False pregnancies are not uncommon in mares. The incidence may range from 5 to 10% of estrous cycles. Therefore, horse owners and breeding managers should not rely on exclusively on teasing to determine if a mare is pregnant. How rare are phantom pregnancies? Phantom pregnancy or pseudocyesis is a rare Read more…
Acclimatize the horse to the noise. Fill the sprayer with water and stand outside your horse’s stall while he eats. Spray at regular intervals, pointing away from the horse, until he ignores the noise in favor of food. Then repeat the process inside the stall, again without actually spraying the Read more…
Commercial stables will be safer and the residents happier with wash areas that are at least 8 feet wide and 10 to 12 feet deep, and that are built with a solid wall or a pipe rail behind the horse. What size is a horse wash bay? Squeezing a wash Read more…
Oat straw is an excellent source of fibre and is low in sugar and can be used for horses, ponies and donkeys that require a low sugar, low starch and low energy diet. Is oat straw safe for horses? It is perfect for natives and ideal for overweight horses, ponies Read more…
If hay isn’t enough, grain can be added, but the bulk of a horse’s calories should always come from roughage. Horses are meant to eat roughage, and their digestive system is designed to use the nutrition in grassy stalks. A horse should eat one to two percent of their body Read more…
Easy Chewing for Seniors Older horses need highly digestible sources of protein and calcium to make up for these losses. Short chopped forage fills this need by making it easier to chew and digest than common long stem hay. What hay is best for older horses? Alfalfa hay and good Read more…
Strangulating lipoma is a type of colic caused when a fatty tumor gets wrapped around a portion of the small intestine or, very rarely, the small colon. Why elongated fatty tumors occur is not known. However, the tumors take years to develop, so they are more likely to be found Read more…
Though it is not nearly as common in equines as in humans, diabetes mellitus (type 1 or insulin dependent diabetes) is sometimes found in horses. Typical signs are weight loss, frequent urination, and excessive thirst. How common is diabetes in horses? Although diabetes mellitus (type 2 diabetes) may occur as Read more…
If you are housing the horse indoors, cotton, wool, or nylon will work. If you are keeping the horse outside, you’ll need to get a breathable and waterproof fabric like Gore-Tex. Buy enough fabric so that you can create a blanket that fits within the measurements that you took down. Read more…
What is extrusion? Extrusion is a process in which feed is cooked under high pressure with high temperatures for a short time. A feed slurry is created, which is then pushed through a small die while it is still hot; the release of pressure after coming through the die causes Read more…