All animals require food to maintain bodily condition, provide the raw materials for growth, repair damaged tissues and provide energy for work or exercise. The horse is a grazing animal, designed to eat almost constantly throughout the day. Do you need to feed a horse? A horse should eat one Read more…
What do wild horses eat? Wild horses graze on large areas of land, eating grass, the seed head of grasses and other edible shrubs and plants. They tend to live near fresh water supplies. It is estimated that wild horses can graze for 15-17 hours per day. What do you Read more…
The average horse will drink 5 to 10 gallons of fresh water per day. Just like humans, different horses crave or need different amounts of water. A horse deprived of feed, but supplied drinking water, is capable of surviving 20 to 25 days. A horse deprived of water may only Read more…
Their strength is part of their makeup. Horses have evolved by natural selection to have thick muscles, a large heart and powerful lungs. Yet over the centuries, people have also bred some groups of horses to be even stronger. How do horses get so strong without protein? Horses get all Read more…
It helps keep their digestive systems working healthily and also supports horses’ nutritional needs and body weight. There are varieties of grass and legume hay, both providing different benefits for the health of your animals. Why do horses eat hay? Hay or haylage – keeps your horse full and its Read more…
gluteus medius. gluteus medius (GM) is the largest muscle of the horse, its main movement function is the extension of the hip joint. What are the three types of muscles in horses? The three muscle classifications are smooth, cardiac, and skeletal. The first two are involuntary or automatic, which means Read more…
You should always leave at least 5/8-inch of frog skin covering the sensitive structure and it is even more important to understand that the 5/8-inch thick callused frog horses need can take at least a year to build and compact. This fully callused frog can never build if it is Read more…
Importantly, however, peeling of the frog can also occur along with conditions that favor the development of thrush, such as lack of exercise, lameness, chronically wet environment, and poor hoof care. The organisms that cause thrush dissect under the external layer of frog and cause it to peel off. What Read more…
The ribs of mammals, including the horse, serve one primary purpose: to protect the vital organs of the thoracic cavity, most notably the heart and lungs. Each rib is attached to a thoracic vertebrae, so horses generally have 18 pairs of ribs, corresponding to their 18 thoracic vertebrae. Why do Read more…
Sulfur is abundant in the hoof. The “rotten egg” odor produced during hot shoeing is the smell of sulfur gas resulting from burning the sulfur-rich connective tissue proteins of the hoof. Do horse hooves stink? Horses’ hooves may never smell good, but a stinky foot is a red flag under Read more…