoring
 | | Coming Soon |
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