Horse Health Tips For Students includes information for our students about common horse health care issues.  These posts are to bring awareness to horse welfare issues - always ask your veterinarian for advice and treatment protocols for your own horse!

​The muddy conditions this spring caused many horses hooves to become very soft.  The clay soil then dried quickly, creating rough, rutted and pitted surfaces.  The horses hooves did not dry out as fast as the soil, meaning the horses soft hooves were walking on the hard, uneven surfaces.  This has resulted in a few abscesses showing up in our horses feet.

​Abscesses can seem very scary the first time you see them because a horse will suddenly become severely lame. 

Horse Health Tips For Students includes information for our students about common horse health care issues.  These posts are to bring awareness to horse welfare issues - always ask your veterinarian for advice and treatment protocols for your own horse!

​This past month we had a saddle fitter come and look at our saddles and lesson horses!  It is the third time in the past 6 years that we've had this particular saddle fitter out.  I'll even give her a name drop!  Her name is Linda Ridley and her business is called The Level Headed Horse!

There are a few reasons why I like using Linda in particular that I want to share with students.

Number one is that Linda is not associated with a particular saddle maker and is not trying to sell us saddles.  She is only concerned with the welfare of the horse and making sure you have a proper fitting saddle.

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Horse Health Tips For Students includes information for our students about common horse health care issues.  These posts are to bring awareness to horse welfare issues - always ask your veterinarian for advice and treatment protocols for your own horse!

​After a winter with record snowfall, we are now into a very wet spring.  This brings to attention a couple of health issues that anyone working with the schoolies needs to know about and watch for!  One of them is thrush.

What is thrush?
Thrush is most commonly a bacterial, and sometimes fungal, infection of the horses frog. Remember, the frog is the living, growing, soft tissue on the bottom of the horses foot.  Thrush occurs more commonly in wet conditions.

How can you tell if it's thrush?

Horse Health Tips For Students includes information for our students about common horse health care issues.  These posts are to bring awareness to horse welfare issues - always ask your veterinarian for advice and treatment protocols for your own horse!

After a winter with record snowfall, we are now into a very wet spring.  This brings about a couple of health issues that anyone working with the schoolies needs to know about and watch for!  One of the is scratches.

What is scratches?
Scratches (a.k.a. mud fever and pastern dermatitis) occurs when the skin on the lower part of the horses leg becomes infected. The infection can be bacterial, fungal and/or parasitic in nature (and often in combination).  Scratches most commonly occurs on back of the lower leg, particularly on legs with white hair (i.e., horses with socks) and when conditions are wet and muddy.  That being said, we have had it occur on horses when the pens are extremely dry as well and the infection may start with a cut or abrasion.

How can you tell if it's scratches?